Orbán: Brussels cares more about Ukraine than about European farmers

It's a strange feeling, coming from Hungary to Brussels right now. Hungary is a normal country. Granted, there are interludes reminiscent of Neighbours or Dallas or Big Brother in Hungary, but the thinking there is still calm, composed and rational. When you arrive in Brussels and talk to the politicians here, you are in for a surprise: there is a wartime logic here

– Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in his interview with the public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió on Friday morning, from Brussels. According to him, the politicians in Brussels are acting like they are at war with Russia, they are caught up in a spiral of war. On the Russia-Ukraine war, he said that it is not a football match where you are supposed to cheer for one side or the other, and added that the distance needed for remaining calm is what's missing in Brussels. "We are not at war with Russia, but they are talking as if they were and they keep talking about the need to defeat Russia", he said, and then detailed how Ukraine’s support started, and where it is now, adding that he feels as if he had arrived in a different galaxy.

When asked what the consequences of sending ground troops to Ukraine would be, Viktor Orbán brought up the beginning of the war, and described how we got to talking about sending weapons and now ground troops. "This is not a video game, each word carries weight," he said, then repeated several times "ceasefire, peace talks, ceasefire, peace talks".

He stressed that Hungary must be very careful not to be dragged into the war, and said that in his opinion it was "very fortunate that the Hungarian public has managed to remain sober-minded”. He claimed that the left would also drag the country into war, but the government remains sober. "In Hungary we have developed different techniques for involving the people in decision-making over the past 14 years, which some like and some don't," he said, referring to the national consultations. He argued that no one can say that the Hungarian government doesn’t provide people with the opportunity to not only voice their opinion on common issues, but "to speak their minds at the appropriate volume". He said that the widespread perception in Western countries is that people should be consulted during elections.

“One cannot fully submit to the ever-changing public sentiment, but what we can promise, and I am committed to this, is that we will not take decisions on matters important for the country without consulting the people,”

– Orbán said, adding that people of the Soros empire had infiltrated the EU institutions "like a network".

If the farmers are getting organized, you know there’s a big problem

The conversation’s next topic was that of Ukrainian grain, on which the Prime Minister said that in his view the root of the problem is that the strict rules of the European Union are reducing the productivity of European farmers, while there are no such rules in Ukraine. He then went on to list the related legislation at length, and explained that the problem is caused by the fact that Ukrainian farmers can sell their crops cheaper than Hungarian farmers.

"Our guys grow their grain, they get good money for it and then they use it to produce more. But when the cheap Ukrainian grain comes in, the Western buyer will buy that one, and the grain from Hungary and the other 7 or 8 countries will stay in the warehouses. That's what's hurting us," he said. He believes there should be fair competition and the rules applied to EU grain should also be applied to imported grain. "If the farmers are getting organized, then you know there is a big problem. Except that Brussels cares more about Ukraine than European farmers," he said.

It is possible for a local conflict to evolve into a world war

"At the founding of the EU, the goal was peace and prosperity, but what we have now is war and misery," Orbán said, and added that in his opinion people generally have a negative opinion of the Brussels bureaucrats. He admitted that he spends a lot of time thinking about "how to occupy Brussels". He believes it is not about right-wing or left-wing logic, but about who is pro-war and who is pro-peace. He said that the EU was in a psychosis of war and this must be stopped, and we have to be careful.

Speaking about the war in Ukraine, he said that

we mustn't forget that this was just a local issue somewhere on the outskirts of Donetsk, and now we're talking about NATO countries getting involved at the military level, and if, God forbid, a NATO member state were to get involved to the point of armed conflict with Russia, then we wouldn't be so far from a world war. It's not easy to say this because it's a heavy word which brings back painful memories, but it is possible to go from a local conflict to a world war."

– he said, adding that if Hungary did not have a nationally-minded government, "we would be up to our knees or our necks in this conflict".

Not a novice ballet dancer

The host then asked Orbán about the municipal elections and Alexandra Szentkirályi's candidacy for mayor of Budapest, to which Orbán replied that one of the government's main goals in Brussels is to "get the money we are due". "Budapest is important, I'm happy to address the issues that are important to the people of Budapest, but there is no more important issue for the people of Budapest today than whether the Hungarian left can get Brussels to withdraw part of the high salaries given to kindergarten teachers and teachers. Because that's the battle that's going on today," he said, adding that it was important not to send people to Brussels who wouldn't work for the good of Hungary. In Orbán's view, since 2019 "Budapest has also been held captive".

"I see that it's the same old people, I'm not exactly a novice ballet dancer here either, I know everyone who used to work behind left-wing governments," he said. "The important issues in the capital are not decided by the mayor anyways, and besides, it would be hard to imagine him doing so," he said, and went on to detail how he believes the same people who he said "bankrupted Hungary" are sitting in the leadership of the capital.

At Thursday's EU summit, EU leaders vowed that going forward they are more determined than ever to support Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders. At the European Council, where member states make decisions at the highest level, and where Hungary is represented by Viktor Orbán, the decision about Ukraine was unanimous.

In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) ahead of the summit, Orbán wrote that the most important topic on the agenda was Ukrainian grain, adding that "it being dumped on us is slowly destroying European and Hungarian farmers".

The Prime Minister's political director Balázs Orbán (no relation to the PM) told RTL that "if possible, "the unchecked Ukrainian grain of dubious quality" should be pushed out of the European market". "The best quantity is zero."