The Hungarian government fulfills the requests of the European Commission, but it must be assumed that there will always be more and more requests - said Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in an interview published on Monday on the news portal of the German-language newspaper Budapester Zeitung.

Regarding Hungarian-German governmental relations, the prime minister said that the program of the German federal government is "a world apart" from the program of the Hungarian government, and that the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), the biggest force in the coalition forming the German government, is "the most anti-Hungarian party in Europe."

Thus, "serious efforts are needed to be able to bridge the differences between the two countries in more and more areas"

Viktor Orbán pointed out.

Speaking about the opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is to the right of the largest opposition force, the center-right CDU/CSU party alliance, he explained that "interstate relations are more important than relations between parties", therefore "we are forced to sacrifice relations with the AfD as much as possible on the altar of the best intergovernmental relations", since "it is a feature of German democracy that if we were to take steps in relation to the AfD, it would have an impact on intergovernmental relations".

He added that the CDU is "now a left-wing party from the Hungarian point of view", and the same applies to the Bavarian CSU.

In connection with Hungarian-German relations, he also said that "Germany has become a multicultural society" and that "Hungarian society is much more pluralistic, freer and peaceful than German society".

As he said, in Germany "liberal hegemony prevails", that is, "only one narrative has a place in the public", and "whoever deviates from this, no longer exists for this public", while in Hungary "the public discourse has a pluralistic structure".

He underlined:

"In Germany, but also in Western Europe in general, a double standard is applied, which we Hungarians will not tolerate at all", at the same time, there is no point in increasing the "political tension" with Germany, because "cooperation is much more important".

He also said that "more and more Western Europeans will move to us in the next 10-20 years, because Hungary is a safe, Christian country proud of its traditions."
He added that "in European history, there was always a big profit for the receiving countries when immigrants came from the West", which is why Hungary also welcomes refugees, but only if they come from the West. Speaking about the war in Ukraine, he explained:

"Europe is currently supporting Ukraine in such a way that the continent is forced in the direction of an escalation spiral," and "if we do not stop this process, then we ourselves will end up in a war, although we have not wanted this so far. What the EU is doing now completely destroys its rational and geopolitical interests", the decisions on sanctions were "made solely on moral and emotional grounds".

He pointed out: even during his visit to Germany, he searched in vain for "the rational core of the German energy and sanctions policy".
When asked what Europe should do, he said that "wars can be started by weak statesmen, but strong ones are needed to initiate the peace process and end wars" , so hopefully the German government "sooner or later will grow into the role that Germany due to its European weight, it should actually fill it”. One can also hope that former US President Donald Trump and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will return.

He added:

the war "will not end with Ukrainian-Russian negotiations, for that American-Russian negotiations are also necessary, but as long as the two sides do not have a clear interest in peace, the war will continue."

He also said that the government "consciously does not raise" the "attacks" against the Hungarian minority in Ukraine and their rights, but this "does not mean that we suffer from amnesia" . After the war, a comprehensive agreement on Hungarian-Ukrainian cooperation guaranteeing the rights of the Hungarian minority must be concluded.

Regarding the future international role of the EU, he explained that "more EU is needed" in the security and defense policy, the community "must do much more in the military field for the sake of its own sovereignty" . The member states must also provide more money for armaments and defense, so the EU "could even fill the geopolitical space vacated by the withdrawal of the United States".

On the issue of EU subsidies, he highlighted

that the EU institutions are "used as a weapon" by the government's political opponents, "they are punishing us and obviously blackmailing us with EU money", which "has no legal basis, it is simply blackmail".
” the government does not want to argue, but to cooperate, so “we have no problem” with the implementation of the 17 points requested by the European Commission. "We will fulfill all of them. But I bet right after that there will be an 18th, a 19th, and so on.”

- said Viktor Orbán, adding: "I start from the assumption that after that there will always be more and more requests".
The Poles also "met everything", but "new demands were put on the table", explained the prime minister, adding: "it is clear that it is about forcing a change of government in Poland", and "ultimately, this may be the goal in the case of Hungary as well".

He highlighted:

"I assume that the money due to us will be released at the end of the year", since "we fully meet all technical requirements", so "soon there will be no reason to deny us funds for a long time". "I expect that we will be able to sign the contracts with the EU by the end of the year. However, I cannot say whether money will actually arrive", but "Hungary cannot be cornered financially"

Viktor Orbán said.

In our opening image: In the image published by the Prime Minister's Press Office, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán arrives at the summit of the leaders of the EU member states in Brussels on the second day of the meeting, on October 21, 2022. Behind him is Bertalan Havasi, head of the Prime Minister's Press Office. (Photo: MTI/Prime Minister's Press Office/Benko Vivien Cher)

MTI