Radio Free Europe: Orbán spoke about the point of EU membership and the disintegration of the EU at Fidesz' picnic

Radio Free Europe's Hungarian edition (Szabad Európa) spoke to several participants to learn details of Viktor Orbán's speech at the traditional, annual Fidesz picnic in Kötcse on 10 September. Among other things, the Prime Minister said that the new generation of Fidesz should be able to govern until 2060 – Szabad Európa reports.

This was the 21st time that Fidesz' foundation organised the civic picnic in the village of Kötcse, near lake Balaton. The meeting was attended by the prime minister, members of the government, members of parliament, artists, intellectuals and businessmen belonging to Fidesz's circles. You can view our photo gallery of the picnic participants here.

It has been a tradition in Kötcse for several years that participants are warned in the invitation to maintain complete confidentiality, and they are not allowed to discuss what happens inside. Journalists from the free press can only ask participants arriving and leaving the event in the street. This year we asked the attendees about the demands of Hungarian teachers. You can watch our video of Viktor Orbán answering two of our questions here.

According to Szabad Európa, Orbán's closed session speech, included a number of specific speeches on several topics.

We have contacted the Prime Minister's Press Office regarding the report of Szabad Európa, and will update this article as soon as we receive a reply.

Update 14:40

Bertalan Havasi, the Prime Minister's press officer, has sent the following reply to our enquiry:

"I cannot confirm anything, given that the event was not open to the press. Thank you for your understanding."

Earlier we wrote:

The prime minister said that the war in Ukraine could drag on until 2030, with Ukraine losing up to a third to a half of its territory. He said the war would have been local, but the West stepped in, making it global, and now we are shooting ourselves in the foot in Europe with sanctions, because the energy crisis caused by the sanctions could shut down up to 40 percent of Europe's industry in the coming winter.

Orbán said that in the autumn he would try to prevent the European Union from extending sanctions against Russia for another six months.

The Prime Minister reiterated his view, already voiced in Tusnadfürdő, that the eurozone and even the European Union itself could fall apart by 2030.

By 2030 the Visegrád Four will become net contributors, and Orbán said that at that time we must reflect on the meaning of EU membership, and what membership gives us under these circumstances. He added that if we won't be able to give a positive answer, the conclusions will have to be drawn.

The Prime Minister also said that he had already seen how effective Chinese state capitalism was in 2010, and that he would therefore like to see a similar economic model developed in Hungary, which is the basis of his so-called unorthodox economic policy.

Regarding Hungary, he said that everything must be done to increase population growth, and for this reason new family support measures will be announced in two weeks' time.

The prime minister said it was important to maintain full employment, to protect the value of people' incomes and to continue to modernise the economy.

Finally, he said that Fidesz has been consciously grooming a new generation of well-educated, capable government leaders who should be able to lead the country beyond 2030 and up to 2060.