Szijjarto: Countries represented by elected governments, not NGOs

Szijjarto said the European Union, at one time a global leader, now faced multiple challenges and slacking competitiveness.

Addressing high-ranking officials of the Guatemalan foreign ministry, he said challenges included “the liberal mainstream’s attacks on traditional values, illegal migration and war”.

The minister said NGOs had “no legitimacy” to speak in the name of nations as they were not elected by the people.

He said the liberal mainstream also dominated the media. “We are fortunate in Hungary because half the media is right-wing, conservative, patriotic and Christian Democratic. The liberal mainstream sees that as a dictatorship because they think democracy is when 99 percent of the media is liberal.”

Conservative values, Christian traditions, national cultures and the traditional family model were, he said, under “attack from all round”. “Hungary, a 1,000 year-old Christian country, feels responsible to protect those values and Christian communities worldwide,” he added.

The family enjoys constitutional protections in Hungary, and the protection of children “against LGBTQ propaganda” is enshrined in law, he noted.

The Orban government has been on power for 13 years, having won four consecutive elections with a two-thirds majority, he said. “Europe sees that as a dictatorship. The European Parliament keeps adopting resolutions saying that what happens in Hungary is not democratic. Why? Because the liberals are not in power,” he said.

“Our stance is that democracy is based on the people’s will. Europe defines democracy as a liberal democracy,” he said.

Szijjarto said that Hungary had no wish to kowtow to the liberal mainstream, media or NGOs but to satisfy the demands of its citizens “who decide on the future of the country”, he said.

Regarding illegal migration, Szijjarto said that as a country on the external borders of the EU, Hungary was under “enormous migration pressure”.

“Unfortunately, the EU sees migration as a human rights issue rather than a legal one,” he said.

Szijjarto referred to “parallel societies in Europe” and the growing threat of terrorism, adding that Hungary was fighting for the security of sovereign countries and for their right to decide whom to accept there.

Regarding the war in Ukraine, he said: “We clearly condemn the war in Ukraine. It is obvious who the aggressor is and who the victim is.”

“Hungary wants peace in Ukraine and believes that a solution can be achieved at the negotiating table rather than on the battlefield,” he said.

“Hungary is the only NATO member state which has not delivered weapons to Ukraine because it stands for peace in the region,” he said.

The EU has adopted 11 sanctions packages against Moscow so far, “which has harmed the bloc’s economy more than Russia’s”, he said.

Szijjarto praised Guatemala as “a partner that thinks similarly to us, with which we can cooperate on a global level to protect democracy, Christianity and the values we see as important.”