Hungary FM Criticizes Pro-War Zeal of Leading European Politicians

"A growing number of politicians in Europe are starting to lose their faculty for sound judgement," the minister said.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto on March 22, 2024 (Photo: MTI/Tamas Kovacs)

"It is in Hungary's fundamental interest to bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an end as soon as possible, to establish a ceasefire and to start peace talks, because every passing day of war in the immediate neighborhood increasingly brings the nightmare of a Third World War war closer," Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on MR1 Kossuth Radio's Sunday News program.

The Hungarian minister said, "A growing number of politicians in Europe are starting lose their faculty for sound judgement, calls for peace are being overpowered completely, and a significant number of European political leaders are suffering from war psychosis.

"They speak using the language of war; their mindset is as if they were at war themselves - clearly making the war between Russia and Ukraine a personal issue and are unable to weigh their decisions on the basis of common sense," he said, adding that as a result statements such as sending ground troops are being made. NATO is the world's strongest defense alliance, FM Szijjarto noted, which makes it illogical for Russia to attack any NATO member, as this would oblige the organization to respond to such an attack.

Clearly, they are now attempting to abuse Article 5 of the North Atlanti Treaty, because in the event of sending ground troops, a confrontation between the NATO member deploying troops and Russia could not be avoided, and from that point onward, invoking Article 5 carries the real threat of a world war,

he explained.

Macron wants to be seen as the "leader of Europe"

Also, according to The Telegraph, with a statement about the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine, the French president decided to “shake up the situation”, since in Europe “indifference to war is increasing.”… pic.twitter.com/YYFWzPOxyq

— Zlatti71 (@djuric_zlatko) March 18, 2024

Peter Szijjarto stressed that NATO is a defense alliance not one of offense and as it is not currently under attack, there is no need to defend itself. "It would be completely unacceptable if someone were to enter into a war conflict on the basis of a decision not grounded in common sense", and then expected the other allies to join in. On the European defense industry, the minister said Hungary supports developing the sector in order to grow European industry and to enable the continent to defend itself even without the involvement of the United States. This has been Hungary's position for a long time, and this need was expressed outside the context of the war in Ukraine war, he said.

It is especially dangerous, the FM stressed, for the president of the European Council to talk about establishing a war economy and basing operations on a war footing, because these are words that in themselves represent an extreme risk.

Hungary upholds its refusal to participate in any political or financial move aimed at sending more weapons to Ukraine, citing that the more weapons are sent, the longer the war will drag on, the more people will die, the greater the destruction and the greater the risk of the war spreading. Szijjarto stated that "the issue of Hungary supplying or facilitating the supplying of weapons or participating in the relevant decisions is out of the question". "If European politicians had been half as active in peace-building as they had been with arms transfers in the past, today, we would be closer to peace and could have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people," he said.

Cover photo: Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto on  March 22, 2024 (Photo: MTI/Tamas Kovacs)