The contents of this website are no longer being updated. You can access all the latest Hungarian news in English formerly featured on the Hungary Matters website and daily newsletters at our refurbished mti.hu portal.

The must-have newsletter about Hungary

PEACE MARCH - ORBÁN: 'WE DO NOT WANT TO SHED BLOOD FOR UKRAINE, WE WILL NOT GO TO WAR'

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told participants of the Peace March in Budapest on Saturday that giving up on peace meant "choosing to die for the cause of Ukraine", but "we do not want to shed blood for Ukraine, we will not go to war, and we will not die for somebody else on foreign soil", he said.
 

In a speech delivered on Margaret Island, Orbán endorsed the candidates of the Fidesz-Christian Democrats alliance in the European Parliament election and said that Hungary could only stay out of the war if Hungarian voters backed up the government. “Do we want to shed Hungarian blood for Ukraine? No! We will not go to war, we will not die for somebody else on foreign soil,” Orbán said in his speech. Addressing the Peace March, organised by the Civic Union (COF) and its foundation COKA, Orbán said it would be impossible to hide from the war, and that the only antidote to war was peace. “Our mission is to stay out of the war and preserve Hungary as an island of peace,” Orbán said. He said evil was behind world wars and urged people not to give in. The time for exorcism has come, he added. “Either we win or they win. There is no third way, only a third world war,” he said. Orbán said there was no solution to the war on the battlefield and called for a ceasefire and peace talks.