Moscow: The European Union's self-defeating Russia sanctions policy has been a point of contention for the Hungarian prime minister for months. In addition, Budapest has vehemently advocated for urgent peace talks between Moscow and the West to end the security crisis and rejected any transfer of NATO military hardware to Ukraine via Hungary. At a closed-door meeting of his ruling Fidesz party on Wednesday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban criticised the European Union's Russia sanctions policy and demanded that restrictions be lifted, according to the Magyar Nemzet newspaper.
The prime minister reportedly stressed that the security crisis in Ukraine has changed from a local conflict into a "global economic war" that he expects to last through the rest of 2022 and into 2023 at a meeting in the Hungarian resort town of Balatonalmadi where policy guidelines were distributed to members of Orban's ruling parliamentary faction.
The Fidesz lawmakers were given strict instructions by the Hungarian prime minister to exert every effort to have Brussels change its mind about the sanctions against Russia by the end of the year, "at the latest." Additionally, Orban claimed that "bureaucrats in Brussels and [Hungarian-American billionaire George] Soros' NGOs" were working to restore Ferenc Gyurcsany to power, the former prime minister and leader of the opposition Democratic Coalition Party.
The prime minister emphasised that energy security was not a concern for his nation. There will be enough petroleum, natural gas, and electricity, he assured. Plans from the government also include a 200 billion forint (€493.5 million) programme to help energy-intensive small and medium-sized businesses and other enterprises weather the energy crisis as well as subsidies to help families through lower utility, firewood, and coal prices.
Orban has been criticising Brussels for its Russia sanctions policy for months. The prime minister stated earlier this month that instead of "weakening" Moscow economically due to the thousands of sanctions imposed on the EU's eastern neighbour, "severe inflation and energy shortages" have been sparked, which threaten to "bring Europe to its knees." Hungary has resisted copying the sanctions imposed on Russia by its allies and has kept importing Russian oil and gas, which allows it to escape the worst effects of the sanctions. Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto called on foreign ambassadors to behave like diplomats, "not viceroys," in August amid escalating criticism of Hungary's independent Russia policy from Budapest's EU partners.
The European Commission threatened to slap Budapest with an assessment of "erosion of the rule of law" last week, threatening to revoke Hungary's eligibility for up to €7.5 billion in financial support from the EU due to "corruption." The Hungarian government expressed confidence this week that they would be able to halt the reduction of the "cohesion funds." Also this week, Mateusz Morawiecki, the prime minister of Poland, declared that his country would oppose any EU sanctions for upholding the rule of law against any of its Visegrad Group allies.
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