Hungary FM to Fighters' Hour: If Self-Worship Was Painful, Peter Magyar Would Be Screaming in Agony

Hungary's minister of foreign affairs and trade returned to the Fighters' Hour program once again. The Ukrainian president has threatened Hungary, saying the Druzhba oil pipeline will continue to be attacked if the Hungarian government does not support Ukraine’s EU accession. Peter Szijjarto responded to the threat, but the program also raised another issue: the fact that, meanwhile, the opposition in Hungary is celebrating the Ukrainians. FM Szijjarto emphasized: what the Ukrainian president, a former actor, is doing is outrageous and scandalous.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto delivers a speech at the award ceremony honoring experts involved in Hungary's HUNOR astronaut program, held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on August 21, 2025 (Photo: MTI/Lajos Soos)

According to FM Peter Szijjarto, it is absolutely clear what the Ukrainian president meant. As he put it on Fighters' Hour program: there is no room for any misunderstanding or misinterpretation. The Ukrainian president has openly, harshly, and shamelessly threatened Hungary, the minister stated, who also spoke about Peter Magyar and other opposition figures.

Peter Szijjarto, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Photo: AFP)

One of the topics in the program was that, amid the attacks on Kyiv, the Hungarian opposition is celebrating the Ukrainians.

Harcosok órája 17. epizód - Szijjártó Péter

Harcosok órája 17. epizód - Szijjártó Péter

Posted by Németh Balázs vagyok on Monday, August 25, 2025

At the start of the program, it was noted that Peter Magyar had suggested it would be a brilliant idea for the Tisza Party to run 106 candidates, all bearing his name, in the 2026 elections. He added that he would not actually ask them to change their names to Peter Magyar, since he did not want to resort to tricks, though he admitted it would be an effective tactic. Peter Szijjarto responded:

Briefly put, if self-adoration was painful, this man would probably be screaming in agony.

Ukrainian attack against Hungary

On Sunday, President Zelensky said with a grin that they will keep firing at the Druzhba (Friendship) oil pipeline until Hungary supports Ukraine’s EU accession.

It is absolutely clear what the Ukrainian president said. There is no room here for misunderstanding or misinterpretation. The Ukrainian president openly, harshly, and shamelessly threatened Hungary. President Zelensky made it clear that if Hungary does not adopt a pro-Ukrainian stance like the one demanded by Brussels, the European People’s Party, and its Hungarian member party, the Tisza Party, then they will continue to keep under attack the Friendship oil pipeline, which is indispensable for Hungary’s energy security,

– he said. The minister underlined that crude oil is essential for Hungary’s energy supply and the functioning of its economy. Today, oil can reach Hungary from two directions: from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine — this is called the Friendship oil pipeline — and from the southwest, through Croatia, via a pipeline called the Adriatic pipeline. On this pipeline, Hungary can purchase oil transported by sea, he explained.

The pipeline coming from Croatia has less capacity than the combined oil needs of Hungary and Slovakia. I mention both countries because both the Friendship oil pipeline and the Croatian pipeline are simultaneously responsible for supplying both of them, meaning that Slovakia can also be supplied either by the Friendship pipeline or, through us, by the Adriatic pipeline. Nothing else can do this. This is physics, this is reality,

 – the foreign minister stated, adding that oil cannot be purchased from a country from which no pipeline leads to Hungary.

So since the Croatian pipeline’s capacity is smaller than the oil demand of Hungary and Slovakia, if deliveries on the Friendship pipeline become impossible for an extended period, then the oil supply for both Hungary and Slovakia will also become impossible.

Not for political reasons, but because of physical reality. Energy supply is not a political or ideological issue; it cannot be solved at a press conference. It requires a pipe, and oil inside it. Now, the bombing and rocketing of the Friendship oil pipeline does not harm Russia, but us — Hungarians and Slovaks,” FM Peter Szijjarto stated.

It is outrageous and scandalous, what the Ukrainian president, the former actor, is doing... and for him to say on camera that Hungary can continue to expect its energy security to be kept under attack by Ukraine if Hungary does not follow the Brussels position — which would be completely against Hungary’s interests. This is outrageous and scandalous. But it's even more sad that in Hungary, the opposition and the dollar-media are celebrating President Zelensky’s stance,

 – declared the minister, before posing the question: If Mr. Zelensky and his people blow up the Druzhba oil pipeline so badly that sufficient oil can no longer flow to Hungary, meaning there won't be enough energy to run the country, then what will these journalists say, what will these politicians say? Will they celebrate Mr. Zelensky, will they celebrate the Ukrainians because Hungary has become non-functional?

These attacks are hitting Hungary and Slovakia... they harm these two countries, they have nothing to do with Russia,

Peter Szijjarto pointed out. He added: 

In Ukraine, a very harsh anti-Hungarian policy is being pursued, and the Ukrainians are counting on Brussels and their local viceroys in Hungary to put enough pressure on Hungary to abandon its current position and adopt one that is entirely contrary to Hungarian interests, but aligns perfectly with Ukrainian interests. That is what this is all about.

“I speak with Russia's deputy energy minister daily, or basically every other day,” Peter Szijjarto said.

My job is to use foreign policy tools to help guarantee Hungary’s energy security. Since the Ukrainians bombed the Friendship oil pipeline on Russian territory, and the Russians are working to solve the technical issues to resume deliveries, I must talk to them, and I do it for Hungary’s sake,

– the minister emphasized. He noted: for now Hungary’s commercial reserves are holding out, but “we do not want to have to tap into our strategic emergency reserves because of the Ukrainians. In other words, the Ukrainians are risking that at some point Hungary will have to use its strategic emergency reserves, and that is not a situation we wish on anyone.”

The European Commission has ceased to exist

Peter Szijjarto pointed out: “The European Commission made a statement, which then became a European Council decision, summarizing the EU’s position on the security of Europe’s energy systems in four points. The first point states that the security of the energy infrastructure supplying EU member states is a matter of European security.

The European Commission expects all third countries, including Ukraine, to respect this, since the security of the energy infrastructure supplying any EU member state — including Hungary and Slovakia — is a European Union security issue. So the European Commission is spitting in its own face

when it remains complicitly silent while Ukraine attacks the energy infrastructure supplying Hungary and Slovakia. The European Commission has ceased to be the European Commission; it is now a Ukrainian commission,

– he said.

Von der Leyen’s commission does not represent the interests of EU member states, but Ukraine’s interests, and has openly sided with Ukraine against EU member states on a vital question of national sovereignty, since energy security is a matter of national sovereignty.

Speaking about the detonation of the Nord Stream pipeline, which is attributed to Ukrainians, Peter Szijjarto said: 

Based on the information currently available, it seems very likely that this was an act of state terrorism.

He added: "the Polish foreign minister, arguably the most Hungarophobic politician in the EU today and a key European advocate for the U.S. Democratic left, even thanked the Americans after the Nord Stream explosion. Now, Mr. Sikorski is once again weighing in on what happened with the Friendship pipeline explosion. But given that he is essentially a European mouthpiece — and client — of the American Democratic left, there’s little point in devoting too much energy to his views,” he said.

Program host Balazs Nemeth noted that Hungary’s leftist-liberal side is indeed celebrating Mr. Zelensky because they can blow up the Friendship pipeline, which is vital for Hungary’s energy supply. But what will they do if there is no fuel at the gas stations, or if products that require oil or oil-based energy for their production are no longer available? — the minister asked.

“The leftist journalists, in sync with the Ukrainian foreign minister, keep churning out the message that Hungary should have already detached itself from Russian energy sources in the past three and a half years and, had we succeeded, we wouldn't be in such a vulnerable position now,” he said.

Hungary is a landlocked country. We can build pipelines to the border, but if they are not extended further, there is little point. When we saw that one of the two pipelines leading to Hungary runs through a war zone, we wanted to increase the capacity of the pipeline from Croatia,

 FM Szijjarto declared. “When this was not done, we turned to the European Commission, signaling that the energy security of EU member states is a European issue, so they should please intervene with the Croatians to expand pipeline capacity. 

The result was not that the Croatians increased capacity, but that they quintupled the transit fee — meaning we must pay a war surcharge for oil from Croatia. But of course, the dollar-media journalists never report this, even though I have said it many times. The Croatian position is that 

as long as there are disputed issues between Hungarian and Croatian companies — which happen in business life — they will not be willing to help on the pipeline issue, and that is outrageous. So much for European solidarity...

– declared the minister, then emphasized:

If Hungary had not diversified its gas supply, today we would have no supply, since the Ukrainians cut off gas transit through their own territory. If we had not built the TurkStream pipeline — despite harsh sanction threats — then today it would be impossible to supply Hungary with gas via Turkey, Bulgaria, and Serbia, because of the Ukrainians! So it would be positive if the journalists representing Ukrainian interests would, even minimally, try and depict every element of reality,

FM Szijjarto underlined.

“Hungary accounts for 30 to 40 percent of Ukraine’s electricity imports. So what would happen if 30 to 40 percent of a country’s electricity imports suddenly disappeared?” — the minister asked.

But the Ukrainian people have not harmed us, so we do not wish anything bad upon them either... We are better than that. The Ukrainians, however, do not seem to consider that a country’s energy supply is not about the government or its prime minister, but about the people and families who live there. We do not want a situation where there is no heating in a Ukrainian apartment where small children live, just because the country’s president – a former actor – behaves in a certain way,

said Peter Szijjarto, while adding that Hungary could cause serious difficulties for Ukraine by cutting off energy supplies. He then recalled that Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony celebrated Ukraine’s Independence Day two days ago by lighting the Chain Bridge in blue and yellow, on the very day Zelensky threatened Hungary. The same also happened in Brussels, noted the minister.

Europe stirs fear with talk of war

Peter Szijjarto also reacted to yesterday’s statement by the Czech foreign minister, who claimed that Moscow, after potentially subjugating Ukraine, would not stop at the Ukrainian border but push further into Europe. He said that the two of them maintain a good personal relationship, as the Czech foreign minister usually tries to take a fair position on Hungary, but FM Szijjarto made clear that he does not agree with him.

"I believe that Russia does not pose a security threat to Hungary, and Russia does not pose a security threat to Europe either. In my view, there are logical reasons for this. The Russian army is currently fighting in Ukraine, and its progress is not measured in hundreds of kilometers on a daily basis.

So I don’t think Russia would attack any NATO member state, when it knows full well that attacking one NATO member would bring the whole alliance against it…,"

he said, stressing that Europe’s security architecture cannot be built in the long term, in a stable way, without Russia.

We have long faced the European view that it is a sin to communicate with the Russians. I am very glad that Donald Trump broke the ice and made it clear that the solution to the war in Ukraine lies not on the battlefield but at the negotiating table. In my view, Europe would act wisely if it followed Donald Trump’s path as soon as possible, and worked to create a summit between Europe and Russia, because Russia is here, in Europe,

he said. “Without Russia, there can be no European security, and no European competitiveness either. For decades, Europe’s economic growth model was based on combining Russia’s natural resources and energy carriers with advanced Western technology. This was the solid foundation of Europe’s competitiveness, but Brussels politics has destroyed it. The old growth model is gone, and no new one has replaced it, said the minister, adding that this may be the main reason behind Europe’s dramatic loss of competitiveness.

He went on to comment on left-wing journalists criticizing Trump because after the Alaska summit he spoke of a peace agreement rather than an immediate ceasefire. According to a journalist at Nepszava, the difference between a ceasefire and a peace agreement could mean hundreds of thousands of lives, since a peace agreement is a long and complicated process.

All this, noted Peter Szijjarto, is being said or written by those who for three and a half years have been urging Brussels and Kyiv to keep the Ukrainians shooting and fighting, insisting that bloodshed does not matter as long as Putin does not receive a "gift."

When asked whether it is possible that Zelensky could be shelling the Druzhba (Friendship) oil pipeline with the approval of the European Commission, the minister replied:

It is very hard to imagine that this issue has not come up between Zelensky and Von der Leyen, as well as other European leaders. Zelensky and the European leaders are constantly together and coordinating, and they regularly report on this across social media. I find it unrealistic that this matter would not have been raised among them.

After the European Commission set out in a document that it was ready to take steps against any third country in order to protect the energy infrastructure supplying EU member states, within a very short time the oil pipeline essential for the energy security of Hungary and Slovakia was attacked three times, and the Commission did not say a word. After this, it is very hard to believe that Von der Leyen, some European leaders, and Zelensky did not at least exchange a few words about the attack on the Druzhba oil pipeline, he said.

When asked about the status of the oil pipeline planned toward Serbia, the foreign minister explained: "we are in a good position. Preparations for the investment are already under way, and the only important question left is when we can sign the long-term contract needed to ensure the pipeline’s capacity will be fully used."

Peter Magyar got busted 

Peter Magyar was badly exposed when he tried to spread yet another falsehood — claiming that Prime Minister Viktor Orban was vacationing on a luxury yacht in Croatia — and illustrated it with a photo that was five years old. Nevertheless, Magyar now insists that Orban must have secretly transferred from a sailboat to a luxury yacht somewhere on the open sea. The truth, however, is that Viktor Orban never boarded a yacht: he is on a sailboat, as he publicly announced weeks ago on stage at the MCC Festival event.

For years, Peter Magyar did everything he could to be in the front row clapping at Viktor Orban’s annual speeches and at various Fidesz events. He praised the system, saying everything was great, and then suddenly decided that everything was bad, even though Viktor Orban was saying and doing exactly the same things three years ago as he is now,

said Peter Szijjarto, adding that every Hungarian citizen has the right to take a vacation. Peter Magyar himself went on holiday this summer — several times, judging from his own posts on social media. The prime minister worked all summer and then finally took a vacation in Croatia.

PM Orban announced publicly in advance that he was going to the Adriatic. Yet not only Peter Magyar acts as if this had never been said, but the entire anti-government dollar media writes about it as if it were brand-new information, as if the prime minister had wanted to keep it a secret. He did not — he made it public,

FM Szijjarto emphasized. Viktor Orban is hardly the only Hungarian who has spent a vacation in Croatia over the past twenty years. And we are not talking about a yacht,

we are talking about a sailboat. I also have a good friend who goes to Croatia every summer with his family, rents a similar sailboat, and spends a few weeks sailing. He told me there are harbors where such boats stand by the hundreds, waiting to be rented, and that many Hungarian families also do so,

he said, and then asked why do journalists from the dollar media not ask Peter Magyar why he falsely claimed that the prime minister used a military aircraft for his vacation?

Or why did he lie this to the Hungarian people? Nobody ever asks him... In reality, PM Orban traveled on a small propeller plane that can take off from a grassy field, and he paid for the trip himself. The whole thing was just another false story, another piece of fake news,

FM Szijjarto stressed.

The conversation also touched on a video recently published by independent MP Akos Hadhazy. The MP essentially committed trespassing when at Hatvanpuszta, he entered private property. When security guards escorted him out, he jumped into his car and began to flee. Telex wrote that last time they wanted to slash his tires, and now they "wanted to kill him."

This MP, who is paid a state salary from taxpayers’ money, has for years spent his time roaming the country taking photos,

the minister reacted, pointing out that entering private property is a serious violation of the law, and that a member of parliament should be setting an example of law-abiding behavior.

The next topic was Klara Dobrev, leader of the Democratic Coalition, who went shopping in Croatia.

Klara Dobrev wanted to prove the downsides of Hungary’s markup cap policy in a country that is also trying to curb soaring prices. She implied that in countries using the euro, people live much better, but that is simply nonsense. The real issue is that Europe got its economic strategy wrong, and as a result, prices of critical goods have skyrocketed,

said the minister, adding that "the rise in food and energy prices has pushed inflation through the roof, spiraling upward. The Hungarian government decided to protect the Hungarian people and Hungarian families by introducing a cap on markups — something the opposition and the dollar media constantly criticize."

It is time to finally decide what they really want: markup caps, or to prove that paying in euros in Croatia is so much better, because this position is simply not logical,

 he underlined.

The Czech Republic votes

Andrej Babis drew people's attention to how many days are left until the upcoming parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic with a humorous video.

This is important not only for the Czechs but also for Hungarians and for Europe as a whole. If Babis wins, the European Union will have two governments and two prime ministers belonging to the Patriots for Europe EP group. From a Central European perspective, the stakes are also high: the cooperation between the Visegrad Four countries plays a key role in strengthening the region. Slovakia already has a prime minister who supports this cooperation,

FM Szijjarto said, adding that despite the Polish government’s stance, the newly elected Polish president also backs the Visegrad cooperation. If the Czech people elect a government that also supports Visegrad cooperation, this would create a huge opportunity for Central Europe to become significantly stronger at a time when Europe’s overall trajectory seems to be pointing downward. Let us not forget that Viktor Orban, Robert Fico, and Andrej Babis together once carried out a historic achievement: it was thanks to the resistance of the Visegrad Group that the EU’s plan for mandatory resettlement quotas for illegal migrants was defeated. If these leaders, who have such serious historic achievements behind them, can once again unite, they will be capable of great things. That is why we are rooting for Andrej Babis and ANO, our sister party, to win the Czech elections.

With a victory for Babis’s party, Europe could avoid yet another disgrace for democracy — the kind where a winning party is pushed out of governing responsibility, while losing parties band together to form a coalition. This already happened in Austria, and in the Netherlands there was also an attempt to force the winning party into a wide coalition, he added.

Poland's president was sworn in during the first week of August. In recent days, he refused to sign one of the Tusk government’s laws already passed by the Sejm. The bill concerned the care and stay of refugees arriving in Poland from Ukraine — a sign that Poland’s domestic political situation is becoming more tense.

The Polish president was elected on the promise of a clear, national and patriotic political strategy, and it is already evident that he is putting this into practice — much to the annoyance of the Brussels-aligned government. We hope that in Poland as well, a party or party family will be able to return to government that is a clear ally of Fidesz and Hungary's current government,

the minister stated.
 Cover photo: Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto delivers a speech at the award ceremony honoring experts involved in Hungary's HUNOR astronaut program, held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on August 21, 2025 (Photo: MTI/Lajos Soos)