“The Union today is a toothless lion,” Says the Prime Minister

Viktor Orbán gave an interview to YouTube channel Patrióta on Wednesday evening, in which he spoke about the war and Ukraine’s accession to the EU, reports Hirado.hu.

The Prime Minister said the EU was committed “to the extreme” to pushing NATO’s borders as far as Russia, or failing to do so, at least to integrate it into the Western military system. He added that the Russian attack came as a response to this. As Mr. Orbán put it, Russia was winning the war and would continue to impose conditions that NATO military forces should not be allowed to enter Ukraine. He pointed out that with the new US administration taking office, the Americans have abandoned their plan to do so, while Europe is still planning to do the same.

That is why today there is a strategic separation between what the United States stands for and what the European Union stands for. The United States has the power, the Union has no power. The Americans have the means, the Union has no means […] so the Union today is a toothless lion,”

Mr. Orbán claimed.

On the question of what would happen if Ukraine were admitted to the European Union, the Prime Minister said that for the time being, the EU leaders were still of the opinion that they should be admitted quickly, “but sobering up cannot be avoided.” He added that he believed this would happen sooner or later, and that all countries would calculate the consequences for themselves.

In Hungary, a debate is now beginning about how much the three years of war have cost Hungarians so far and how much Ukraine’s EU membership would cost in direct and indirect costs. “For the last three years, we can say that there were three big costs that we had to pay or bear. One is that international gas prices have changed and we have lost a lot on that. The second is that the market environment has changed and therefore we have had to pay higher interest rates to get access to loans, so we have an interest loss here. And we lost the Russian export market because of the sanctions,” Mr. Orbán listed.

If I add all this up, I get a very high amount of over 9,000 billion forints (22.5 billion euros), which, if I redistribute it back to families, means two and a half million forints (6,255 euros) per Hungarian family, let us say per household. This is the past, this is what we have lost so far.”

@PM_ViktorOrban: The Union is isolated, Hungary is not. The Union today is a toothless lion. pic.twitter.com/1uPZh5Ul6A

— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) March 20, 2025

He continued by saying that if Ukraine becomes a member of the EU, there will be further costs. He explained that there would be three big items in this respect. On the one hand, the reconstruction of Ukraine would have to be financed by the European Union in the event of accession, and on the other hand, the Ukrainian state would have to be run, because in the current situation they are definitely not able to sustain themselves. However, as he pointed out, this was a problem in Ukraine even before the war.

“Well, the biggest criticism of Putin three years ago was precisely that it was unnecessary to start the war because Ukraine would soon collapse economically, analysts said at the time. That was a long time ago, anyway. But Ukraine was always a country that could only sustain itself on large international loans. If it joins the EU, we will pay for it,” Viktor Orbán emphasized. The third item he mentioned was indirect costs, including agricultural subsidies, where the funds for Hungarian farmers would be reduced to a fraction of what they are now.

Huge areas of land and agricultural capacity would be coming into the EU. They would claim subsidies, they would be entitled to them, and Hungarian farmers would be ruined,”

the Prime Minister stressed. He said the same could be done for another group of funds, the cohesion funds, which support the least developed regions. “Hungary has four such regions and these funds would also be transferred to Ukraine,” Mr. Orbán highlighted. “This means that every year Hungarians would pay about half a million forints (1,250 euros) per family for Ukrainian membership.”

Finally, the Prime Minister said that in the EU talks behind closed doors, where “we have to speak frankly and honestly,” only Hungary argued against Ukraine’s EU membership on these and other grounds. “But there are more of us in the corridor. […] Well, sooner or later, this voice from the corridor will make its way into the courtroom,” he stated.

He also said that contrary to what many people think, it is not Hungary that is left alone in international politics, but the European Union, which is “in a trade war with China, in a sanctions war with Russia, and in a political war with the United States, because Trump is so hated here that it is hard to express.” He pointed out that

Hungary, on the other hand, has an excellent relationship, even a friendly relationship, with the new US leadership, and we have fair cooperation with the Russians and very encouraging and good cooperation with the Chinese.

“The EU is isolated, Hungary is not. It is my job not to let Hungary become isolated along with the EU,” Viktor Orbán emphasized, adding that Hungary offers a wide range of cooperation worldwide and that within the EU, too, efforts are being made to cooperate with many countries, especially the Central European states. “Within the EU, Hungary is not looking for permanent allies, but we make deals or agreements, depending on the issue on the table. […] I make alliances and cooperation on a case-by-case basis,” he explained.

Referring to the agenda of Thursday’s European Council summit, Orbán said that the EU simply wants to use Ukraine against Russia in the medium term, that they have a war strategy, which is completely different from the peace strategy of the United States and Hungary. That is why they will not be able to reach a common position now. However, he added, the debate on Ukraine’s EU membership will continue. On this, he stressed that he will “stop the proposals on this by politely saying that there is a referendum taking place in Hungary right now, which is about people expressing their opinion on Ukraine’s membership of the European Union. Do not even try to take a position on this here, because until the Hungarian people’s opinion is known, I will stop it. […] We will find out the Hungarian people’s opinion, and in the light of that the Hungarian position will come to Brussels, and then we can continue the debate.”

Via Hirado.hu, Featured photo via MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher