Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, during his regular Friday morning interview on public Kossuth radio, stated that if a country clearly stands for peace and supports its leaders, the government has a much better chance of keeping the nation out of war than if there is chaos and instability behind it.
He reminded that during World War I, István Tisza wanted to keep Hungary out of the war, and Governor Miklós Horthy tried to stay out of World War II as long as he could, but in the end, the Germans ‘forced Hungary into the war.’ Although the situation now is not the same as in 1918 or during World War II, the great powers surrounding Hungary today are also ‘interested in pushing Hungary into this war, and we must resist,’ said Orbán.
He added that demonstrating peace-oriented unity is not easy because the left in Hungary is pro-war, funded by those who expect to profit from the war. However, anyone who votes for Fidesz and KDNP ‘votes for peace, and the more people do so, the greater our chance that Hungary will stay out of this war,’ he said.
Orbán stressed the need to find allies, and although Robert Fico has been ‘temporarily lost,’ he is seeking new allies everywhere, who can support Hungary in preventing specific steps towards war. He cited Italy as an example, which also does not want to send soldiers to Ukraine. Thus,
‘the Hungarian government also has diplomatic room for manoeuvre to enforce its anti-war, peace-oriented policy,’
he added.
He stated that Hungary needs economic relations, not ideological ones, with both East and West in future high technologies. He emphasized that China is a leader in railway technology, electric cars, green energy production and storage, ‘the entire battery culture,’ and information technology. It is in our interest to bring the best technology to Hungary as investment, making us a stable bridgehead and meeting point.
Orbán cited the industrial park in Debrecen as an example of the meeting of eastern and western technology and mentioned that research and development activities are also coming from China to Hungary. He declared that if Hungary wants to be among the countries with the best living standards in the world, then it needs high technology.
The Prime Minister called the Chinese president’s visit a milestone for the Hungarian economy, stressing that the world’s division into blocks is not ‘predetermined.’ He pointed out that while Hungary is questioned about its cooperation with certain Chinese telecommunications companies, ‘Germany happily works with such companies.’
Orbán concluded by noting that when it comes to money and the economy, reality points more towards cooperation, highlighting that Xi Jinping’s invitation for Hungarian companies to participate in China’s modernisation is a tremendous opportunity. ‘Every country in the world is doing this; in reality, we are competing for these connections,’ he said.
Related articles:
