In a Christmas interview with Magyar Nemzet newspaper, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave a gloomy assessment of Europe’s future, warning that a scenario in which 2025 could be the last year of peace on the continent cannot be ruled out. The very fact that such a question is being asked today, he says, shows how much Europe has changed.
Orbán reminded that the European peace after the Second World War lasted almost eight decades, which, as he points out, is a historical exception. “We are used to peace. The last major war in Europe ended in 1945, and 80 years have passed since then,” he said.
According to him, it was the fear of a nuclear conflict that prevented new wars for decades, but that deterrent mechanism no longer works as it used to. “That fear worked for eighty years, but now a completely new world is emerging,” he warned.
Europe between war and peace
Speaking about the recent summit of the European Union in Brussels, Orbán assessed that the Union is currently not moving towards calming the conflict, but towards its escalation. “We have moved closer to war. Last week in Brussels, we only managed to slow down the pace at which Europe is sliding into war,” he said, adding that some member states wanted to further speed up that process.
In his judgment, Europe is once again deeply divided. “There are two camps in Europe today: war and peace. At the moment, the forces advocating war prevail. Brussels wants war, Hungary wants peace,” he repeated.
A missed opportunity in 2022
The Hungarian Prime Minister claims that Europe’s involvement in the war in Ukraine was not inevitable. “In February 2022, Europe could have sent a peacekeeping mission to Moscow and Kiev and not declared this conflict its own war. If that had happened, we would not be living in the shadow of war today,” he said.
He cited the role of the United States of America as a turning point. “The intervention of the Biden administration ruled in favor of the war camp,” he said, adding that the new American president now advocates peace, which he sees as a warning to Europe not to tie its strategic decisions to American domestic political cycles, reports Jutranji list.
In the interview, Orbán was extremely critical of the functioning of the European Union. He believes that the Union is in the process of disintegration, while at the same time the “imperial ambitions of the Brussels bureaucracy” are strengthening.
He described the situation with a metaphor: “It’s like a weightlifter who lifts a weight, but can’t stand it up and ends up dropping it.”
As an example, he cited the green transition, which he claims was imposed against the will of the member states and has seriously damaged European industry, especially the chemical and automotive sectors. He also recalled the plan to ban internal combustion engines from 2035, from which, as he says, Brussels is already partially withdrawing, similar to the migration policy.
He warned that without thorough reforms, the Union faces an irreversible process of disintegration. “If there is not rapid and profound change, we will reach a point of no return,” he said.
Economic consequences and the cost of war
He admitted that Hungary is also feeling the consequences of the war. “Our economy is suffering both because of the war and because of the weakening of the European Union. The EU’s sanctions policy killed European industry. Energy prices today are two to three times higher than those of our competitors,” he said.
He also referred to the proposal for a 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine, stressing that Hungary is not participating in it. “That would finance two more years of war,” he said.
Speaking about the human cost of the conflict, he presented hard numbers. “About nine thousand people drop out of the fighting on both sides a week. That’s 400 thousand a year. In two years – 800 thousand dead or permanently disabled. Who dares to take moral responsibility for that?” he asked.
(Vijesti.ba)
