Central Europe is facing a decade offering fantastic opportunities, said Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic on Wednesday.
The prime minister met with his Czech counterpart, Andrej Babis, and then highlighted at their joint press conference: the situation is slowly turning around, because previously it was thought that Central Europe could not prosper without Western Europe, today Western European economies cannot function without Central Europe. There is no successful German economy without Central Europe, Central Europe is truly the locomotive of the EU economy, he declared.
He believed:
therefore, the region's political and economic influence increases, and there is performance behind it. However, we can only enforce this if Visegrad cooperation is maintained.
Viktor Orbán explained: the Czech Republic is one step ahead of us in reducing unemployment. We also want to catch up with the Czech Republic in the low level of indebtedness, and we also envy the Czech industry's own performance, he listed.
He noted: he came to strengthen the Czech-Hungarian wing of the Visegrad cooperation (V4), because if the Czech Republic is not committed to the V4, the V4 does not work, the power and political influence of the Czech Republic are needed in the Visegrad group.
He explained: we will hardly survive the next big wave of migration, millions of people are leaving Afghanistan, and some of them will want to come via the Balkans and Hungary. Hungary protects not only its own borders, but also the whole of Europe, including the Czech Republic, which is why it asked Andrej Babis for 50 police officers to strengthen border protection.
Regarding intelligent transport systems (ITS), he said: the essence of this system is that everyone pays because they have a house and a car. This must be prevented, because it may "fit into the luxury of Western Europeans, but not into our lives," he declared. He added that he and his Czech partner agreed that they would act together on this matter at the next EU summit.
Viktor Orbán said about the Czech-Hungarian economic cooperation: it is an honor that Hungarian companies are welcomed in the Czech economy, and the Czech-Hungarian economic cooperation has reached unprecedented heights.
He explained: the volume of bilateral trade has increased by 26 percent so far this year, and 330 Czech companies operate in Hungary, employing many thousands of people. Hungary wants to expand cooperation, which is going well in telecommunications, agriculture, and the energy sector, and we would like to extend it to the military industry as well.
He emphasized:
Hungary is ready to implement "close, friendly, sane and mutually respectful cooperation with the government of Andrej Babis" in the future.
When asked, the prime minister also said that the Hungarian-Russian gas contract is a matter that Ukraine has nothing to do with, it is a matter of Hungarian sovereignty. He said: Hungary is a sovereign country, we buy energy and gas from whoever we want. "We are the only ones who decide which route this energy will take to Hungary," he pointed out.
He said: when choosing among possible routes, there is only one consideration, which one guarantees the greatest safety. "We deliver where we can deliver the safest, and no one can interfere with that," he added.
Viktor Orbán highlighted: "we wish the Ukrainians to deal with their own problems, but leave us out of it".
He also mentioned that:
"we Central Europeans are destined to succeed" and if they let us, then we will prosper". We are not asking for any extra help, just fair treatment.
He sees it as not fair that in order to overcome the shock of the epidemic in the EU, it was decided to give financial assistance in the form of loans to all member states, but there are eight countries that have not yet received this. This is not about money, but about the fact that the playing field is not equal, he pointed out.
He said: the European Commission differentiates between countries, and those who receive help later are at a competitive disadvantage.
If the EU ensures equal treatment, does not abuse its power, but behaves correctly, then the success story in Central Europe will continue, he said. He said: "we have three big battles with Brussels". One is about migration, "they want migrants, we don't".
The second is about the LGBTQ issue, "we don't want to allow any activists other than parents to have a say in raising children, they insist on this, they want to send LGBT activists" to our schools.
The third is that they are making such a green policy that the Hungarian and Central European people will "get their pants on" due to the high energy prices, he listed. He emphasized: we must win these three battles, this is the condition for the Central European success story to continue.
When asked, he said:
He lived 26 years in a communist system, when people were not allowed to express their opinions.
"Now they can say it, and that's what we fought for." This is sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes they say something that you do not agree with, but the point is that they can express their opinion, he said. He added: those who cannot stand that others have different opinions should not become prime minister, but should choose another profession.
He also said: Westerners can't or don't want to protect their borders, they let migrants in unchecked, and then say it's not fair that they have everyone, they should be divided. But that's not the case, everyone should protect their border and if they don't know how, ask for help.
He believed that those who cannot protect their borders, or who do not ask for help and let migrants in, should bear the consequences. There cannot be a mandatory quota and it is good that the Czech Republic agrees with Hungary on this.
In our opening image, Hungarian Viktor Orbán (l) and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis (l) hold a press conference in Ústí nad Labem in the northern Czech Republic on September 29, 2021. Next to them is Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó (b)
Source: MTI, origo.hu.
