“They want to force Hungary to go to war and they are not choosing their means,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview with Swiss weekly Weltwoche, as quoted by Hungary’s official MTI news agency, as quoted by Rador. But Orbán also says that “Hungary’s political leadership is strong enough to keep our country out of war.”

In an interview published Thursday in the Swiss weekly Weltwoche, Viktor Orbán, when asked how Hungary is dealing with the war in Ukraine, said: “EU sanctions against Russia affect us the most” because they have led to a rise in crude oil. prices and natural gas.

Recently, Hungary has made great progress in the field of industry, but the necessary energy for industry needs to be imported, Orbán stressed, noting that energy cost Hungary 7 billion euros in 2021, and that it had already reached 17 billion euros in 2022.

The Hungarian prime minister said that the war “burdens our souls, our psyche.” “Ukraine is a neighboring country where Hungarians also live. Hungarians are being called to arms and dying by the hundreds at the front,” added the Hungarian prime minister, who also emphasized that this war “is happening not far from us,” so everyone in Hungary wants peace.

“We pray and believe in the Good God that He will bring the warring parties to reason. We are under constant pressure. They want to force us to fight, and they don’t care by what means. So far, we manage to resist. It gives me hope. The political leadership of Hungary is strong enough to save our country from war. I say this with due humility, but at the same time with confidence,” said Viktor Orbán, who also added that he believes Christian teachings are valid in politics as well.

“In the ongoing war in Europe, the Americans have the last word” / “If Trump won the election, there would be no war”

“Today, Europe has left the discussion” – this is the most important conclusion, answered the Hungarian leader when asked about the war in Ukraine. “In the decisions made in Brussels, they recognize American interests more often than European ones,” said Orbán, who also specified that in the war taking place in Europe, “today the Americans have the last word.”

The head of the government of Budapest also stated: “We do not know the European identity either emotionally or intellectually.” In his opinion, “if we had a serious discussion, without taboos, about the future of Europe (…), perhaps at the beginning of the war we would already have a firm position of identity.”

The Prime Minister of Hungary also said that it is a pity that Donald Trump lost the US presidential election, because if the former Republican president had won the election, “there would not have been a war.” Orbán also said that the change of government in Germany “had an impact”.

At the time, Orbán agreed with the reporter’s observation that the deeper cause of Europe’s weakness should be found in the European Union, as it is “disintegrating nation-states without putting something viable in their place.” Viktor Orbán said: “I see things the same way. The EU wants an even closer union. We don’t agree with the goal, but we agree with the method. This is the cause of Europe’s illness.”

“No one can win the war” / “Russia is a nuclear power, it will be a geopolitical shock, a potentially devastating earthquake”

Speaking about the results of the war, the Hungarian Prime Minister declared: “No one can win.” “The Ukrainians are against a nuclear state with a population of 140 million, the Russians are against the whole of NATO. That’s what makes it so dangerous. A stalemate has arisen, which can easily turn into a world war,” Viktor Orban said.

He recalled that two weeks before the start of the war, when he last met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, the Russian president said that the problem was not Hungary’s membership in NATO, but Ukraine and Georgia. “Putin’s problem, as he himself told me, is that there are American missile bases in Romania and Poland, and the possible expansion of NATO in Ukraine and Georgia to place weapons there. In addition, the Americans canceled important disarmament treaties. That’s why Putin can no longer sleep peacefully at night,” said Viktor Orbán, who added: “I understand what Putin said, but I don’t accept what he did.”

Viktor Orban also stated that “Russia is a different civilization” where European political norms do not work. “It doesn’t matter whether we like it or not,” he said, adding: “We have to find a way to coexist with a big, dangerous power like Russia right next to us.”

Orbán also said he did not want to imagine what would happen if Russia lost the war. “Russia is a nuclear power. It would be a geopolitical shock, a potentially devastating earthquake on a global scale, far worse than the breakup of Yugoslavia. The simple fact that the West is now lightly approaching such scenarios shows a disturbing, even frightening detachment from reality, demonstrates a lack of perception of the existing risks of its own policy,” the Prime Minister of Hungary emphasized.

Viktor Orban wants NATO without Americans / “We are waiting for the return of our Republican friends to power”

The Prime Minister of Hungary said that Europe should be able to defend itself. “The European NATO would be the solution. We proposed this back in 2012,” Viktor Orban recalled.

Regarding the establishment of peace, Viktor Orbán said that “peace starts from the heart, it must reach the head, which then directs the hand.” “This is the order: you must desire peace, then you must will it, then you must create it. There is a lack of will today, at least in the West,” added Orbán, who also noted that the Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Turks and Brazilians want peace.

“The West has lost the ability to unite the world for a certain cause. His philosophical principles are limited in space. This is a new phenomenon,” the Hungarian leader pointed out.

Viktor Orbán formulated Hungary’s role in the peace process as follows: “If our friends and allies want to abandon the position of war, they must find an alternative.”

Answering the question of what should happen in the USA and whether the policy can change, Viktor Orbán noted that Hungary’s experience is very clear. “When the Democrats are in power in Washington, we retreat into cover. They always want to change us, just like the politicians in Brussels. They want to impose on us how to manage migration and how to educate our children. This is disrespectful,” said the head of government from Budapest, who added: “We are a successful country, and we are also making efforts for Europe. We are the defenders of cities on the periphery of the continent. This work is not credited. Therefore, we are waiting for the return of our republican friends to power.”

Viktor Orbán said that Donald Trump is not the world’s last hope for peace, “but he is hope.” According to the Prime Minister of Hungary, Donald Trump will succeed in achieving peace, “probably in a few weeks.”

“If Hungary were where Switzerland is, we would also be neutral” / “Gender ideologues are destroying our children”

Responding to a reporter’s claim that “globalization and free trade have a new gospel for the preachers who meet each year at the World Economic Forum in Davos,” Viktor Orbán said that the “renewal of globalization” in which “we are good” and they bad”, poses a danger for Hungary.

“We are an export-oriented country. 85% of our gross domestic product comes from exports. We have important cultural and economic ties with the East. A resumption of globalization would be disastrous for Hungary. But I think it will also be for Germany,” he explained.

Speaking about Switzerland, the Hungarian official said that this Alpine country is important, “it is the way it wants to be, but at the same time it is not isolated.” “Therefore, preserving one’s own identity does not necessarily lead to provincialism. Switzerland is an important positive example,” said Viktor Orbán, who also added that if Hungary were where Switzerland is, “we would also be neutral.” “This is Swiss luxury. We don’t deserve this,” the manager said.

Also, answering questions, Orbán said that the biggest short-term threat to uncontrolled migration is the deterioration of public security, as well as terrorism. “In the medium term: economic losses. In the long term: the fact that a person no longer recognizes his own country, that he loses his own country,” Orbán also confirmed.

He also noted that the biggest danger of gender ideology is that children between the ages of 14 and 18 “must adapt to this world.” “During this period, their identity needs to be strengthened, not weakened and made vulnerable, as gender ideologies do. Because in this way they destroy our children. Irreversible, without the possibility of transformation. They do not have the right to do this,” the Prime Minister of Hungary emphasized.

“If I were the dictator of the European Union, I would do what Juncker did: I would get drunk”

Asked what the Hungarian Prime Minister would do if he was the “dictator of the European Union” for a day, as former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called him, Viktor Orbán replied: “I would do what Mr. Juncker did with joy : I would get drunk. Fortunately, there is no such possibility.”

As he noted: There is a good guide written by former Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber in which Stoiber describes how the EU can be reorganized on the basis of subsidiarity. What is lacking is not knowledge, but intent,” said Viktor Orbán, who argued that “all the powers that the EU has given itself without giving to the member states should be returned to the member states.”