On 9 October 2024, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán delivered a speech in the EU Parliament, occasioned by Hungary’s current half-year presidency. He addressed his words to the European government misleadingly being sold off as a commission and the European president, also misleadingly being referred to by some other tricky title. The Hungarian Prime Minister, known for his common sense and a courageous political stance, threw a gauntlet to Ursula von der Leyen’s stiff face, to wit that the European Union must change, and that Hungarian presidency would be dedicated to this task.
Viktor Orbán pointed to the decline in European economy and named the causes: the green transition and the fact that Europe had cut itself off from Russian oil and gas. The green transition was not feasible for the foreseeable future while lack of the cheap energy resources caused the prices of electricity to shoot through the roof.
The hottest topic that the Hungarian Prime Minister touched was immigration. Viktor Orbán has been known for years for his stance against irresponsibly letting in millions of people from outside the continent. As we remember, he had a protective fence built along Hungary’s southern border, and has never slavishly bowed to the EU’s policy of importing settlers from other continents. The Hungarian Prime Minister demanded that Europe be protected by all member states. Evidently in an attempt to win the leftists members of the European Union’s parliament to his argumentation, he said immigration caused a rise in anti-Semitism, violence against women and homophobia – the three points that the left is so sensitive about. Forlorn hopes. Viktor Orbán is regarded with contempt by the European leftists managers who would gladly throw him in Dantesque inferno quite close to Vladimir Putin, Alexander Lukashenko or – for that matter – General Franco or Benito Mussolini. The Hungarian Prime Minister never shied away from explosive topics and never catered to the woke narrative, nor was he afraid of any backlash. Viktor Orbán was unapologetically himself, which cause much huffing and puffing among the leftist parliamentarians.
One may admire Viktor Orbán’s courage and at the same time wonder at his naiveté: does he not know that immigration is wanted, desired, planned? No argumentation against it – be it reasonable or emotional – will ever work.
The Hungarian Prime Minister also advocated Serbia’s membership in the European Union, absent which the continent and especially the Balkans, as he said, would never be politically stable.
Everything and anything that he said was enough to rough a few feathers among the left-minded European do-gooders, but to make them even angrier, towards the end of his speech he said that Hungarians “strive for a Europe that fears God” [emphasis added]. Gee…
No wonder then that the Ursula von der Leyen, the Union’s president, sitting in the director’s chair and watching whether the politically correct script is followed, exploded and said a couple of bitter words aimed at Viktor Orbán.
In an attempt to shame Viktor Orbán and especially to win the audience, Ursula von der Leyen compared Ukraine’s resistance in its war with Russia to the Hungarian uprising of 1956 (a comparison Viktor Orbán vehemently objected to in his response later on as unsubstantiated), and the head of the European Commission had even the cheek to say that Ukraine defended its sovereignty as if sovereignty of particular national states was the value that the European Union cared for! This is insolence pure also in the face of the fact that “Brussels takes Hungary to court over its controversial ‘national sovereignty’ law” because this legislation is in breach of the EU law”!
In a slightly emotional response Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán concluded that the European parliament was not interested in a serious discussion of the problems that he had presented, but, sadly, only in levelling accusations at Hungary. This being so, Viktor Orbán did not feel restrained by courtesy and fired away what he really wanted to say to the audience in the first place, to wit that the European Union’s parliament was known for attacking right-leaning and patriotic politicians or deputies. Viktor Orbán said – this time openly – that the Union had recklessly entered to Ukrainian conflict and grossly miscalculated, but, rather than thinking about talks, about diplomacy, it continued to prolong its failed policy, with no regard for the thousands people who dying every week in the east.
Then the Hungarian Prime Minister hit the nail on the head, exposing the European Union’s hypocrisy as he said that many Western countries were “trading covertly with the Russians through Asia, bypassing the sanctions.” He went on to say that “the European Union exports a billion dollars more a month to certain Central Asian countries than it did before the Russia–Ukraine war. (…) This is how German, French and Spanish companies avoid sanctions. (…) Since the outbreak of the war, you Western countries have actually bought 8.5 billion dollars’ worth of Russian oil from Turkish or Indian refineries. (…) In 2023 you Westerners bought 44 per cent more Russian oil than a year earlier. The tax revenue your companies paid into Russia’s budget was 1.7 billion dollars. And you’re accusing us of friendship with Russia?”
A voice of defiance, indeed. The reception that the Hungarian Prime Minister received from the left-minded majority of the parliament was hostile to say the least. Add to this no or little support from other central European countries like Poland or Czechia, terrified of saying the wrong word and you have the picture: a lone sheriff in a den of wreckers of Europe.
