Orbán: We don't need the Ukrainians' stamp of kosher approval

• Orbán responded harshly to Ukraine's foreign minister describing him as pro-Hungarian, even though Kuleba was rejecting the very accusation that the Hungarian leadership was pro-Russian.
• The Prime Minister said that the EU was running a war fever, but Hungary was staying out of it and would continue not to supply arms to Ukraine.
• He did vote in favour of the 50 billion euros in aid for Ukraine from within the EU budget though, because it won't be spent on arms, but on preventing Ukraine from going bankrupt, “otherwise they would have to close shop.”
• He expects the current EU leadership to be ousted in the EP elections because they are out of touch with the people.
• The EU does not represent the interests of Europeans, as shown by allowing Ukrainian grain in. The protesting farmers in Brussels have asked Orbán to stop Ukrainian agricultural products from entering the EU.
• The 26 other EU member states, which he referred to as "Brussels", can harm Hungary, but the Hungarian side can also inflict harm on them, Orbán said.

Peace is the key issue, and we are not doing well in this respect, because Brussels is burning with war fever, everything revolves around the war, Viktor Orbán said on Kossuth Rádió on Friday morning. The Hungarian Prime Minister made the statement in an interview a day after an extraordinary meeting of the European Council in Brussels approved – including his vote - a review of the EU budget, allowing Ukraine to receive €50 billion in aid over the next four years.

Orbán had previously been strongly opposed to Ukraine receiving the aid from within the EU budget and to the EU taking out a loan for this purpose. Thursday's meeting was necessary because in December Orbán vetoed the budget review. However, according to the Prime Minister, he has now achieved an important result, since “we now have a guarantee that Hungary's money will not go to Ukraine.”

Orbán stated that Hungary's position is clear: Hungary is on the side of peace, so it is not sending weapons to Ukraine, but it cannot prevent pro-war EU countries from doing so.

Hungary voting in favour of the 50 billion euros from the EU budget to be allocated to Ukraine does not contradict the Hungarian government's interpretation of its pro-peace policy, because this money is not going to arms, but to "prevent the bankrupt Ukrainian state from collapsing."

If the EU and the US had not provided aid, "they would have had to close shop", there would be no salaries, no pensions, no institutions in Ukraine.

According to Orbán, the Ukrainians want to wage war, the question is whether it is worth supporting Ukraine with weapons when the prospect of their war is looking bleak. The Hungarian Prime Minister believes that doing so is a bad decision, but he cannot prevent other countries from continuing to send arms. "Our money is not going to Ukraine", the Prime Minister concluded, noting that he believes the idea that the war has improved Ukraine's situation is wrong.

Orbán said that he had received clear guarantees that Hungary would receive the money it was owed, so any support for Ukraine would not come at the expense of these funds.

The Hungarian left wants to reach an agreement with Brussels on how to be involved in the war and how to get closer to Brussels – "I am working on the opposite," Orbán said.

The Prime Minister said that it is a complete misunderstanding that the Ukrainians are fighting for us – for Europe. He does not believe that the Russians would have marched on Berlin, when it is evident that "they cannot even occupy Ukraine" –

however, what the Prime Minister did not mention here is that it was largely thanks to Western support that Russia could not occupy Ukraine, since it launched a full-scale attack in February 2022.

The EU gradually slipped into supporting Ukraine more and more, eventually identifying with it, believing that it was "our war" – although Orbán says this is also a misconception. On this, the Prime Minister senses increasing pressure from the US.

"There will be peace when there is change in Brussels", Orbán said, indicating once again that he believes the outcome of the war is up to the EU, not Russia, which attacked Ukraine and controls part of its territory.

Hungary is up against the other 26 member states

"The fact is that, as in all such disputes, there are tools in the hands of those in Brussels, as well as in ours. It's true that there are 26 of them ..., of course they can inflict damage on us, but the damage we inflict on them will not be pleasant either. It's always better to reach an agreement than to fight," Orbán said, referring to the other 26 member states simply as "Brussels".

But the agreement reached is a good one, he said. “We will not be sending weapons and we will get the money from Brussels.” He argued that if the Hungarians had vetoed, the 26 member states would have decided on the aid anyway, "and would have even sent the Hungarians' money" to Ukraine.

As for the amendment of the Ukrainian law on minorities, he said that time will tell how far it will be implemented, as the Hungarians are currently "deprived of their rights" in Ukraine. This indicates that the Hungarian side still considers the change to be insufficient, which Foreign Minister Szijjártó also indicated at his meeting with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister in Uzhhorod earlier this week.

Orbán met the protesting farmers

"It was no problem for me, I'm a village boy," Orbán said of his meeting with protesting farmers in Brussels. He said the farmers are right because it is unfair that due to EU regulations, they produce at a higher cost, while the EU allows agricultural products in from places where there are no such regulations. This is also true for Ukrainian cereals and will soon be true for Ukrainian chicken, he explained.

"They asked me to block, that is, to stop Ukrainian shipments at the border," Orbán said about what he was told by the farmers protesting in Brussels, whom he ran into outside his hotel.

Brussels often represents someone else's interests instead of the interests of the citizens of Europe, he said, noting that the Hungarian left behaves in the same way because it is funded from abroad.

"The Hungarian left does not represent the interests of the Hungarian people," he said.

"There is a democratic deficit", "that's what they call it in Western slang", Orbán said of the relationship between the political elite and the common people, which he expects to lead to very serious changes in the European Parliament elections due in the summer. At such times, the incumbent leaders are occasionally shooed away. "And that is going to happen, I think. The Hungarians will also have the opportunity for this, since we are also taking part in this election, so we can contribute to this change."

We don't need a stamp of approval from our Slavic neighbours

When asked about the Ukrainian Foreign Minister's words, who said that he did not think the Hungarian leadership was pro-Russian, but pro-Hungarian, Orbán vehemently rejected what Dmytro Kuleba told Telex after his talks with Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó in Uzhhorod on Monday. Speaking of the conciliatory-toned statement, Orbán said:

"I'm not interested in their opinion on this. The country should not stoop to the point where someone else has to judge what the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Hungary are like. If they were to do that – which is what happened here – we'll ignore it. This does not exist. We are a sovereign country. We have no need for another country's stamp of kosher approval, so to speak. We don't need them to judge what we are. What on earth? Since when do we need our Slavic neighbours to decide who we are? They might have meant it as a friendly gesture, but you can't say that about a country with self-respect, or if you do, don't be surprised if they pretend they didn't hear a thing".