In a traditional speech at the Summer University in Romania, the Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the European Union was sliding into oblivion and warned of a new, Asian "world order". Orban also supported the candidacy of Donald Trump for the presidency of the United States, reported the Associated Press and Reuters, quoted by BTA.
„Europe has given up protecting its own interests,” Orban said in Baile Tusnad, a city with a predominantly Hungarian population in central Romania that traditionally hosts a Summer University organized by representatives of the Hungarian minority in Romania with the support of Hungarian foundations.
„The only thing Europe is doing today is to unconditionally follow the American foreign policy of the Democratic Party... even at the cost of self-destruction,” Viktor Orbán told the audience of the “Tusvanos” Summer University. In his words, quoted by Reuters, "The EU must give up its identity as a political project and become an economic and defense project.
„A change is taking place that has not been seen for 500 years. What we are facing is actually a change in the world order,” he added, pointing to China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia as becoming the “dominant center” in the world, AP notes. According to Orban, quoted by Reuters, “we, the Westerners, also pushed the Russians to this bloc”.
Orban also said that the US was behind the 2022 explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines built to transport gas from Russia to Germany. He called the explosions a “terrorist act carried out at the apparent behest of the Americans” without presenting any evidence to support the claim, notes AP.
The Hungarian prime minister's remarks come amid mounting criticism from his European partners after he embarked on anti-EU “peace missions” earlier this month. to Moscow and Beijing aiming to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine. It is widely believed that Orbán has the warmest relationship with the Kremlin among all EU leaders, AP notes.
Regarding Ukraine, Orbán expressed doubt that the war-torn country will become a member of NATO or the EU.
„We Europeans have no money for this. Ukraine will return to the position of a buffer state”, he said, adding that international security guarantees “will be written into an agreement between the US and Russia”.
In Orban's words, quoted by Reuters, in contrast to the weakness of the West, Russia's position on world affairs is rational and predictable. The Hungarian prime minister pointed out that Russia has shown economic flexibility in adapting to Western sanctions imposed after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Orbán paraphrases a Latin expression, saying: “Trump is at the gates”. The Hungarian Prime Minister pointed out that if Europe does not have a peace policy, and Trump wins the US presidential election, then the EU will have to “admit defeat” and to bear the consequences of having supported the war, informed the Romanian agency Agerpres, citing the official translation of the Hungarian Prime Minister's speech.
„The European Union will have to pay the price of this military adventure and it affects all of us”, Viktor Orbán said.
During Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, Orbán distinguished himself from other EU leaders by refusing to provide Kiev with weapons to defend against Russian forces and regularly delaying, diluting or blocking efforts to send financial aid to Kiev and to imposing sanctions on Moscow, AP reminds.
The Hungarian prime minister traditionally uses the annual Summer University in Romania to present the ideological direction of his nationalist government and criticize policies of the EU, which his country joined in 2004, the agency recalls.
Hungary took over from July 1 the rotating presidency of the EU, during which Orbán gave a “Trumpist” promise “To make Europe great again”. The Hungarian prime minister also openly supported the candidacy of Donald Trump in the presidential election in November.
He visited Trump twice this year at his Mar-a-Lago mansion, the AP recalled. In his speech today, the Hungarian Prime Minister said that Trump's re-election bid aims to “return the American people from the post-nationalist liberal state to the nation state” and echoed a number of conservatives' claims that Trump was being punished unfairly to prevent his candidacy for the election.
„That's why they want to put him in jail. That's why they want to take away his assets. And if that doesn't work, that's why they want to kill him,” Orban said, referring to the assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania this month.
Orbán often uses his speeches at the Summer University in Romania to stir up controversy. In 2014, he first announced his intentions to build an “illiberal state” in Hungary, and in 2022 caused international outrage after speaking out against turning Europe into a “mixed race“ society, AP recalls.
Today he reiterated his stance against migration, saying it was not the answer to his country's aging population.
Depopulation cannot be supplemented by migration, Orbán said. “Western experience shows that if there are more guests than owners, the home is no longer a home. This is a risk that should not be taken," he said, quoted by AP.
Viktor Orbán, the EU's longest-serving leader, has become an icon for some conservative populists because of his staunch opposition to migration and LGBT+ rights. During his rule, a number of restrictions on the media and the independence of the judiciary in Hungary were also introduced. The EU accuses him of violating the standards of the rule of law and democracy, AP reminds.