Hungarian Conservative

The foreign minister emphasised right after winter, ‘in Europe, it is fashionable to strut about with great bravado these days,’ but the International Energy Agency recently issued an ‘ominous’ report indicating that the most severe difficulties are expected to come in the next heating season when supply security will be critical.

After reviewing the energy situation at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the government determined that all necessary resources are at its disposal to keep in place the utility cost reduction programme for households with average energy consumption.

The Hungarian foreign minister reminded that the rights of Transcarpathian Hungarians have been systematically curtailed in Ukraine since 2015, and the most recent example of this is that minority schools have become impossible to operate since September this year.

MFAT State Secretary Levente Magyar stated after inaugurating the Zahalca kindergarten near Kyiv that the new building ‘is a serious sign and indicator of how significantly Hungary is present in the reconstruction of Ukraine.’

With Finland’s accession, NATO will become stronger, and as Finland becomes a safer place through membership, Sweden’s security environment will also improve and bring the country closer to full integration.

The minister emphasised that the current situation is lethal for Europe’s competitiveness, with gas prices seven times higher than in the United States and electricity three times higher than in China. ‘Under the current circumstances, the solution is to focus on the supply side instead of the demand and bring as much gas to the European market as possible,’ he nailed down.

Viktor Orbán stated that the war is becoming increasingly violent and brutal. He remarked that it would be natural for more and more people to stand for peace as a result, but he does not see this intention among the majority of EU leaders.

Hungarians will continue to provide assistance to Turkish people affected by the recent earthquake, Katalin Novák, President of Hungary said at a joint press conference held in Ankara on Wednesday with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey, following their meeting.

Two Russian ministries proposed that the Russian President issue a decree suspending agreements on the avoidance of double taxation with all countries that introduced unilateral economic sanctions against Russia during the war.

Máté Kocsis wrote on Facebook: ‘Hungary is a committed member of NATO and the European Union, so we will do everything in our power to promote and maintain peace, and the Finnish people can count on us in this regard. We Hungarians have a special historical friendship with Finland, our allies.’

On Saturday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited Belgrade, for talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

‘We are waiting for Swedish government officials to reassure members of the Hungarian parliament; our goal is to support Sweden’s NATO accession with the largest possible parliamentary majority, similarly to Finland’s,’ the political director of the prime minister said.

‘Let us not forget that while most of the world has rightly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, twenty years ago the United States invaded Iraq on false information that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein not only possessed weapons of mass destruction, but that he had a direct link to and was harbouring al-Qaeda terrorists…The tragic results cost several thousand US soldiers’ lives.’

Ukraine has proven to be quite willing to turn a blind eye to the transgressions of China for very pragmatic reasons. It seems practical stances in foreign policy are allowed after all, until some powerful figures in politics and media choose to stir up some selective outrage.

Warsaw eagerly supported the USG commitment to increase American military presence in the region right from the start, as the country has been pushing for a stronger stance on Russia for years. With the additional 1,700 US troops that Poland welcomed this year, now there are 10, 000 American soldiers stationed in the country.

Hungary did not veto a joint EU statement on Putin’s arrest warrant, the MFAT’s spokesperson stated on Monday evening. ‘Hungary has taken note of the ICC decision and does not wish to comment on it in any way,’ Máté Paczolay said.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade was in Brussels to take part in the European Humanitarian Forum, where he talked about the excessive efforts Hungary has made to help over 1 million Ukrainian refugees, and another 1 million persecuted Christians around the world.

Last week’s invitation of the French President shows that despite Hungary having disputes with the European Union and the EU funds due to our country are being withheld, the Hungarian Prime Minister is not at all an isolated actor in European political life.

‘We believe in connectivity, relationships, and cooperation based on mutual respect. I think the Organization of Turkic States is an excellent example of all this because it includes Caucasians, Central Asians, and Europeans, and we all know how to cooperate with respect,’ Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told the audience at an event in Ankara, Turkey.

Snubbing Hungary is a telltale sign that Czech President Petr Pavel has issues with the Hungarian government as well as with the V4 cooperation.

The Prime Minister said that the rebuilding of Russian-European economic relations after the war would be desirable, but it is unlikely to happen any time soon.

Hungarian leaders have been constantly calling for peace negotiations. By contrast, the US government has been sending tens of billions of dollars in military aid and weapons to Ukraine, with the goal of helping the aggrieved nation against expansionist Russia, but also prolonging the armed conflict in the process.

The working dinner was held at the Élysée Palace, where Macron received the Hungarian Prime Minister in front of the press at around 7:30 p.m.

Regrettably, the US-led West’s  ‘war fever’ Orbán spoke about has profound roots. A clear example of this was what led to the First World War.

Romania has joined Budapest in criticising some of Kyiv’s policies. Bucharest has raised ecological concerns over Ukraine’s plan to continue to dredge the Danube Delta to increase its volume of trade through the Bystroye Canal.

Ukraine’s hunger for ammunition is almost impossible to meet, while NATO is running low on stocks. Hungary, meanwhile, is strengthening its own military.

‘The pro-peace stance of Hungarians remains unchanged and the majority reject proposals that carry the risk of making peace impossible,’ Századvég wrote in an analysis of the responses to their recent poll.

In his regular Friday morning interview on public radio, the Prime Minister said that he believes this is the closest the world has ever been ‘to a localised war turning into a world war’.

‘The significance of Western arms donations is grossly overestimated. This is not helped by a Western press that has sunk to the level of the Pravda, stifling even the slightest attempts at sober analysis and objective discussion.’

‘We cannot effectively support women until we take into account that most of them are or will become mothers,’ President Novák said, emphasising that she herself is a mother of three. She added: ‘We can command armies, govern states, but we are truly indispensable only to our own families. There, and only there, are we irreplaceable.’