Every citizen of Europe is paying a sanctions surcharge for energy, Viktor Orbán stated.Continue reading
Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch spoke about EU sanctions, the hypocrisy of left-wing politicians, and the freezing of Hungary’s EU funds in an interview. He accused the Commission of not following European interests.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the EU speech was “disappointing,” according to Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch. He told the Hungarian weekly newspaper Demokrata that “the European Commission knows exactly what it should do to solve Europe’s problems, but because of the influence of non-European power interests and self-destructive ideological considerations, it is doing the opposite.”
According to Tamás Deutsch, “there are serious pro-sanctions political forces in Europe, but not a single pro-sanctions citizen.” He recalled that when the European Commission introduced the energy sanctions, they promised that the measures would bring Russia close to the end of the war, bringing it to its knees. “Of course, they admitted that they could also bring minor difficulties for Europe, but they promised that they would be well within the tolerance limit, that we would hardly notice them,” he added.
The MEP noted that while the sanctions are a problem for the Russians, they cause significantly greater disadvantage and economic burden for the European Union than for Russia.
Deutsch said that the question is whether European leaders will dare to stand up to the pressure. Unfortunately, he said, “sometimes a significant number of European leaders do not even have the courage to publicly articulate real European interests.”
The Fidesz MEP admitted that some of the sanctions are reasonable, but the situation is quite different with energy measures, as “the economies of Europe’s nations cannot function without energy from outside Europe.”
He said that “it is, of course, a great goal to increase the share of renewable energy, but it cannot be achieved overnight.”
Deutsch insisted that some left-wing and liberal politicians “hypocritically moralize about Putin’s dictatorship and blood money.” He asked them to show an energy-exporting country, apart from Norway, whose day-to-day political functioning has not already been the subject of serious criticism. “Suddenly Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Azerbaijan have become model states for human rights?”, he asked. Deutsch argued that economic cooperation can never be based on black and white ideology, and trade cannot occur exclusively with impeccable democracies at the EU level.
Commenting on the Italian elections, the politician said that Europe is facing a right-wing turn. He said that not only the result of the Italian election, but also the result of the Swedish election was a message. He also recalled that in the French presidential election, Emmanuel Macron won by a much smaller margin than expected against his right-wing challenger.
On the withholding of EU funds, Deutsch said that “for years in Brussels they have believed that if they can make Hungarians believe the lie that stubborn Viktor Orbán is the reason why the country is not receiving EU money, Hungarians will not vote for Fidesz in the elections. They have been trying this for more than 10 years, to no avail.”
Featured photo via the European Parliament