Although Hungary disagrees with other EU countries on a number of issues, this does not mean isolation, the prime minister said. Isolation implies that someone stays away from common decision making; Hungary, however, takes part in all decisions that determine the future of the community, he added.
While belonging to a community and therefore not being isolated, Hungary is arguing at full strength against the formation of blocks, Orbán said, noting that whenever military or economic blocks had been formed over the past thousand years, Hungary ended up on the loser’s side. “If there are blocks, we are the eastern periphery of the Western world. If there is East-West cooperation, we are the centre of the world,” he said.
Orbán called the rule-of-law procedure designed by Brussels a failure, saying that rule of law would require clear definitions and standards, ones that are missing from Europe because of the different cultures and traditions. Orbán said he did not question the good intentions behind the creation of the rule-of-procedure but added that it “is in fact dismantling and disintegrating the European Union”. If the question is raised in the form whether we remain Hungarians and fight, then we will remain Hungarians and fight, he said.
Asked about foreign support for the left-wing media, Orbán said he saw no difference between left-wing parties and the media. It follows, he said, that this support qualifies as political support.
Orban said “we oppose all sanctions. We are generally against the policy of sanctions. If it were up to us, there were no policy of sanctions at all”. This instrument, he added, could only be used in a narrower, more targeted and more carefully planned way. Hungary has not supported and would not support the EU packages either in the future but “we cannot veto them at every moment without destroying the community of the EU”, he said. Concerning the 18 billion euro support for Ukraine, Orbán called it a “bad solution” that the financial assistance was not provided on an intergovernmental basis but through the EU institutions. Hungary did not support the idea of a debt community, he said, adding that finally an intermediate solution was found.