PM Orbán talks about new Constitution amendment: there are two sexes, a person is either male or female
Hungary must reject the European Union’s migration pact, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday, arguing that it posed a “deadly threat” to the country.
Migration pact poses terrorist threat
Orbán told public radio that the migration pact, which was backed by the opposition parties, also posed a terrorist threat. Concerning the multiple bomb threats made against Hungarian schools on Thursday, the prime minister said that the state was there when needed. Orban said the threats needed to be taken seriously because western Europe has seen not only threats but also terrorist acts.
Discussing the latest developments, he said the interior ministry is investigating the threats, and the government had quickly brought the “chaos” that had arisen from the threats under control. Orbán said that because similar events had previously occurred in Slovakia and Bulgaria, it was possible that the threats had come from “some sort of international centre”.
He said that though life was “back to normal, threats like this can happen these days”. Orbán said the lesson to be learned from terrorist acts in Europe was always that if the migrants had been let into Hungary, there would also be terrorist acts here, rather than just threats, and people’s lives would be taken, and not only threatened.
School bomb threats connected with migration in Orbán’s mind
Therefore, the most important topic for Hungary’s future and security was migration, he said. Migrants must not be allowed in, Orbán said, emphasising that this was a dividing line in Hungarian politics. The ruling parties, he said, rejected the migration pact by all means and were not willing to let migrants in. He added, however, that there were political forces in Hungary who demanded that the government implement the EU migration pact.
In connection with the inauguration of the new US president, Orbán said Hungary was no longer isolated, but had returned to the mainstream of history. “We are the majority in the Western world,” he said.
Trump implements well-known measures
“Donald Trump is taking exactly the same measures that we have already taken and because of which the left and Brussels were continuously trying to isolate Hungary,” the prime minister said. Now that Trump has implemented these measures, “we can safely say that Hungary, which they tried to isolate and pushed aside, is no longer sidelined, we are now the mainstream,” Orbán said.
He added, at the same time, that “the strange thing” was that “even though we are the majority, it is still necessary to rebel”. Although change had taken place in Washington, he said, it had not in Brussels, and there was still work to be done there, “otherwise Brussels will force on us the things that the US president is currently abolishing”.
Orbán said the government had done a good job in the recent period on the issue of child protection. “Marriage is between a man and a woman, bingo. The father is a man and the mother a woman, bingo,” he said.
He pointed out that the US president “went further and declared that there are two sexes: a person is either male or female”. This is not yet part of Hungary’s constitution, Orbán noted, adding that “there is still work to be done, but the paths that we are on, the Americans and us, clearly coincide.”
Soros empire no longer gets money
The prime minister said it was even more important that the US president had “turned off the money taps”. “Before the Democrat US ambassador left, about 150-200 million forints were distributed among left-wing civil organisations and media, those working against the government, but this is now over, these funds will no longer be coming from Washington,” he said.
Now they could only come from Brussels, he said, adding that this was “even more outrageous” because Brussels was financing that support from money contributed by Hungary. He said it was “unacceptable” that funds contributed by member states should be used to support a political force in one of the member states.
Orbán said this issue had now moved from Washington to Brussels, and “the two-headed dragon of the Soros empire has had one of its heads cut off in Washington, and now the one in Brussels needs to be dealt with”.
“They were caught in a vice, by the Americans on one side and the central Europeans on the other,” Orbán said. “We are not alone; the Slovaks are doing exactly the same thing as us. We have lost the Poles, but they will come back, it is only a matter of time, and Babis will come back, and the Austrian government will be formed soon. They all think the same way as us.”
Orbán said Brussels could not interfere in the affairs of member states by supporting their left-wing and liberal parties.
Another benefit of Trump’s victory, Orbán said, was that “we can finally say what the battle is about: a puppet government imposed on us from Brussels or a national government”. “This was also the question in America: a liberal Democrat government or a national government,” he said.
“Ukrainians want to mess with us”
Concerning Ukraine’s decision to halt the transit of Russian gas through its territory, Orbán said that “though the Ukrainians want to mess with us”, Hungary was able to defend itself if it held “a united front” with Serbia. He noted that unlike in the past, when Hungary had received gas solely via Ukraine, the country was now also receiving gas via a southern route. And now “we are able to give gas even to our Slovak friends”, the prime minister said.
He referred back to the “huge debate” in the early 2010s surrounding the Hungarian government’s decision to build an interconnector with Slovakia. “Had that project not been completed then, both Hungary and Slovakia would now be in trouble.” Orbán anticipated the same to happen around the ongoing construction of the Budapest-Belgrade railway line, saying that “there will be a moment when that rail line turns out to be serving as a umbilical cord for us from the geo-strategic and security point of view.”
In connection with Ukraine’s energy-related measures, the prime minister said those pushed up prices and led to Hungary also having to pay more for energy.
Orbán said Hungary never backed the sanctions introduced by Brussels to aid Ukraine, but never vetoed them, either.
Sanctions cost EUR 19bn
The sanctions imposed on Russia have cost Hungary 19 billion euros, or 7,500 billion forints over the last three years, he said. “This is a huge sum, a lot more than what Hungarians altogether pay annually in the form of income tax into state coffers,” he said.
Orbán said Brussels was considering extending its sanctions on Russia. “And I pulled the brakes and asked the European leaders to understand that this can’t continue,” he added. “Hungary can’t be made to pay the price of the sanctions in such a proportion while Ukraine is playing a trick on us.”
“We’re asking them [Brussels] to get the Ukrainians to agree to restoring the gas route, and we ask that they not attack using all sorts of semi-legal and legal military means the route through which we import gas,” the prime minister said. Ukraine, he added, should also give guarantees that it would not repeat “the nastiness they’re doing with gas right now” with oil deliveries.
“Whereas Ukraine is an EU candidate country, Slovakia and Hungary are member states,” Orban said, arguing that “Brussels therefore must represent our interests”. He said he was working towards persuading Brussels to represent the interests of central Europe against Ukraine.
2025 will be a fantastic year
Turning to the economy, Orbán said that the potential of it along with the work and energy of Hungarians could advance the country faster if sanctions were not slowing it down. Looking ahead, Orbán augured a “fantastic year” in 2025. “We will have a year not seen for a long time,” he said, projecting economic growth approaching 4 percent in the third and fourth quarters. “And, in 2026, we will go further up.”
“The opportunity to stop sanctions against Russia is in Hungary’s hands, but if we do that the sky will fall in Brussels,” the prime minister said.
He noted that in 2023, the purchasing power of Hungarian wages had dropped at a rate of less than 1 percent which was then “corrected” last year by an increase of about ten percent. “But 2025 must be about making progress.”
Orbán noted that yields on retail government securities will be paid to close to 900,000 Hungarians. Hungarian families have altogether around 90,000 billion forints worth of savings, he said.
Orbán said that contrary to the “naysaying claims” by the opposition that Hungary was “the poorest country in Europe”, it ranks 13th in EU comparison in terms of net savings bar debts.
“In December last year, a total of 544,000 people stayed at domestic tourism accommodations, 212,000 flew abroad and some 418,000 cars with Hungarian plates left the country for the long holiday weekend,” Orbán said. “These are huge numbers. The country has strength.”
The prime minister noted government measures that include the increase of the VAT exemption threshold from annual revenue of 12 million to 18 million forints, the launch of subsidised credit for young, blue collar workers and of the Demjan Sandor Programme.
“The government must continue to work instead of pointing the finger abroad, it should not be talking about the Ukrainians, about the sanctions, we will live with it, and if we are strong enough, we will put a halt to and eliminate the sanctions system from European economic policy,” Orbán said.
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