PM Orban: A New Type of Political Personality Has Emerged with the Ukrainian President

"I’m facing a comedian – Viktor Orban said, describing his meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky." Hungary's prime minister also discussed Peter Magyar, Judit Varga, and Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi in an interview with the Patriota channel.

Viktor Orban on the Patriota channel, on YouTube (Source: Facebook)

– “Every one of Europe’s problems stems from the Russia-Ukraine war. What we see today in Europe — stagnation, inflation, rising food prices, high energy costs — all of it comes from the war,” Prime Minister Viktor Orban told the Patrióta YouTube channel, in his recent interview. He recalled that he did not travel to Kyiv a year ago to meddle in someone else’s affairs, in the Russia-Ukraine war, but rather because it is an issue in which Hungarians have suffered losses. That, he said, gave him the right to visit Kyiv as the freshly inaugurated president of the European Union, and then to try to initiate some peace process—or at least a ceasefire—in Moscow, Beijing, and with the future U.S.president.

Photo: MTI / PM's Press Office / Zoltan Fischer 

During his visit to Kyiv, he told the Ukrainian president that time was not on his side, that Ukraine’s position was deteriorating with each passing day, that Russia was winning on the battlefield, and that Ukraine could not win this war. He offered to help facilitate a ceasefire and peace, but Volodymyr Zelensky declined, convinced that time was in his favor. According to Mr. Orban, the reason for this rejection is that

a new type of political personality has emerged with the Ukrainian president, one he encountered for the first time.

“He might be called an ‘influencer politician’ or an ‘actor politician’ — a personality whose background did not prepare him for the role he later had to play, especially in the middle of a war. And yet, he chose to take on the role, essentially performing the role of a president,” PM Orban pointed out. 

– “When I tried to speak with him more deeply about the broader context, I saw that it wasn’t working. I was really standing or sitting across from a comedian,” Mr. Orban recalled. In his view, Ukrainians now place their hopes in German support, as they can no longer count on the United States the way they once did. He emphasized that

Ukraine’s only chance lies in keeping the Europeans engaged in the war.

He called it a transatlantic fracture that the countries on either side of the Atlantic — the United States and Europe — have taken divergent strategic paths on such an important issue. “America is on the path to peace, and we are walking the path of war,” PM Orban declared, adding that this European-American split will leave Europe on its own, and Europeans will have to face all the negative consequences of the war — financial, economic, and public safety difficulties — alone.

He believes peace would require universal agreement that peace is the way forward. But since Europeans and Ukrainians wish to continue the war, and the Russians have said they will fight on without agreement,

Everyone is more invested in the war than in peace,

– Mr. Orban said. In his view, the fastest route to a ceasefire and peace would be a personal meeting between the Russian and American presidents. Without that, the process could drag on for many long months.

He listed the Turks, the Americans, the Hungarians, and the Slovaks among those in the peace camp, stating that in Europe, all other countries are aligned with the war camp. According to Mr. Orban, today Europe's policy is dictated by the the war camp —both economically and in military affairs — which he considers very harmful to the continent.

– “It’s very hard to say anything about a country’s war of self-defense where hundreds or thousands are dying each day. I believe Ukraine has the right to determine its own future and to chart its own course. If it's peace, then it's peace, and if it's war, it is war.

But what it cannot ask of us is to lend a hand in a failed strategy. And continuing the war—which they have the right to do—is, in my opinion, such a failed strategy. It’s bad for Europe and could have terrible consequences for Hungary,

– PM Orban emphasized. He recalled efforts to force Ukraine into the European Union. “If we admit a country at war, we admit the war itself.” That’s why, he said, Ukraine’s push to enter the EU must be stopped. This is something Hungary has recently managed to achieve through the Voks 2025 referendum, which created a clear legal situation in which Hungary’s veto cannot be circumvented. Further progress in negotiations, therefore, can only happen jointly. Still, Mr. Orban warned of a political culture in Brussels that has eroded the rule of law to such a degree that Hungary might be bypassed temporarily — but not in the final decision on Ukraine’s EU membership, which must be made unanimously by member states.

According to Mr. Orban, the European Union and Ukraine have already lost this war. Eventually, European leaders will be forced to admit that they've pursued a faulty strategy. “The war cannot be won on the front lines; it can only be ended through diplomacy. Only then can losses be reduced or eliminated,” the prime minister said. He believes that the moment of bitter admission will have serious consequences for European politics. But we are not there yet—though, he noted, over a hundred billion euros have already been burned in Ukraine, with more spending on the horizon, despite there being no rational, clearly defined, militarily or politically logical path to victory. – “I don’t think we should have stepped onto this path in the first place. Now we must slow down as soon as possible, stop, thank the generals for their service, bring back the diplomats and foreign ministers, and start negotiating peace at the table,” PM Orban concluded.

You Can’t Build a Party on Betrayal

The conversation also touched on Judit Varga’s recent interview, in which Ms. Varga spoke openly about her former husband, Peter Magyar. Mr. Orban said he didn’t want to dwell on private matters but recalled that his former justice minister attempted to resign three times over a year and a half because she couldn’t bear the abusive relationship she was in. The prime minister tried to encourage her, hoping the situation might improve, but then came the clemency scandal, which swept Judit Varga away as well.

“This is not new to me,” Mr. Orban said when asked about the Tisza Party. He believes that opponents of the government are trying to influence Hungarian politics with foreign funding and instructions. That, in his view, applies not only to Tisza but also to the Democratic Coalition (DK), and it has always been the case. He sees an effort among the opposition to consolidate voters dissatisfied with the government into a single bloc. That also happened in the last election, except back then they didn’t form a new party—they held primaries and declared themselves winners months before the actual vote, much like what is happening now.

Manfred Weber and Peter Magyar (Photo: Miklos Teknos)

The outcome will be exactly the same this time as well: I believe we will win this by a wide margin in a fair fight,

– he said of the upcoming elections. What’s new, he noted, is that the political challenge is no longer a traditional party but a digital political movement — with all the strengths and uncertainties of the digital space. “In that world, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not. It takes a strong person to navigate and understand the future,” he remarked. Politics is also a human endeavor, he said, and not all character types can gain ground in it. “You can’t build a party on sin or treachery; you can’t build a community on betrayal — at most, only temporarily, before it all collapses.”  Therefore, no matter how flashy the technology, in the end, human character will decide, Mr. Orban said. That’s another reason he’s confident that they will win — because they have hundreds, even thousands, of local, mid-level, and senior leaders whom people know and trust.

The issue of Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi’s liposuction, paid for with taxpayers' money, also came up during the interview. PM Orban underlined that “we are talking about a candidate for defense minister who praises Ukraine, who may be receiving instructions from abroad on what his positions should be on certain military matters.” Leadership by example, Mr. Orban stressed, is essential in the military. “If you’re calling up a young man to serve in the military — because this is where serious, tough guys serve their country — you can’t have a situation where they'd say that they're led by a general, who... ‘you know,  got his fat…’”

In Europe, People’s Opinions Are Not Asked

On the issue of drought, Mr. Orban sees the difference between the Hungarian and Brussels perspectives as stemming from the fact that bureaucrats in a centralized empire sit in Brussels, where the prevailing belief is that the economy benefits from as few national measures as possible that distort the market. “So when the question is whether water should be free or not, they’ll say everyone should pay — because the textbooks say that’s how the market works,” PM Orban pointed out. He added that it’s a separate matter whether Brussels bureaucrats can bring Hungarian politicians under their control — as he believes is the case with the Democratic Coalition (DK) and Tisza — who then follow orders. “That’s the difference between a national party and a Brussels party,” he explained.

He called it remarkable that in Europe, on the three major issues — migration, war, and gender — there's only one country that dared to ask its citizens’ opinions. “In Hungary, there were referendums on war, family protection and migration,” he recalled, adding that Brussels and the national governments subordinate to Brussels currently have such a power structure that essentially excludes the European people from deciding on the most important issues.

– “If there was a referendum on migration, I think the result would look a lot like Hungary’s. And the same goes for the gender issue. And soon, on the war, too. If the European people had a say, there’d be no war, there’d be family protection, and no migration either,” Prime Minister Orban stated. That, he concluded, is why it matters whether a national-minded, or Brussels-aligned government is leading a country.

Cover photo: Viktor Orban on the Patriota channel, on YouTube (Source: Facebook)