"Here in Europe, too, you must pay close attention, because this evil is already here on your continent".Continue reading
In a radio interview on Friday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called the terror attack unacceptable, adding that Hungary is on Israel’s side. Speaking on Kossuth Radio’s program “Good Morning, Hungary!” about the Hamas attack, the Prime Minister said that one “feels sympathy for those who suffered the attack and prays for the relatives, for the survivors, and in general is emotionally on the side of the victims”, he said.
He added that
it is at times like these that we see the value of the peace and stability in which Hungary lives, and it is the job of elected leaders to protect it.
He said Hungary has always been against terrorism, regardless of which country was targeted by terrorist attacks.
If someone is the victim of a terrorist attack, he has the right to take steps to ensure that it does not happen again, that his own citizens are not the victims of terrorist attacks again,” he said. Viktor Orbán said that the conflict must be contained. There is no inter-state war at the moment, the danger is if Israel gets into a war with a neighboring Arab country, he said. In his assessment, an Arab-Israeli war would destabilize the region, shaking up world politics to such an extent that the shockwaves could even be felt in Hungary.
The task of Hungarian diplomacy, he concluded, is to pursue a policy of de-escalation while recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself, so as to prevent the outbreak of a war among countries.
He also said they hope to get out everyone who is Hungarian and wants to come out. He added that they were not aware of any Hungarians among the victims.
He recalled that “things were just beginning to look up in that corner of the world”. Under Donald Trump’s presidency, Arab-Israeli relations had improved a great deal, and that there had been improvements in relations between Israel and the Arab states that perhaps no one would have thought of a few years ago. He noted that whether or not the terrorist attack was carried out precisely to stop this process from going any further is still a matter of speculation.
The Prime Minister said that it was shocking that there were demonstrations of sympathy for terrorists all over Europe. He pointed out that even in Hungary attempts had been made,
but you cannot organize sympathy demonstrations alongside terrorist organizations, because that in itself would be a terrorist threat”. Therefore “we will not grant any permission for this”,
he said.
However, in many places in Western Europe they cannot prevent pro-terror sympathy demonstrations, and this means that there are large numbers of people who approve of such actions, he explained. He said that after the large numbers of people who were allowed to enter Western European countries without being checked during the migration crisis, there are now Hamas proxies among them, which poses a direct and serious risk to all Western European countries.
Let us thank God that in 2015 our minds and our hearts were right and we built both the fence and the legal barriers to keep the terrorist threat that inevitably accompanies migration (…) away from Hungary,”
he said.
Viktor Orbán also maintained that the pandemic, the Russian-Ukrainian war and now the terrorist attack in Israel show that we are living in an age of danger, but this does not mean that we can accept a reduction in the level of security in Hungary; the Hungarian state must also stand its ground in an age of danger.
He reminded that Hungary has one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe, “of course it’s a colorful world, there are Orthodox, there are Neologists, just like in Israel”, obviously these people have different political views, but they are all citizens of Hungary. “They are Hungarian citizens, and they must be protected by the Hungarian state,” he stressed.
The prime minister also pointed out that as far as tackling mass migration, only the Hungarian model works, and that the European Union, instead of adopting it, wants to undermine it. Mr Orbán stressed that Brussels wants us to “share the security risk from which they suffer because of the bad decisions they made in previous years”.
They are creating rules to force Hungary to let them enter the territory”.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also said that the two Hungarian researchers who have been awarded the Nobel Prize come from the world of deep Hungary, and that this sends the message that Hungarians need not be afraid, because they are talented enough to succeed even in the most difficult times.
Mr Orbán said that the fight against inflation is traditionally the responsibility of the central bank, but Hungary was facing an “international inflationary deluge” of such magnitude that the national bank could not cope. More serious instruments were needed, and the government had to take on the task and responsibility of fighting inflation, he said.
He stressed that the aim was to keep economic growth at a relatively high level while fighting inflation, but this had not been achieved. Therefore,
the government has decided that this year will be the year of dismantling inflation, even if this results in a loss on the economic growth side, and that in 2024 they will aim for high economic growth.
He therefore said it was important that “a country should not stand on one foot”, it must remain open to all markets in the world. He added that there is a big debate in the world today about whether the world economy should be split into Western and Eastern parts or whether it should continue to follow the logic of interconnection, and that the Hungarian economy has a clear interest in interconnection.
Mr Orbán said that this is why he is going on a longer trip to China next week.
He added that the EU plans to import electricity generated in Azerbaijan to Europe via Georgia, Romania and Hungary, which will require the laying of more than a thousand kilometers of high-voltage cables under the Black Sea and the construction of all the necessary infrastructure. This will be good for the people living there, it will be good for Hungary’s security and energy supply, and it will be good for the whole of Europe.
Featured Image: Facebook Viktor Orbán