In the mid-2010s, the Hungarian defence industry was declared a key national economic area with the goal of providing Hungarian-made state-of-the-art defence equipment to the renewed Hungarian armed forces and make Hungary an arms exporter. Since then several major international companies have announced plans to bring their manufacturing and development capacity to the country.
In the interview, President of the Republic Katalin Novák underscored Hungary’s key role in protecting the EU’s Schengen border, highlighted the Hungarian government’s unique family policy, stressed the importance of starting peace talks to end the war on Ukraine, and reiterated Hungary’s support for Israel.
President Novák emphasized that the Hungarian diaspora in Australia serves as a good example of it an immigrant group contributing to the development of the host country while preserving its roots and heritage. The Hungarians who settled in Australia became loyal Australians while holding onto their Hungarian identity, the President underscored.
The growing threat of terror in Europe is a direct consequence of the migration policy forced by Brussels, which has resulted in parallel societies in a number of Western European countries, the Hungarian foreign minister said. He also noted the sanctions against Russia, which he said resulted in ‘a continual crisis of energy security’.
The largest national minority living in the capital city is the Chinese; while the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war led to the Ukrainians becoming the second largest minority in Budapest.
While the largest German paper Bild took a sympathetic tone toward refugees back in 2015, that has since changed. On 29 October, they published a 50-point anti-migration manifesto in which they proclaim, among other things, that ‘anyone who considers our constitution and our legal system a collection of non-binding recommendations should leave Germany as soon as possible,’ and ‘anyone who wants to live here permanently must learn German’.
While in recent weeks Europe was shocked by a series of violent antisemitic protests sparked by the events in the Middle East, the ones in Dagestan, Russia stand out, as they echo the dark history of pogroms.
Hungary’s interests lie in peace, the Hungarian foreign minister said, adding that this was the reason why the government considered it important to take part in the work of the OTS, as the Turkic states ‘always stand by peaceful settlements and reducing the risk of escalation’.
When the Soviet intervention against the Hungarian Revolution was placed on the agenda of the UN Security Council, the Soviets immediately vetoed it: their argument was that it was no more than a ‘reactionary uprising’ supported by the US. The French, meanwhile, were of the view that not only the UN Charter had been contravened in Hungary, but also the Paris Peace Treaties, and even the Warsaw Pact that served the legal foundation for the invasion. On the other hand, the United Kingdom questioned whether the use of Soviet military forces stationed in Hungary under a valid treaty and at the behest of the Hungarian government could even be called an intervention at all.
German Green MEP Daniel Freund thought that 23 October was the right time to publish the report on Hungary by the EP’s so-called Supervisory Body. He is proud to have been involved in its preparation, which is a shared pleasure for all of us, as his involvement is a guarantee that the document cannot be taken seriously.