On Friday on Kossuth Radio’s programme ‘Good morning, Hungary’, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán described the obtaining of the position of commissioner for enlargement and neighbourhood policy as the greatest diplomatic success of the past ten years.

He added that they will have to fight major battles when economic problems start emerging in the Eurozone. He took the view that we will see next year whether Hungary and Central Europe will be able to stand on their own feet and to achieve better results than some richer countries.

He recalled that the results of the past few years are, to a large extent, attributable to tax reductions; results such as that the country’s production is becoming ever more competitive, Hungary is able to sell ever more goods around the world, and wages, too, have increased significantly. Especially taxes paid by businesses have decreased considerably, by one third, he stressed.

He said many believe that Hungary’s success is purely down to the results of the European economy, while others take the view that there is something specifically Hungarian in it which “we can deliver even at times when the others are doing less well”.

The Prime Minister described the obtaining of the position of commissioner for enlargement and neighbourhood policy as the greatest diplomatic success of the past ten years. He said he cannot recall Hungary having been able to obtain such powerful influence in the EU in the past ten years as it has now done with the enlargement portfolio which he described as the next five years’ most important portfolio.

The tasks in hand include migration, security and also aspects of energy supply, he pointed out, as the Hungarian commissioner will be responsible for liaising with the Caucasus, including Azerbaijan.

He also said obtaining the commissioner’s position is an achievement “many of us” can take credit for, but not all Hungarians as many tried to prevent it. To this end, the opposition closed ranks in Brussels, and George Soros himself personally tried to prevent Olivér Várhelyi’s appointment.

He said he will never delegate to international positions people who are not good patriots and who are unable to reconcile this with their international mandate. He pointed out that the two are not incompatible. Olivér Várhelyi is an excellent patriot and a good European.

The migration debate, which in his view will be the most important issue of the coming five years, will have to be concluded well. He said in the past five years European leaders have made grave mistakes in two fields, with immigration and in the area of the economy. He said the Eurozone is in dire straits, it will face difficult years.

The German economy will only be able to reach a 1 per cent growth rate with some luck, and this will be not only the Germans’ problem, he stressed. In the Eurozone Brussels is pursuing a flawed economic policy, it has been unable to help nation states with good economic policies, “and we are now paying the price for that”.

Therefore, he said the most important task of 2020 will be the protection of the results of the Hungarian economy, and he described non-state players who are actively flooding Europe with immigrants as Europe’s opponents. He said it is for a reason that a financial speculator is the head of this movement.

In response to news reports that since 2014 the credit rating agency Moody’s has reported continuous and intensive economic growth which will also continue in the next two years, Mr Orbán said while the Hungarian growth rate is several times higher than the German, this does not mean that things are better over here as it is always more difficult to induce the growth of a richer country.

Mr Orbán said the idea that the payment of EU funds should be tied to criteria of the rule of law is nonsense; in his view, this will come to nothing.

Commenting on the position of Donald Tusk, the European People’s Party’s new leader that fundamental freedoms cannot be sacrificed at the altar of security, he said Fidesz expects the People’s Party to clarify its views and plans because as long as the Hungarian government party does not know what to expect it will continue to keep its membership suspended.

He pointed out that a Hungarian governing party cannot belong to a political community which is pro-immigration, which does not support border protection and the fence, which does not give the Hungarian people the respect they are entitled to, and which does not recognise Hungary’s efforts made in the interest of protecting Europe. There was a time when the People’s Party was different, but they have started drifting towards the left. The question is whether the new president will be able to stop this; “if not, then we will have to build another political community,” he added.

In the context of the recent meetings of the Hungarian Standing Conference and the Diaspora Council, Mr Orbán said Hungary must strengthen culture and build relations also in territories where Hungarian communities live in large numbers as “we are of the same blood, we belong together”.

In addition to spiritual cohesion, the economic leg of cohesion has also gained in strength in recent years, he stressed. In his view, we can forge an advantage out of the disadvantage of dispersion if Hungarians living in different parts of the world unite, combine their forces and create a network. According to him, it is thanks to this that the Hungarian economy is achieving its best results in trade with the neighbouring countries.

In consequence, the performance of the Hungarian economy is the economic performance of the Hungarian community living in the entire region, he said, criticising parties which turn Hungarians within and beyond the borders against one another. It is best if Hungarians in the neighbouring countries take care of their own political representation, he pointed out.

Regarding the recently inaugurated Puskás Arena, he said it is an enormous technical achievement that right from the beginning of planning all the way to completion all the work was done by Hungarians, meaning that the country has been able to accomplish one of the modern world’s largest projects by solely relying on its own resources. This was not always the case, he recalled. When the Budapest Sports Arena burnt down, there was not yet a single Hungarian company that could have been entrusted with the job of its reconstruction.

(MTI)