On his arrival in Brussels on Wednesday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with farmers demonstrating in the centre of Brussels. He spoke with them about the importance of European leaders paying more attention to the voice of the people, Bertalan Havasi, the Prime Minister's Press Chief told the Hungarian State News Agency, MTI. He added that Orbán also held talks with former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki the same evening.
The Prime Minister told Belgian journalists that Europe needs new leaders, a new elite, because at present – whether on migration or the war in Ukraine – the opinions of the ordinary people are not being taken seriously, and this is a democratic deficit. He stressed that the European Union doesn't show enough respect for the fact that agriculture is an important part of the European economy. Many countries have introduced regulations which are unfavourable for the farmers and have thus made their situation more difficult.
According to Orbán, Ukrainian agriculture is subject to much more lenient regulations, which lead to an unfair situation when it comes to competitiveness. "Those of us who live in the immediate neighbourhood of Ukraine have been the first to suffer from this: Poles, Slovaks, Hungarians. But sooner or later this threat, this loss, will reach the interior of Europe and will be felt here in Brussels, in France and in Spain too. The European Commission needs to represent the interests of European farmers against the Ukrainians, not the other way round," he said.
Imports of Ukrainian products must be stopped because the conditions and circumstances of farming are not the same and European farmers are suffering heavy losses because of the EU rules. He suggested a complete change of leadership in Brussels because "the current leaders will never take decisions that are favourable to farmers. We need to find new leaders who really represent the interests of the people," he added, referring to the European Parliament elections in June.
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