Speaking on the Kossuth Rádió programme “180 Minutes”, the Prime Minister said that behind the attacks on Hungary stands the issue of migration, and “everything else is irrelevant”: there is, he said, a European community of interests which transcends party boundaries, and which seeks to import hundreds of thousands of immigrants to the continent. He added that the “founding father”, co-funder and co-organiser of this strategy is George Soros.
The European Parliament decided to prepare a “Soros report” on Hungary. This is not without precedent: its forerunner, he said, is the Tavares Report, “which was an ignominious failure”.
Reading the current resolution one does not know whether to laugh or cry, he said. As an example he mentioned a Syrian agitator at the Röszke border crossing, who, according to part of the resolution document, “in an unfair trial was given a 10-year prison sentence simply for using a megaphone to make statements to ease tensions and for throwing three objects at the border police”. In fact, the Prime Minister said, this Syrian man “tried to break through the fence during the Röszke riots, used a megaphone to incite people to violence and attacked police officers”. He noted that “the Soros teams” in Brussels are extremely determined, and are prepared to make absurd allegations.
Mr. Orbán was asked about the words of European People’s Party group leader Manfred Weber, who said that now the ball is in the Hungarian prime minister’s court: if he responds appropriately, he is a team player, but if he does not there will be consequences. In response the Prime Minister said that nothing of this kind would ever be said in China, which clearly demonstrates that European politics has become distorted.
[1]He described as discouraging the attitude of those working in the European institutions who do not give the nation states the respect that is due to them, and he expressed his objection to anyone in Brussels – regardless of party affiliation – telling a Member State how to behave.
“The essence of Europe does not lie in Brussels, but in the Member States. Europe is not Brussels; Europe is Warsaw, Budapest, Paris, Berlin, Rome”, he said.
The Prime Minister stressed that Hungarians must insist on their national interests, and “we want to decide who we live alongside and who we don’t live alongside”. The Brussels attacks will not divert the Government from its goals, and in the future Hungary will continue to pursue its own path, he said, adding that the Cabinet is also unwilling to surrender to Brussels the right to determine energy prices and tax rates.
He stressed that keeping the existing division of powers and rights, which “we built together”, is also a pro-European position.
In summary Mr. Orbán said that Hungary will participate in the procedure for dispute settlement, and if necessary “we shall go all the way”, taking the matter to court. When asked what will happen if the court rules that Hungary must amend its legislation, the Prime Minister said that the ruling will have to be implemented, but “what implementation actually entails […] will involve yet another struggle”.