Orbán on ECJ verdict: We'll figure out how it can be more painful for them than for us

“This verdict was delivered by the court of George Soros. Soros has a plan, he has announced it, he's never made a secret of it, he wrote it himself.”

– Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in his usual Friday morning statement delivered in the form of an interview on Kossuth Rádió's Good Morning, Hungary! programme. His comment was a response to Thursday's ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which fined Hungary a total of €200 million (nearly 80 billion forints at current exchange rates) for the government's failure to comply with EU asylum rules, and a further €1 million a day. It was expected that Orbán would react.

Speaking about the EU, Orbán also said there was an "old war" going on between Brussels and Hungary. Orbán said the demand on migration is to "let them in" while he "insists that Hungarians should have a say on who we live with". Orbán said what he is currently trying to figure out is "how to solve this in a way that it ends up being more painful for them than for us". He also said that

the amount of money mentioned in the verdict is an enormous sum, more money than "the world has ever seen", which Orbán said he would prefer to distribute among families or pensioners. But alas, he cannot do that, because of Brussels.

“Leaning back and laughing without paying is not an option.” – Orbán said, adding that after all sorts of “bloody tussles” they had already brought home "a significant portion of the Brussels money" due to Hungary. "Those Brusselites, they are sneaky," Orbán said, summing up the court's decision. In his opinion, Brussels is not telling the truth, "the whole thing has this slimy, slobbery, slug-like feeling. It is "not our world over there". In his indignation, Orbán also said that

“Using thieves' cant in politics is punishable in Hungary.”

This is the first time Orbán has spoken at Kossuth Rádió since last week's EP and municipal elections. Since then, the Tisza Party has gained a significant number of seats in the EP, but in spite of this Orbán said they had won both the local and EP elections. Fidesz remains in a psychosis of war, continually fighting for peace, and this did not change this week either, when Orbán met with NATO Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg. Speaking about their agreement, Orbán said that “the only reason he isn't calling it a historic one was because it is an overused phrase.”

NATO and the Russians

The Prime Minister somehow managed to link the Peace March, peace and migration: according to Orbán, the reason they oppose migration is because they want peace. He also said that Hungary is among the most loyal members of NATO, and added that "31 out of 32 NATO member countries want to defeat the Russians".

“Hungary's position is that this is a mistake. Even if this means that we are alone with this among the 32.”

Orbán said that what's needed is not for Ukraine to win but in spite of this, NATO is still "facilitating the war, while Hungary is on the side of peace.” Orbán said he did not want "any square inch of Hungary to become a Russian military target".

The Prime Minister said that he feels that they are trying to sway them towards the side according to which "peace can be solved by war". It must be added though that the government is already well on the way to doing this on its own, given that in recent weeks it has blanketed the country with posters about the threat of war and has been constantly talking about the battles in Brussels. Finally, PM Orbán stressed that his government will not obstruct the NATO mission to Ukraine, but it will not participate in it.

Orbán: War and peace

The Prime Minister also said that sipping beer in a Bavarian forest is very different from living in Nyíregyháza, and then skipped from there to the elections, because "three days after the elections, the lie of the land is different". Orbán said the Hungarian government had been confirmed in the vote, in which "the people voted about the question of war and peace". As Orbán sees it, they won this "by a landslide" and were thus able to "keep NATO out", although it is not clear from where.

On the EP elections, Orbán said that "it would also be beneficial for Hungary's situation if Europeans moved towards peace". Orbán said that since the elections, many have asked him how this would happen. His answer is: "like this". He said the same to Stoltenberg too, also pointing out that "there were two governments that fell on election day: the French and the Belgian". Orbán sees this as a strong message confirming that "my friend, if you are not on the side of peace, you will fail". It is for this reason that the Hungarian Prime Minister is looking forward to the US elections, to the victory of "the pro-peace Donald Trump" so that a transatlantic peace agreement can be established.

Orbán said that America is untouchable, "unlike Nyíregyháza, (a Hungarian town very close to the Ukrainian border) where one can practically look over to the other side, where at the moment Ukraine is". Orbán did not explain what he meant by "at the moment", but he did say that he dreams of a joint political group in the EP with Le Pen and Meloni. He said that if the French and the Italian politicians were to come to an agreement, they could even bring over people from the EPP to a new faction, and in the end

"The right would have the biggest parliamentary group in Europe. That's what we dream about, and then we wake up and find that the two ladies just can't agree".