Die Welt has published a rare opinion piece recently that diverges from the prevailing narrative discrediting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, which has been the norm in the Western mainstream media for a long time and has extremely intensified in recent days. Instead, the German newspaper attempts to examine Orbán’s peace mission through a more objective lens. Remarkably, the author, Christoph B. Schiltz concludes that ‘Orbán deserves a chance.’
At the beginning of the article, Schiltz acknowledges that the Hungarian PM has recently been accumulating successes. He managed to bring his party, Fidesz, out of its voluntary isolation from the European Parliament since 2021 and co-founded the third-largest political group in the EP, Patriots for Europe.
However, the author believes that an even more significant achievement would be if Orbán could secure a ceasefire in Ukraine with his ‘recently launched shuttle diplomacy’. The article notes that Orbán’s recent visits to Kyiv, Moscow, and Beijing ‘could be condemned as uncoordinated with Brussels or as an ego trip of a big guy.’
‘But Orbán’s solo act is not that wrong,’
Schiltz argues. He writes that, apart from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Hungarian prime minister is the only NATO leader who has good relations with both China and Russia, which could be very important in the future.
The author also criticizes Orbán’s detractors, arguing that they are doing much less to achieve peace than the Hungarian prime minister. ‘Kyiv urgently needs sustainable and sufficient arms deliveries so that the country does not come under increasing pressure in the theatre of war and has to negotiate from a position of weakness in peace talks in a few years,’ Schiltz says. He believes that the West is currently providing Ukraine with just enough support to secure a distinctly unfavourable negotiating position.
‘China has a peace plan, the US has a war policy’
Orbán recently gave an interview to Die Welt, in which he was asked about his visit to Moscow last week. The Hungarian PM stated that ‘it is a primitive approach for European Union politicians to argue that trips like mine to Russia divide Europe and show the Russian president that the EU is not united.’
Regarding the peace mission, Orbán said: ‘There are five main players in this very complicated situation, two of whom I have already met: the Ukrainian and the Russian. The others are the United States, China, and the European Union.’ Orbán has since travelled to Beijing, where he held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the Ukraine settlement, and he is currently in Washington for the NATO summit. In the interview, he also pointed out that one of the problems is that many European politicians want a 100 per cent solution immediately, but there is no such thing.
During the discussion, he also stated that the road to peace begins when those who are at war, or close to war, want peace. ‘China has a peace plan, while the US has a war policy, and Europe is copying the American position,’ he explained.
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