The Prime Minister said that every nation has freedom of action, and any country that waits for Brussels to act on its behalf deserves its fate.
“A nation that is unable to protect its interests is no nation at all – and even if it still exists, it will disappear”, he said.
Mr. Orbán urged for a rational division of tasks within the EU. He said that the migration flow cannot be stopped from Brussels, and it is also not possible to pursue sound migrant policy from Brussels. “We do not need a common European refugee policy, and we do not need a common European refugee agency, as that will only lead to chaos, trouble and suffering”, he stated.
He said that ineffective proposals “far removed from reality” are being developed in Brussels, whose leaders want to present the most humane image possible, while hundreds of people are drowning in the sea, and the threat of terrorism and anti-Semitism in Europe is rising.
As an example, he said that when the flow of migrants through the Balkans began, Hungary had waited three months for a European solution; when such a solution failed to materialise, it sealed its borders, made the necessary amendments to its laws, built the border fence and stopped the flow. “This is what I advise everyone to do”, he remarked.
Speaking about the recent letter from the Visegrád countries (V4) to the Italian prime minister, he stated that Italy has two options: either “they close down”, or they accept the assistance offered. In his view the Austrians and Germans “have had enough”, and if they seal their borders, all the migrants will stay in Italy. He referred to Italy as one of the most important cradles of European culture, which plays a key role in the Mediterranean, and which must therefore be stable and strong.
The Prime Minister also noted that the V4 have expressed their intention to support the proposal from the German and Italian interior ministers, who are both members of the European People’s Party, and who have said that migration must be stopped in Libya. Responding to the point that one of that divided country’s governments does not want the EU’s assistance, he said that military operations must be implemented there.
Mr. Orbán criticised the EU’s support for organisations known as NGOs, which are cooperating with the people smugglers. The Italian press is full of evidence that organisations funded by George Soros are cooperating to try to turn Europe into a continent with a mixed population, he added.
In the interview the Prime Minister also spoke about Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Budapest, which he described as an event of historic significance. He said that Mr. Netanyahu came to Budapest to discuss how Israel could cooperate with Hungary over the next few decades. “We found a key to the door”, Mr. Orbán said, mentioning as an example that Israeli high-tech companies will receive Hungarian engineers, university students and developers planning to work in that sector, who can therefore gain access to the latest Israeli technologies.
Mr. Orbán said that the visits to Budapest of Benjamin Netanyahu and President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and the Hungarian-Turkish joint summit held in Ankara all shared a common feature: they all focused on the protection of the Hungarian people and the building of external lines of defence. He added that these countries are key for the European Union. Ever more waves of migrants will set out for Europe if these countries are unable to tackle the terrorism in the Middle East which leads to illegal migration, if Turkey does not detain migrants, if Egypt’s population of 100 million starts moving, and if Israel does not use its military to take regular action against militant terrorist groups.
With reference to the speech he will make in Tusnádfürdő on Saturday, the Prime Minister was asked about his use of the term “illiberal democracy” at the same event some years ago. He said that the liberal counterattack provoked by his words was predictable, but one should not exaggerate the importance of this. There must be a rejection of the notion that in Hungary the term “liberal” means that democracy ends when someone other than the liberals win an election, he said. “We are supporters of the illiberal approach: democracy is democracy, and there is no need to add modifiers to it”, he said, pointing out the absurdity of the automatic assumption that democracy has come to an end if a liberal party is defeated.
The Prime Minister also stated that there is practically no world event that Budapest could not host, citing the World Aquatics Championships as proof of this. While he conceded that hosting a football world cup would not be a reasonable aim, he said that the Hungarian capital can confidently bid to host any other large-scale event which the modern world has to offer.
Underlining his personal determination to make Hungary a strong country, he stated that “This is a great strength, a great thing to acknowledge, and a source of pride”.