Peter Szijjarto stressed that Hungarian foreign policy is Hungarian and sovereign, and has the sole aim of asserting the national interest - often against overwhelming oppositional forces. It is a reasonable, pragmatic and rational foreign policy having a strong foreign trade focus, that with the fulfillment of set goals provides beneficial effects for the Hungarian people.
Hungarian foreign policy is open in all directions, he added, and endeavors to gather friends and cooperative partners who consider mutual respect to be the basis of their foreign policy. It does not seek conflicts, but is not afraid to take them head on,
the minister summarized.
"Now, in the current era of threats, this foreign policy approach is even more significant," he said, recalling that in the past five years, the country has had to face three crises and find responses to each that have allowed it to emerge even stronger.
We had to find a solution to the pandemic, but we did not sit back and watch Hungarian people die because of the European Commission's botched vaccine procurement,
he said.
The economic management of the epidemic was a success as more people in Hungary had jobs after the pandemic compared with before.
In the same way, he said, only the national interest was taken into account when during the war raging in Ukraine the government did not sever cooperation with Russia, thereby ensuring Hungary's secure energy supply.
"In the mean time, as a neighboring country to Ukraine, we managed to stay out of the war, and the Hungarians did not take a single decision that would have contributed to greater death tolls," he stressed.
FM Szijjarto also touched on the crisis in the Middle East, during which, according to his report, all Hungarian citizens were evacuated from the Gaza Strip and three Hungarian hostages were freed.
"During the serious challenges of recent years, Hungarian foreign policy has always found the right answers, while Brussels has failed to respond to crises," he stressed.
Brussels "had bungled" vaccine procurement, the reconstruction fund has not been made available to all as promised, and the threat of the neighboring war spreading is mainly due to the irresponsible behavior of Western European leaders,
he said, adding that sanctions have done more damage to Europe than to Russia, with the European economy "suffering gunshots through the lungs" by war inflation, while the security situation continuously deteriorates.
The EU has failed in every crisis situation, so they can't digest the fact that Hungary has a successful, patriotic, sovereign government that goes against the Brussels mainstream.
"The difference in the responses to the crises has made it clear to all European citizens that Hungary has a more successful alternative to the liberal mainstream," he said, adding that this is why Brussels, with the assistance of the Hungarian Left, has been staging attacks on the country by any means possible.
Under communism there were Hungarian people who acted against the Hungarian national interest in the imperial centers, and it is the same now in Brussels,
the foreign minister said.
Christian Democrat (KDNP) MP Hajnalka Juhasz asked whether Brussels was penalizing Hungary for ideological reasons. Tamas Menczer (Fidesz) pointed out that the leftists were not representing Hungarian interests because they had received orders not to from abroad. "If the Left wins the EP elections, they will engage us in the war, so the stakes are extremely high," he stressed.
Hungary's national Greek minority spokesman, Koranis Laokratis, thanked Hungary for opening an embassy in Cyprus.
According to Fidesz MEP Kinga Gal, the Hungarian Left proactively contributed to the adoption of political resolutions condemning Hungary, while Fidesz MEP Tamas Deutsch remarked that the European Parliament has an even more radical pro-war and pro-sanctions stance than the European Council, and that Hungarian left-wing MEPs invariably vote for pro-war resolutions in the EP.
In his reply, the FM Szijjarto admitted that
The observable tendency in Brussels is that those who oppose migration, gender propaganda and war can expect to be denied EU funds.
According to the report by the foreign minister, there was no room for rational debate in Brussels even before the war, but since then, the over-politicization of issues has reached new heights.
"Usually dogmatic debates dominate meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers, but now there are also dogmatic debates among energy ministers, which raises questions about whether there is any point in having debates at all," Peter Szijjarto said.
Cover photo: Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto gives report at the European Affairs Committee meeting of the Hungarian National Assembly in the House of Parliament on May 3, 2024 (Photo: MTI/Szilard Koszticsak)
