Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on Friday that Hungary’s government is hoping for a conservative turn in the European Parliament after the elections in June.
Currently, Europe is based on a progressive, liberal ideology, PM Orbán said, adding that the notions of nation and national pride were considered with suspicion. “Family values are not respected either, because the family does not exist anymore in Europe,” he said. The prime minister said the difference of opinion between liberals and conservatives was growing, but added that the current majority should accept that there were conflicting positions. Hungary wants to stay a member of the EU, but wants to see the conservatives gain a majority, Orbán said. The prime minister said the upcoming EP elections would change the composition of the European Parliament, in which the right-wing would have greater weight. Concerning Sweden’s joining NATO, Orbán said those endeavours had been clear from a geopolitical point of view from the beginning, and expressed Hungary’s support. He added, however, that Sweden could not belong to the same community without respecting Hungary. Orbán said Sweden had actively supported suggestions in Europe that Hungary had violated the rule of law. “I said if you would like to join NATO, we have to rebuild the trust and confidence between each other … So please come and do it. And then they came and we did,” Orbán said. The prime minister confirmed that he would meet with former US President Donald Trump in Florida in the coming week. Orbán said he was convinced that if Trump had been in office when the war in Ukraine broke out “there would have been no war now”, adding that there would only be a serious chance for peace if Trump was able to come back. Asked if he would meet President Joe Biden, Orbán said “I’m always at his disposal”, adding however that it was up to the American people to decide on the next US president. Trump’s return, Orbán said, would be more desirable for Hungary and for peace. Asked about Hungary’s upcoming EP presidency in the second half of this year, the prime minister said its priorities included the EU’s enlargement in the Balkans and Europe’s competitiveness.
The prime minister added that there seems to be no solution to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and that leaves European politics “paralysed”. “If you think that time is on the Ukrainian and the Western side, and continuing the war can provide military success for the Ukrainians, it’s reasonable to continue. If you think that time is more on the Russian side, and continuing the war would bring more success to the Russians, for the Ukrainians it is better to stop now. I belong to the second camp,” Orbán said. He said “we are in trouble” because many countries consider the conflict as “our war” and “if the enemy proves to be stronger … you belong to the losers … and it’s very difficult to explain how to behave and how to get out of a situation when you lose a war”.
Hungary was not viewing the war “through the eyeglasses of Ukraine or those of Putin” but from a Hungarian perspective, Orbán said. Orbán noted the ethnic Hungarian community in Transcarpathia, who have lived there for one thousand years and are now being conscripted to the Ukrainian army. Peace in Ukraine would ensure that Hungarian lives were safe, he added. “That’s one reason, among others, why we Hungarians are very much committed to peace,” PM Orbán said.