Orbán: Hungary supports a Europe that should be able to defend itself independently
The prime minister said Hungary supported armament aiming to ensure European security.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Hungary's parliament has declared that the country continues to support a Europe that should be able to defend itself independently.
Speaking at the House of Hungarians in Brussels ahead of a meeting of the Patriots for Europe party group, PM Orbán said Hungary supported armament aiming to ensure European security.
'The question is where the money will come from. We propose that everyone puts in money from their own coffers. Funds should not come from a joint European loan. We do not want to be burdened with joint debts with anyone,' he said.
Money should be held in a joint European security fund, PM Orbán said. 'Hungary is ready and able' to do that, he added.
Thursday's summit will, in part, focus on Ukraine's EU membership, 'which some will try to rush, but Hungary definitively opposes that', he said.
PM Orbán said that 'so far if we break it down to families and households, the war has cost 2.5 million forints [EUR 6,280] each. The costs of [Ukraine's] EU accession would immediately come to 500,000 forints per household. We don't want to shoulder that, so we will stick to our stance,' he added.
Regarding migration, PM Orbán said that 'rebelling prime ministers who disagree with the migration policy and want to change it' would gather ahead of the summit on Thursday.
The summit would see 'an open conspiracy headed by the Italians aiming to curb the flow of illegal migrants,' he said.
Fielding questions in English, PM Orbán said Hungary did not support EU monies being disbursed to Ukraine, adding that 'in our understanding, there is one simple mission [for] the European Union, to support … President Donald Trump's efforts to make peace.'
He said he was representing Hungarians' opinions who believed strongly that all efforts should go towards brokering peace.
'We are losing lives [by the] thousands which is totally against our values.' The war is also very expensive, PM Orbán said, 'creating higher energy price, the bonds' interest rates went up, and we lost export possibilities in Russia.'
Asked whether he would ban the Pride March in Hungary, he said: 'We are not there yet… We changed the constitution [to say] that the basic rights of the kids, to have the proper growing up and education is which is well ahead of all the other basic rights of the citizens of Hungary. That's what we have done, which could be the basis to ban anything that could be against the interests of the children. What we are doing is to protect our children,' Orban said.
Organizers of the Pride March will have to turn to the authorities and await their decision, he said.
He also emphasised that no one would be arrested at such an event. However, they would be fined, he said. 'If you break the law, you have to pay.'
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