Latest news with #Hungarians'
Budapest Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Budapest Times
Hungarian government to provide aid to Praid and every Hungarian living there
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the Hungarian government will provide exhaustive aid 'not only to Praid [Parajd in Transylvania] but to all the Hungarians living there'. 'Praid is a part of Hungarians' national identity,' PM Orbán said in an interview with public radio on Friday in connection with the recent natural disaster that hit Praid's salt mines. 'They love the place as their own; it almost belongs to us… What happens there feels as if it happened to us. It's painful,' he said, adding that many people stood ready to help in the aftermath of the disaster. 'But for now, the situation is very difficult, almost hopeless,' he said. In addition to the disaster in Praid, floods in the Haromszek region had created a serious situation and 'Hungarians there will also need help', he said. Meanwhile, PM Orbán said Romania's ethnic Hungarian RMDSZ party was 'a well-organised, strong party which promotes Hungarian interests, not only politically but economically, too.' He said he was in contact with RMDSZ leader Hunor Kelemen and had promised all the aid necessary.
Budapest Times
26-05-2025
- Business
- Budapest Times
Hungarians' heating bills would quadruple and electricity bills double if Russian energy ruled out, PM says
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview with public radio on Friday that Hungarians' heating bills would quadruple and electricity bills double if the Ukrainians' plan to prevent European Union member states from buying Russian energy pans out. PM Orbán said it would cost Hungary an additional HUF 800bn a year if the country had to replace its energy from Russia with other sources. He added that the amount was equivalent to the annual government support for the regulated utilities price scheme for households. PM Orbán said the majority of EU member states had adopted energy policies that made hurting Russia, and thus helping Ukraine, a priority, rather than supporting their own countries' families and businesses. Hungary is opposed to that position and is clashing with the member states that take it, PM Orbán said. He added that the government would not allow sanctions on Russian energy to be extended to Hungary. PM Orbán said the Ukrainians were behind the policies to raise energy prices, adding that it wasn't unreasonable to speak about 'Ukrainian energy threats'.
Budapest Times
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Budapest Times
FM: Remarks by Ukrainian agent expelled from Hungary are unacceptable
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said in Budapest on Wednesday that the remarks of Roland Tseber, 'the Ukrainian agent expelled from Hungary', where he called the ruling Fidesz party 'cornered rats', are 'unacceptable'. Responding to questions at a press conference after the meeting of the Organisation of Turkic States in Budapest, Minister Szijjártó said the activity of Ukrainian spies and secret services had picked up lately, 'even as Kyiv's anti-Hungarian propaganda is becoming increasingly aggressive.' 'We are responding with the tools at our disposal … we shall protect Hungary's sovereignty and honour,' he said. 'The atrocious post on social media, by a man whom the leader of the Tisza party has called his brother, fits into the line of that string of espionage and secret service activity,' Minister Szijjártó said. 'It's a threat and will have to be taken seriously. I think it is a shame that the Hungarian member of the European People's Party, the Tisza party and its leader are cooperating with a man like that.' Commenting on Hungary's transparency law, Minister Szijjártó said the European Parliament 'should rather be concerned with attempts of grievous external influence into the domestic affairs of Hungary, an EU member state.' 'We are not going to suffer assaults on our sovereignty from foreign-financed people conducting foreign-financed activities, trying to influence Hungarian voters' will and Hungarians' opinion, or — heaven forbid — the result of the elections.' Minister Szijjártó insisted that a similar foreign influence had been detected during the 2022 elections, 'and those behind it then have obviously started working again. They clearly want to discredit Hungarians' opinion on Ukraine's EU membership, and influence Hungarian voters' will at the next elections,' he said. 'We would like to put everyone's mind at ease. We will protect our sovereignty, put the transparency act through, and prevent attempts by foreign-funded agents, organisations and people to influence Hungarians' opinions…' he said.
Budapest Times
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Budapest Times
Orbán: Ukraine's EU membership is the greatest danger today
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Ukraine's EU membership is the greatest danger today. Speaking to an audience of several thousand at an event called 'Fighters' Club – The Beginning' in Budapest on Sunday, PM Orbán said it was no news that Hungary was under attack as the 'Brussels bureaucrats', 'led by Soros', had attacked Hungary before. He said the situation was more difficult now because 'they had been joined by the Ukrainians'. 'Ukraine's EU membership is the greatest danger today,' he said, adding that he understood them since 'their country, which was already dysfunctional and bankrupt before the war, had been ruined'. He said the Ukrainians could not stand on their own feet, 'they need other people's money,' this is why they want to access the European Union 'at once and at any cost'. PM Orbán said the Ukrainians did not care that they would bring the war into the EU, that they would ruin the farmers and make Hungary a gateway for the Ukrainian mafia, but 'we, Hungarians, do care,' he added. 'We do not want them to drag us into the war, to ruin our farmers and turn Europe's safest country into a mafia nest, and we do not want the Hungarians' money to be sent to them through Brussels,' he said. PM Orbán said this was what the Ukrainian secret service smear campaign organised against Hungary and funded from abroad ' was about, and this is why Brussels wanted to see a 'pro-Ukrainian Tisza-Dobrev coalition' in office in Hungary. He said maybe Ukraine's EU membership would be a good thing for the West, but it would be bad for us, adding that we live here next door, 'they will be storming our borders, take our jobs, and take our money away,' he said. 'We must and we will resist,' PM Orbán said.
Budapest Times
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Budapest Times
FM: Campaign to discredit Hungary has ratcheted up in Ukraine
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said a campaign to discredit Hungary has ratcheted up in Ukraine ever since Hungary made clear that it will not supply weapons or money to Kyiv, adding that neither will it agree to cease energy cooperation with Russia. No information had been revealed, either formally or informally, in recent days proving Kyiv's espionage charges, Minister Szijjártó said in response to a question at a joint press conference with his Rwandan counterpart, insisting Hungary had been confronted by a 'state-financed and controlled campaign of discreditation' and was on the receiving end of a 'propaganda attack'. Talks on the rights of the Hungarian national minority in Transcarpathia had been planned for today, he noted, adding that 'the intensifying campaign to discredit Hungarians' made the timing of the meeting unsuitable. Minister Szijjártó said the Hungarian government has stood up for the rights of the Hungarian minority consistently since 2015, yet 'the left wing-press start worrying for Transcarpathian Hungarians' when coordination talks are cancelled in the midst of the propaganda attack. This, he added, amounted to 'double standards'. 'Obviously we want to continue coordination talks with the Ukrainians about Transcarpathian Hungarians … as the Ukrainians have been making promises for ten years while cheating us for ten years and steadily taking away Hungarians' rights. You can rest assured that a change to Ukraine's anti-Hungarian policy … won't depend on this single coordination meeting.' Meanwhile, Minister Szijjártó said that when war was being waged in a neighbouring country, it was natural to carry out preparations for self-defence. 'We have maintained this policy for three years: to protect Hungary from the war, to stay out of the war, not to allow them to provoke us into getting involved in a war underway next door,' he said. 'And when a war is underway in the neighbourhood, you must be prepared to protect yourself. That requires an army and capabilities, and the Zrinyi 2026 scheme was not launched only recently, but the development of Hungary's armed forces has been on the agenda for quite a few years, as we must be able to protect ourselves. Unfortunately, the current situation makes this all the more clear,' he said. Commenting on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's recent remarks regarding the presidential election in Romania, he asked what it was that the prime minister should have said in the current situation. 'That we will not cooperate with Romania's next president? Really? So someone says that he should say just that, and that should be the government's foreign policy?'. 'We always aim for the best possible cooperation with a country where a huge ethnic Hungarian community lives because recent years have proven for everyone that when Hungary and a neighbouring country maintain good relations, it is best for the local Hungarians. So it is natural that when a presidential election is underway in a neighbouring country, we respect it,' he added. Concerning the future, he said the government would not accept any curtailment of the rights of ethnic Hungarians and it would resolutely stand up for ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania and Szekler Land, regardless of who the negotiating partner is. He said all steps would be coordinated with the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) as they represented local Hungarians there.
