Brussels is captive to George Soros’s network and the Soros network is an integral part of European institutions, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public radio in an interview on Friday. The Soros network “is so well established” that European institutions finance their operations from it, he added. He said the European Commission, the European Parliament and “a fair number of prime ministers are clearly backed by Soros”. The Soros network “built up over the last 30 years” hampers the representation of the opinion of Europeans, the prime minister said.
Regarding Ukrainian grain, Orbán said that although Hungary generally supports trade, investment and economic cooperation, it rejects Ukrainian grain imports to Europe as Brussels had set bureaucratic and rigid rules for European farmers while “there are no such regulations in place in Ukraine”, giving the country “a big competitive advantage”. Hungary, he said, was among 6-7 European countries that produced more food than they consumed, and customers in western Europe were buying cheap Ukrainian grain instead of Hungarian farmers’ produce. “We’re making strenuous efforts to find markets for the Hungarian stocks before the next harvest,” he said, slamming Brussels for “turning a blind eye” to this problem. “Brussels is in the heat of war. Ukraine is more important for them than the European farmers,” said Orbán, insisting that Brussels should either ban Ukrainian grain imports or employ the same loose regulations to Hungarian farmers as it applies to Ukraine.
The prime minister said that “although the European Union has been set up with the aim of ensuring peace and wellbeing”, Europe was now pervaded “by war and poor-being”. “People are basically negative towards Brussels bureaucrats. Not towards the European Union, because everybody supports the ideal of cooperation… The problem is with Brussels bureaucrats.”
The prime minster was also asked about his ruling Fidesz party’s plans regarding Budapest after the party’s Budapest chapter named Alexandra Szentkirályi, a government spokesperson, as their candidate for Budapest mayor in the upcoming municipal election. Orbán, referring to the leader of the Democratic Coalition, Ferenc Gyurcsány, called for “Gyurcsány’s people” to be frozen out of circles influencing the capital’s administration. “The people who ruined the country before 2010 are all doing business in the capital, and their politics is the same as during their administration,” he said. “Those who bankrupted Hungary are now bankrupting the capital,” Orbán said, adding that this was why “the coffers are empty, even though Budapest was once the richest city in Hungary”. In the municipal elections held in June, hopefully a mayor would be elected who could prevent the capital’s complete bankruptcy, he added. Orbán said Budapest was important for him and he was keen to address issues important for the city’s residents. “But today there is no more important question for them than whether the Hungarian left can achieve that Brussels takes away part of the high wages given to kindergarten and school teachers.”