What happened in the European Parliament election is what we planned and wanted to achieve: we succeeded in slowing down Europe's drift into war, said the Hungarian Prime Minister in an exclusive interview with the public media.
Viktor Orbán gave an interview to m1 in which he evaluates Sunday's election. The prime minister said at the beginning of the conversation that the 44.6 percent result achieved by the governing parties was a European record. The Prime Minister announced that the 56-57 percent turnout shows that Hungarian democracy is alive and well.
"With the exception of the Maltese Labor Party, this is by far the largest support received by a political actor in Europe," he said.
He added: now more than two million people voted for them, and when they were at their best, only 1.8 million.
"If this had been a parliamentary election, the balance of power in terms of the number of mandates for the ruling party would be roughly the same as it is now in the Hungarian parliament," explained the Hungarian Prime Minister.
"In times of war, under such difficult conditions, with an excruciating year of war and inflation behind us, before the start of growth that creates good economic opportunities, in this situation, I say that beating 14 percent to the second is a decent result," he added.
Viktor Orbán also expressed the opinion that the European Parliament elections succeeded in slowing down the drift of European politicians into an ever-accelerating war,
which "can be stopped, because in France - which was the country that argued most strongly in favor of the war - a real political earthquake took place. A parliamentary election should be called there, and has already been called, since the peace supporters won with such great strength and a large proportion. If the pro-peace parties can also win the parliamentary elections, then I think we have won the first half. One zero here, in Europe the peace supporters have won".
The prime minister also expressed his opinion on the role of the opposition. As he said, when the elections started, he knew that the ruling parties would have to defeat two oppositions, the old and the new, and in the end they defeated both.
He indicated that there is a lot of work around the government's house, such as restarting the economy, to ensure that inflation and the issue of war and peace do not get unleashed again. He emphasized that our country must stay out of the war and deal with everyday tasks at the same time.
- If the two right-wing factions, the conservatives (ECR) and the Identity faction, agree and we join it, then it will be the second force in the EP - said Viktor Orbán in connection with the transformation of the power relations in Brussels.
If Le Pen and Meloni come to an agreement, it will be a new situation, but we have to wait another month, he said.
Viktor Orbán believed that the governing parties performed well in the municipal election, but not as well as he would have liked. In connection with the EP elections, however, he added: in times of war, winning 14 percent for second place is a good result.
He does not remember a single easy choice, success is not given easily - Viktor Orbán said. Regarding the mayoral election, he believed that if 3 candidates had remained standing, there would have been no chance for change.
He noted that there is stable and predictable government work in Hungary. In the West, 80 percent is concerned with creating the prerequisites for government work, while in our country 80 percent is government work, and the reason for this is that there is no coalition compulsion.
Viktor Orbán highlighted the fact that there is no athlete who always swims at the world record. But he also added: there is not a single party in Europe today that would not happily trade with us.
Cover photo: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gives an interview to the current channel M1 in the Karmelita monastery on June 10, 2024.
Source: MTI/Prime Minister's Press Office/Zoltán Fischer
