Hungary needs strong people to survive as the world’s foundations are starting to crumble, the Hungarian PM has said
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban covers his mouth as he arrives at the European Political Community (EPC) Summit in Bulboaca, on June 1, 2023. © Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP
Hungary is being pressed in several directions due to the Ukraine conflict and surge in migration, and must strive to overcome these challenges, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Faculty of Law Sciences at the National University of Public Administration, which was attended by future law enforcement officers, Orban stated that Hungarians “are living in times when the foundations of the world are shaking,” and the epicenter of this earthquake is located in the country’s neighborhood.
He pointed to the hostilities in Ukraine to the east, noting that “tens and hundreds of thousands of migrants from the south are besieging our borders.”
Against this backdrop, Hungary needs to have a strong government, economy, army, and law enforcement agencies, Orban said. “We must train and arm ourselves… strong people are greatly needed, because the truth is worth little without strength.”
Read more
“The time will come when weak nations will be lost and the strong will remain. Therefore, we must strengthen our own defense lines and law enforcement agencies every single day,” he added.
Orban has been critical both of the EU’s policies and the way the West has handled the Ukraine conflict. Earlier this week, he claimed that the bloc in its current state brings “neither peace nor prosperity” to its member states, pointing to the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev, as well as the “increasingly worrying state” of the economy.
Since the start of the Ukraine conflict, Budapest has repeatedly called on Kiev and Moscow to engage in negotiations, while refusing to provide weapons to Ukraine. Hungary has also dismissed the Western sanctions on Russia as counterproductive and detrimental to the EU economy.
