Today at 18:40
Tibor Tampa at UATV English and what does Ukrainian Hungarian society think of Viktor Orban? Why does Orban always steps back with his veto threats? Fico induced Slovakia’s energy crisis to benefit the Kremlin – is that true?
— How big is the Hungarian community in Ukraine after all?
— Unfortunately, today, only not more than 100 persons, according to the last survey. But we had more than 100 persons before the wider Russian aggression in Kyiv and Kharkiv regions.
— All right. Well, anyway, we know that there are not many Hungarians in Ukrainian society now, but there are people, and they certainly have their opinions. So, what does the Ukrainian Hungarian community think of Viktor Orbán?
— Unfortunately, Viktor Orbán has made Hungarians ashamed, and he is a scoundrel. Unfortunately, he has done a lot of bad things thanks to his attitudes and actions. Orbán doesn’t understand, he doesn’t know what it means to be Hungarian in Ukraine. Unfortunately, he is a Russian ally economically and ideologically.
Orbán now finances Russian aggression by buying natural resources from Russia.
This is maybe the only European country supporting, economically financing Russian aggression in the whole of Europe.
— Yeah, I absolutely agree. Of course, I know the facts. But you said that Viktor Orbán doesn’t know something. I cannot agree with that. I think Viktor Orbán knows exactly what he’s doing, and he is acting in terms of his own wealth and money.
— Viktor Orbán is a populist and a nationalist and pro-Russian Hungarian leader who has a history of performatively threatening. He performs like threatening to play his veto card—“I’m going to veto this, I’m going to veto that”—but then he steps back. Every time, he steps back. And when European society is almost afraid, as it actually is because of Viktor Orbán’s veto, he steps back.
— Why is that?
— Very simple. Because Viktor Orbán has Kremlin’s support. He has had allies for more than 10 or 15 years and has very close ties with Putin and the Russians. But not only Orbán, but all his government. Péter Szijjártó, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, visits Russia and Belarus almost every time. By the way, Hungary is the only country, led by Orbán, that supported the last anti-democratic elections in Belarus.
— Really? So he said he supports them, but does that mean Hungarian people are okay with that? They just say, “Okay, Orbán said it, so maybe Belarus has a properly elected president.” My question is, Hungarian people can certainly protest if they are against Orbán. Why is nothing happening there?
— It’s also a very simple answer.
By the way, Orbán is not only anti-democratic but neo-fascist—really neo-fascist.
Unfortunately, today, a lot of young Hungarian people are emigrating from Hungary because they don’t have any prospects or opportunities to realize their potential. Unfortunately, Orbán has a very narrow-minded electoral base: narrow-minded voters, first of all people aged 60 and 65 plus, with seven or eight years of basic education, uneducated, and without the young population in Hungary.
— If I say that Robert Fico induced Slovakia’s energy crisis to benefit the Kremlin, would you agree with that?
— Yes. Fico is the same as Orbán, but he has a little bit less influence in Slovakia than Orbán. He would like to benefit, and by the way, all money from natural gas in Hungary is directed to propaganda.
All this money is used for propaganda to feed low-educated people.
— And it’s working, isn’t it?
— Unfortunately, yeah. It’s really working. By the way, Hungary has natural gas reserves for the population ten times more than Ukraine, but unfortunately today, we have a very passive Hungary, which is broken into two parts: Budapest, big cities, and the provincial parts, which Orbán really controls.
Read also: Russian Sea War: Sabotage in the Baltics. Interview with Ivan Stupak
