Regarding Hungary and Poland’s veto of the European Union’s budget and recovery package, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public broadcaster Kossuth Radio that “I don’t want to compromise … it’s about finding a solution.”
He said that the EU saw only pro-migration member states as adhering to the rule of law, who were ready to “turn their homelands into countries of immigration.”
Hungary will “resist and we will not accept financial repercussions,” Orbán said.
Orbán underlined that the EU budget and recovery fund cannot get off the ground without Hungary and Poland’s votes.
Our position is set in stone. I don’t want to compromise … it’s about finding a solution.”
The EU now should focus on granting the necessary funding for member states in need and to “get the seven-year budget off the ground,” Orbán said.
Hungary and Poland “have been saying since July” that the rule of law conditions cannot be tied to funding, he added.
Meanwhile, Orbán said “the protagonist, [financier] George Soros, is weaving his web in the background.”
Soros proposed as early as 2015-2016 that member states unwilling to accept migrants should be “punished financially”, Orbán said. Accepting the EU’s current proposal would mean “part of our budget could be taken away if we refuse to allow migrants in,” he said.
The European Parliament is now a sounding board for Soros’ proposal, Orbán said, adding “it was wrong of the European Council to bow to that pressure.”
Asked if any attempt had been made to divide Hungary and Poland, Orbán said attempts were made to put a wedge between allied countries.
He added that central Europe, however, had huge potential thanks to its flourishing collaboration and countries in the region were defending their national sovereignty. “We’re able to protect our own countries from immigration,” he said. Western Europe, he said, was already composed of “immigrant countries”. Central Europe, too, is protecting Christian traditions and way of life, while the West “is already multicultural,” he said.
Orbán declared that central Europe is in the midst of a renaissance, and the next ten years would witness the cooperation of the central European states.
Commenting on Project Syndicate’s decision not to publish the prime minister’s reply to Soros’ recent article on the left-wing website, Orban said their refusal was a sign of the state of freedom of opinion on the left. “There’s always space for their own voice; people who argue with them are silenced.”
Featured photo illustration by Szilárd Koszticsák/MTI
