The Fox News host visited the border fence, spoke about freedom of speech and how he defines illiberalism at a conservative festival, and even interviewed the prime minister.Continue reading
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, gave an interview to the host of the US TV channel Fox News, Tucker Carlson. Carlson has recently made a documentary about Hungary and also met and interviewed Prime Minister Viktor Orbán last year.
Carlson started by describing Hungary as a “small country in Central Europe that has a lot of lessons for us [the US]. You can run your country for the benefit of the people who live in it, it doesn’t matter if you have to hate other countries.”
He said that his documentary, entitled “Hungary vs. Soros: The Fight for Civilization,” was made to be the final episode of season 1 of Tucker Carlson Originals. In the first look of the episode, Carlson is sitting in a helicopter looking at the Hungarian border fence and talking to Deputy Minister Balázs Orbán.
Following the trailer of the show, Carlson interviewed Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó. After Carlson assumed that Szijjártó was a diplomat and therefore had to speak diplomatically, the Minister corrected him that he has “never been a diplomat; I happen to be their boss but I’ve always been a politician so it’s very easy for me to speak honestly and directly and not diplomatically.” He then expressed his appreciation, because according to him, Carlson “showed the reality about Hungary” in his documentary. He added that this is “very, very rare” and that they are usually “faced by the lies and the fake news produced by the international liberal mainstream media.”
Szijjártó was asked why other countries do not have similar border control.
Whenever we have meetings with foreign ministers in the European Union, whenever we discuss border protection, migration, security-related issues, the foreign ministers usually send text messages to me during the debate that I am doing good and keep on doing that.”
However, when he asks them at the end of the debate why they did not contribute, they say “back at home, there are NGOs, liberal media, coalition government, pressure, etc.,” the Minister said. Therefore, he thinks that others cannot implement their honest policy on migration because they feel that they are “under pressure by the international liberal mainstream media, NGOs, and the political elite.” In Hungary, however, because of the “political stability” and the two-thirds majority in parliament, they “have the luxury” to say what they “think and act accordingly,” Szijjártó explained.
Carlson mentioned that there are people who “hate Hungary and refer to it reflexively as a dictatorship, which obviously, it’s not, it’s a democracy.” He asked why they find Hungary threatening. Szijjártó told him that he believes:
They hate us because we are conducting a patriotic, Christian-based policy. Our target is to fulfill the national interest, we are conservative, and, in the meantime, we are successful. Our existence is a danger for them because what they say is that the only way to have a progressive, successful political system, is to be extremely liberal.”
He added that Hungary’s existence makes it clear that that is not the only way.
He also said that these people would like them to lose the next election, because then “one of the last successful, conservative governments would be kicked out of power, and then they could speak about the fact that the liberal mainstream is the only successful ideology in the world.” Carson responded that “they see you as a much bigger threat than China- which tells you everything. They are going to try to interfere with your election.”
The interview, including the trailer about the Hungarian episode of Carlson’s show, can be watched below, or without the trailer, here.
Featured image: Screen capture of the interview from YouTube
