Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made new controversial statements while at the Summer University at Baile Tusnad, Romania. Russia’s leadership is “hyper-rational”, and Ukraine will never be able to fulfill its dream of becoming a member of the EU or NATO, claimed the PM Viktor Orban, in his speech at Băile Tuşnad, reports Reuters.
The Hungarian premier believes that Russia will gain as the West becomes increasingly “irrational” and loses its power, and the center of world power will move to Asia.
Viktor Orban predicted a shift in global power from the “irrational” West to Asia and Russia. “In the next long decades, maybe centuries, Asia will be the dominant center of the world,” Orban said, mentioning China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia as the world’s future great powers. “And we, the Westerners, also pushed the Russians into this block”, he told ethnic Hungarians at the Summer University of Băile Tuşnad. Orban, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, has distanced himself sharply from the rest of the bloc by seeking closer ties with Beijing and Moscow and angered some European leaders when he made surprise visits to Kiev, Moscow and Beijing this week. month, for discussions regarding the war in Ukraine.
He stated that, in contrast to the “weakness” of the West, Russia’s position in world affairs was rational and predictable, saying that the country had shown economic flexibility and adapted to Western sanctions since the invasion of Crimea in 2014.
At the same time, Viktor Orban, whose government has adopted a series of anti-LGBT measures, has argued that Russia has gained influence in many parts of the world precisely by tightening LGBTQ+ rights. “The strongest international aspect of Russia’s soft power is its opposition to LGBTQ,” he pointed out.
On the other hand, Ukraine will never become a member of the European Union or NATO, because “we, the Europeans, do not have enough money for that”, said the Prime Minister of Hungary. “The EU must give up its identity as a political project and become an economic and defense project,” Orban said.
The Hungarian PM put three other topics on the table. The first would be – as the Hungarian website Index reports – the war and its unforeseen consequences, the second is what will happen with this war – when and how it will end, plus what will happen afterwards. And the third topic is the new world that is foreshadowing and how to prepare for it.
“Hungary must face this new world as a whole, with all Hungarians, and this must also be discussed in front of Hungarians abroad,” Orban stressed, adding that the war had revealed the real situation in Europe. “We are the longest-serving government in Europe. I will tell you about what I saw, about what I experienced. Whether I got it or not, that’s what we’ll see at the end,” he said, then referring to the movie Matrix and the famous red and blue pills: “War is our red pill – who takes it down in reality. This is what we have, this is what we have to swallow.”
According to Orban, war is a consequence of politics and brings a completely different perspective – we are now in a new environment where ideologies lose their power and what remains is pure and brutal reality.
Romanian PM Ciolacu: “What should I do to him? It’s his business”
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu was asked, on Sunday, about the praise for the “hyper-rational Russian” leadership and about the new attacks on the EU launched from Romania by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
“Did you want me to ban them from coming to Romania?” Ciolacu reacted. “His business. Did he say anything about Romania?” Ciolacu retorted, when asked how he related to Viktor Orban’s speech at Băile Tușnad.
When it was pointed out that the statements were made in Romania, Ciolacu replied: “What can I do to him? Did you want me to ban them from coming to the territory of Romania? He said the same thing from Brussels and from Budapest. It’s not my job.”
Maybe we should listen to the Magyar. Based on his origins he might sense something deeper in the mater of coexistence.