In his regular Friday morning interview with public Kossuth radio, Viktor Orbán addressed issues such as migration, the economy and Ukraine’s EU accession.
The Hungarian Prime Minister and his team are clearly in a creative mood: they have published a funnily irreverent Star Wars-themed TikTok video, built on some key sentences in Viktor Orbán’s 23 October speech.
In his speech at the Summit of the Organization of Turkic States, Viktor Orbán stated that Europe is facing difficult dilemmas, and the answers provided will have a strong impact on the relationship between the Turkic world and the continent. The PM emphasized that from a European perspective, global security is currently in the worst condition since the end of the Cold War.
Viktor Orbán declared that Hungary’s energy supply is a key issue and noted that it is important for Hungary to be able to receive oil not only from Russia but also from Kazakhstan. He added that the volume of this is not significant yet, but the channels have been opened, and this is a significant step for the country’s security.
‘It is one of history’s great ironies that Budapest, from which hundreds of thousands of European Jews were shipped to their deaths by the Nazis and their Hungarian collaborators, Jews can walk the streets this dreadful autumn without fear. This is an achievement for which Hungarians can and should be proud. Don’t expect European leaders to give Orbán credit. In fact, they will probably increase their public odium directed at him.’
In his regular interview on public radio, the Hungarian Prime Minister pledged to defend Hungary’s borders, to resist pressure from Brussels aiming to change his government’s policies, insisted that Ukraine cannot win on the battlefield, and announced a new National Consultation.
Orbán told his audience in Veszprém that Hungary was the ‘first and only’ country trying to ‘hold back the European people from willingly marching into an even greater war’. Referring to the ‘chivalry of the Hungarian people’, he said that ‘again and again those whom we saved turn against us’ when ‘we are defending them’. He went on to state that Hungary had defended Europe against migration ‘and we were the first to propose peace instead of war, which might have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.’
Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin last met in person on 1 February 2022 in Moscow, before the outbreak of the war on Ukraine. This time the two leaders discussed energy matters and bilateral cooperation. During their meeting, the Hungarian PM also emphasized the need to put an end to the fighting and achieve peace.
Viktor Orbán stated in Beijing that during President Xi Jinping’s tenure, Chinese–Hungarian relations have reached ‘unprecedented heights,’ which is extremely beneficial for Hungary. Orbán expressed gratitude to his host for the constant and unwavering support that Xi Jinping has provided for the development of bilateral relations.
The prime minister emphasized that China is Hungary’s ninth most significant trading partner, and in 2023, China became Hungary’s largest foreign direct investor once again. Companies with Chinese ownership provide employment to nearly 20,000 people in Hungary.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.