Viktor Orbán delivered his remarks at the annual Bálványos Free Summer University and Student Camp in Romania’s Băile Tușnad, located in the western region of Romania with a significant Hungarian ethnic minority presence.
He criticized Poland for continuing to deal in Russian energy commodities but also accused Warsaw of trying to realign the balance of power in Europe: away from the Berlin-Paris axis and toward an alliance of Warsaw, London, Kyiv, the Baltic States, and Scandinavia.
Over the past years, Orbán delivered several addresses at the event which many, including some Romanians, perceived as “revisionist”. As Radio Free Europe assessed, his Băile Tușnad appearances display “political vision without the diplomatic wrapping.”
The Hungarian Prime Minister believes that such a realignment would lead to the weakening of the Visegrad Group (V4, a regional group made up of Poland Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia), which, according to him, was meant to serve as a third power situated between Germany and Russia.
Orbán, whose country now holds the rotating EU presidency, had butted heads with many other European leaders over his slow crackdown on civil society, independent media, and political opposition, while at the same time displaying unwillingness to provide support for Ukraine and preferring to align with Moscow.
Referring to his recent, and widely criticized, ‘peace mission’, the Hungarian PM called it his “Christian duty,” and further said that the European Union should abandon its mission as an economic project, and refocus on being a defense one that would have to accept Central European countries leading their own, sovereign policies.
Europe: ‘open-air museum’
Orbán believes that there are two paths Europe can choose from, one in which it becomes “an open-air museum,” for all of the world to marvel at but devoid of actual life, or an alternative akin to one offered by French President Emmanuel Macron, that would make it strategically autonomous.
“Attracting U.S. capital, implementing substantial changes as a part of a European military alliance and energetic self-sufficiency”, as well as “making peace with Russia after the war,” should be the EU’s priorities according to Hungary’s prime minister.
“The EU must abandon its political project and strengthen its economy,” Orbán said, adding that “Ukraine will not become a member of NATO or the EU, because there is no money for that.
While saying that Europe is turning into “an open-air museum,” Orbán also said that the world’s center of weight is drifting away from the West and shifting toward Asia, marking the beginning of an imminent “change to the global system.”
“Asia has the demographic, capital, and technological advantage,” Orbán said, adding that “Trump is working on finding America's response to this situation.”
Orbán spoke of the former U.S. president and current Republican party candidate for the highest U.S. office as someone who understands the current challenges and wants to bring peace to Ukraine, as well as return the U.S. to being a nation-state, which is why, as Orbán said, “the Democrats want to
kill him.”
Trump at the gates
The Hungarian leader, who has recently met with Donald Trump at his Florida residence, said that Trump’s return to the White House is the imminent outcome of the November elections, and that “if Europe has not switched to a policy of peace by then, then after [Trump’s] victory, [Europe] will have to do so after admitting its defeat.”
Orbán believes that the sanctions applied against the Kremlin have been ineffective and that Russia has adapted to the new situation, claiming that “Russia is not an autocracy in the technical, economic, or sociological sense,” and that it is in fact “a very flexible country.”
