Hungary FM: Tisza Is Bent on Raising Taxes

The week began on the Fighters’ Hour with topics like the takeaways of the Prime Minister's speech in Kotcse, foreign affairs hoaxes and more. Host Balazs Nemeth's guest on the program was Peter Szijjarto, the Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister of Hungary, who emphasized: every possible tool has been mobilized to try to drag European countries, including Hungary, into the war.

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

On Monday morning, Peter Szijjarto was the guest on the Fighters’ Hour. He said: it is very difficult today for patriotic parties in Europe, because while public support is growing, so is the pressure and the intent to eliminate them.

 

Balazs Nemeth opened the show recalling that the annual Kotcse gathering took place - both a fake one and and the real one. He said that a brutal fake news item and fake photo had been circulating on Facebook about the Tisza Party’s counter-protest at the traditional Civic Picnic, as if tens or hundreds of thousands had flooded the small village of Kotcse. The host showed side-by-sides of an actual drone shot and the obviously Photoshopped or AI generated picture with crowds even atop cars and trees. Nemeth pointed out that this fake image is how the "Fake Party" - as he referred to the opposition Tisza Party - was trying to portray their level of support, when in reality far fewer people attended their gathering. 

That was a flop. I think that’s the best word for it. In fact, the whole thing is a flop, what’s been happening around the Tisza Party in recent weeks. It’s become clear that they want to raise taxes, that they want to squeeze people, that there’s chaos, that they are deceiving people even before the election, and clear that they are internally trying to hide their agenda until after the elections. That’s not democracy. It’s undeniably a huge failure, a big fake, a big bluff. That's obvious, 

Peter Szijjarto said in response.

Tisza and its experts are planning tax hikes on Brussels’s orders, and the photo shows how many people are interested in tax increases — the party of tax hikes.

Szijjarto commented on the ridiculousness of the whole thing, saying:

The Tisza Party’s event was deliberately staged against the long-established Civic Picnic in Kotcse, where every year at the beginning of September, civic circles, Fidesz politicians, supporters and the Prime Minister gather. Toward the end of the day, Viktor Orban outlines some thoughts about the next political year. Everyone knows this, even Peter Magyar, as he himself had attended the picnic multiple times before, with his then wife, and perhaps the kids,

the Foreign Minister stressed.
"Now Magyar speaks disparagingly about those who are there, so according to this, it was twice good to be there, but now he sees them as paid clappers, clappers who do it for a living, or whatever they are. No one asks him, dear Peter Magyar, why are you now disparaging this Civic Picnic in Kotcse and its participants, and what did you think about it all when you were there? Was it good then? Did you enjoy yourself then? Well, you obviously went there because you were enthusiastic, because you loved it, because it was good to be seen there, because you could hang around the decision-makers and beg for jobs."

No one asks him this question. And then, knowing full well that the civic side's season opener always takes place in Kotcse, he knows exactly when it is. He knows exactly how big the village is, what its possibilities and characteristics are. He organizes his own event at the same place, at the same time, a few hundred meters away.

 

Russia–Ukraine War Disinformation

The minister recalled other recent false reports, such as claims that Russian interference jammed the GPS of Ursula von der Leyen’s plane enroute to Bulgaria— which her spokesperson said only reinforces the EU's commitment to supporting Ukraine. However a few days later the whole elaborate story turned out to be untrue, not just that it wasn't the Russians, but that the plane's systems weren't disrupted at all, and that the pilot did not have to use a paper map! and that they didn't have to circle Plovdivi Airport for an hour before landing. Szijjarto considered this so emblematic, especially since the western press ran with the story fearmongering about how the Russians are now endangering commercial flights.  He said the pro-war West often quickly blames Russia for everything without any evidence. Think back to Donald Trump's previous campaign and the allegations of Russian interference - a hoax. He also dismissed later reports that claimed President Trump had told Hungary not to buy Russian oil, calling them fabrications. In fact, Bloomberg claimed to have the transcript of the Trump-Orban telephone conversation that never actually happened! But no apology, no correction from Bloomberg and the others for misleading millions. 

It seems the pro-war, liberalist-left is in trouble. This fake news was something that is very important to us: Hungary's energy security, this is no joke. This claim about Trump calling on Hungary to halt crude oil purchases from Russia,

the foreign minister said.

The press reported that during a telephone conversation with Zelensky and Western leaders, Trump effectively told the Hungarian government not to buy Russian crude oil. 

Of course, there was no such message, not even anything close.

Szijjarto stressed that 

The pro-war Brusselites are trying to sever the last strands of Europe-Russia energy cooperation. The basis of Europe’s successful, decades-long economic growth model — cheap Russian energy combined with Western technology — has been “killed” by severing energy ties with Russia, weakening Europe while the U.S. pulls ahead,

the minister pointed out.

Szijjarto: Destroying Basis of European Growth

According to the FM, this process started a few years ago. They began to cut ties with Russia in terms of energy cooperation, thereby undermining the basis of the European economic growth model. This is evident. If we compare the economic performance of the United States and the European Union today, we see that 15 years ago, the European Union was ahead, but today we see that the United States is ahead of the European Union by a good few percentage points. In terms of economic performance and contribution to the global economy, Europe has begun to weaken economically, one of the main reasons being that the European economic growth model has been destroyed in recent years. 

And what do they want now? They want European countries that are still buying Russian crude oil to stop doing so. From this point of view, there are two groups of European countries. There is a group of European countries that condemn the Russians and condemn those who buy crude oil from the Russians, while secretly doing the same thing themselves. So, by re-labeling it through various Asian countries, they are treating the world like fools and buying Russian crude oil just as they did before. Only not openly and not directly from Russia, but secretly, through other, mainly Asian countries,

he added.

And there is another group of European countries, of which there are fewer, mainly the Slovaks and us, Hungarians, who are just open and transparent about the fact that we buy crude oil from the Russians in the same way, based on the infrastructure, i.e. take a look at a map of pipelines. So there are European countries that secretly buy crude oil from Russia in order to get it cheaper, and then there are us, with our infrastructure, which means there is no other way to supply the country.

Harcosok Órája

Harcosok Órája

Posted by Szijjártó Péter on Sunday, September 7, 2025

So what is the point? The point is that Hungary has two oil pipelines. One comes from Russia via Ukraine, Belarus, and Ukraine, and the other comes from Croatia. Now, the one coming from Croatia has a smaller capacity, and I hope you understand what I mean by that, smaller than the combined oil demand of Hungary and Slovakia. This means that if the Druzhba ("Friendship") oil pipeline is cut off, Hungary and Slovakia cannot be supplied with oil on a physical basis, not on a political basis, but on a physical basis,

 Szijjarto stated.

He explained Hungary’s dependence on the Druzhba ("Friendship") pipeline and said cutting it would make supplying Hungary and Slovakia physically impossible, as the pipeline from Croatia is a viable auxiliary route, but in and of itself lacks the capacity to meet Hungary's and Slovakia's needs.

I think, excuse me, just one last sentence, I think that when it comes to these sanctions and bans on the purchase of crude oil, I don't think there are any political, moral, or legal principles that can be invoked to justify or accept making a third country the loser in a war between two countries. Because if we or the Slovaks are deprived of the possibility of purchasing oil, then our supply will become impossible, and we will be the losers of the Ukrainian-Russian war. We are the losers of a war that we have absolutely nothing to do with, that we did not start, and for which we bear no responsibility. Therefore, in my opinion, there is no legal, political, or moral principle that could be invoked to make Hungary and/or Slovakia the losers of the Russian-Ukrainian war. This is absolutely unacceptable!

He added: I see everything from this perspective when it comes to Europeans. I absolutely see that pro-war politicians revile us Hungarians, and probably Slovaks too, in every existing forum and every existing discussion. This is evident from their public statements.

Now, the Polish foreign minister cannot remain silent even once when a statement is made here in Budapest, so it is clear that they have this phobia. Serious Hungarophobia has spread among certain pro-war politicians. This is nothing new, because if we look back, ever since Fidesz came to power in 2010, Brussels has spent a significant amount of its time disparaging us, with varying intensity and visibility depending on global political developments.

Two more things on this energy issue. Yesterday, it was reported that the Ukrainians had again blown up the Druzhba pipeline. There was an attack on energy infrastructure, but it did not affect Druzhba.

The Druzhba oil pipeline, an oil pipeline to the EU, was not affected. The Ukrainians attacked a so-called product pipeline that transports various petroleum products between Belarus and Russia, so the attack did not affect the Druzhba oil pipeline and therefore has no impact on shipments to Hungary,

the foreign minister debunked the fake news.

Meanwhile, the world, Europe, and European leaders are speculating about when Donald Trump will impose more severe economic sanctions on Russia. Last night, or rather last night Hungarian time, Trump made a statement in front of the White House. In response to a question from journalists, the US president said tersely that he was ready to move on to the second phase of sanctions against Russia. Peter Szijjarto said:

Here in our region, neighboring Ukraine, any news pointing toward an escalation of war is obviously bad news, while any news pointing toward peace is good news. Unfortunately, in recent days, the majority of events and news reports have pointed toward an escalation of war, which is bad.

Nemeth noted that there's another photo that the Polish foreign minister also reacted to. It was taken before the military parade in Beijing, and the Hungarian foreign minister is also in the background. The Polish foreign minister wrote that this photo proves that Peter Szijjarto, or rather Hungary, is playing for the other team, because he appears in a photo with Putin, the Chinese president, the North Korean leader, and many others. Peter Szijjarto clarified saying:

Yes, and emphasis on the many others. My Polish colleague did not mention that, apart from me, the governments of three NATO member states were also represented, specifially the Prime Minister of Slovakia, the Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Energy of Turkey were also present at this event. Two former prime ministers of Romania, the former prime minister of Belgium, and the former prime minister of Greece also attended this event from the European circle.

There were those Central Asians from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan to Azerbaijan, whom Europeans are now constantly knocking on the door of for energy resources and economic cooperation. So the Polish minister's simplistic, painfully simplistic view of things came into conflict here again. Now, as for us playing on the same team, I object to that anyway, so I have never played on the same team as Sikorski, and I never want to.

"I would never be on the same team as pro-war Hungarophobes. There is no sport, no area of life where I would want to belong to a group with pro-war Hungarophobes."

Recent developments have not pointed toward peace. There has been quite serious messaging regarding the deployment of ground troops to Ukraine. Over the past week and a half, Ursula von der Leyen has been touring EU member states bordering Belarus and Russia, and practically everywhere she has said, with increasing enthusiasm, that the time is approaching when international troops will have to be sent to Ukraine under the guise of security guarantees. Many member states are ready for this, she said, and the German chancellor himself requested this. Chancellor Merz requested that the President of the European Commission not say anything on behalf of Germany or the Berlin government, because it is not her job to decide whether a member state should send soldiers on any kind of mission to a foreign country.

Yes, it is worth clarifying here that it seems that exercising power in Brussels has gone to Ms. Von der Leyen head, and now she is presenting the European Union as if it were the United States of Europe. There are, of course, those for whom this is a dream, and there are those for whom it is a nightmare, and we are among the latter, so a United States of Europe, where there is a common foreign policy, a common currency, a common budget, common debt, a common army, and everything else is common, so no, thank you very much, we do not want that. Brussels's efforts to build an empire and increase its power are clearly pointing in this direction: let there be a United States of Europe, which also has an army, for example, and then the President of the European Commission can send it here and there as she pleases,

he remarked.

Now, fortunately, this is not yet the case, and I sincerely hope that it will not be. You see, Von der Leyen, that is why I say that she is behaving as if she were the president of a United States of Europe, because she is promising the US president energy purchases, while the European Commission cannot buy energy, and she is promising the US president investments, while the European Commission cannot make investments. She is promising soldiers, even though the European Union has no army, so this is a complete imperial fantasy on the part of Ms. Von der Leyen, and it is very damaging to Europe. It is clear that other Brussels officials, such as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, are also following this line, because we regularly encounter the proposal at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting that the European Union's military training mission, which is currently being carried out on the territory of European Union countries, to Ukraine, so that European military trainers would go to Ukraine and train soldiers there, he said.

Then it's only a matter of time before we send soldiers with them, send this, send that, and eventually send troops. So clearly there is such an endeavor,

the minister said.

This shows that bringing Ukraine into the European Union would also mean bringing war into the European Union. Because if Von der Leyen and her colleagues want to send European soldiers to Ukraine, even though Ukraine is not yet a member of the European Union, just imagine what would happen if Ukraine were brought into the European Union. they would be bringing war-torn Ukraine into the European Union, which would mean bringing war into the European Union as well. Peter Szijjarto emphasized:

And then we would also be part of the war. That is what we do not want. If a Brussels puppet government is installed here, say in Budapest next year, then obviously that Brussels puppet government, since it will be controlled from Brussels, would rightly agree to such a plan, it would agree that Ukraine should be brought into the European Union, it would agree that soldiers, including Hungarians, should be sent to Ukraine, it would agree that Hungary should also be nicely dragged into the war. If we remain in power, this will obviously be impossible.

Yesterday, Viktor Orban mentioned this in his speech in Kotcse, saying that if Ukraine were a member of the EU and became involved in any armed conflict with Russia, the other member states would obviously have to rush to its aid. If Ukraine were a member of the EU, war would effectively come to the European Union. For years, the European Union has been saying that it does not want to send soldiers, only helmets, then only small weapons, then larger weapons, and now it is quite clear that soldiers are needed. 

Sometimes we feel that we are alone in this, or we may feel that we are alone among those who dare to say that Ukraine has lost this war, but such news does appear in the Western pro-war press from time to time. For example, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Le Figaro that Ukraine is no longer capable of winning the conflict with Russia, and then goes on to explain that peace must be made immediately because there is no other solution and this fact cannot be reverse,

Szijjarto noted. He added: We have consistently represented this position for three and a half years, and when I look at yesterday's extremely sad news about the massive missile and drone attack on Kyiv, we see the victims, we see the destruction, and I cannot help but think that we predicted this would happen. This could have been avoided. The minister emphasized:

And let us remember that last July, Prime Minister Viktor Orban went to Kyiv. He went to Kyiv at the very beginning of Hungary's EU Presidency. And there he told President Zelensky to agree to a ceasefire as soon as possible and to start peace negotiations as soon as possible. The Ukrainian president's response was no, time is on his side, he will win, and therefore he will continue the war, obviously with Western help.

He added: That was more than a year ago now. If the Hungarian position, the position represented by the Hungarian prime minister, had been accepted at that time, many, many lives could have been saved. A great deal of destruction could have been prevented. But a year ago, they still held the position that time was on the Ukrainians' side, that the war must continue, and that Western support must be given to this end. I was sitting there a few weeks after the Prime Minister's peace mission in Brussels, where 25 people, apart from the Slovaks, spent hours insulting the Prime Minister, the government, and Hungary for taking a pro-peace stance. They said that this was the Kremlin's position, Putin's position, and that he wanted to prepare for Ukraine's capitulation.

Compared to this, what are Europeans saying today? Peace negotiations are needed and a ceasefire is required, which is exactly what we have been saying for 3.5 years, and exactly what we have been criticized for for 3.5 years. Well, in recent years, the words “peace,” “peace talks,” and “ceasefire” have been considered curse words in Europe, and if anyone tried to say them, they were immediately punched in the face, figuratively speaking. So the situation is that if the Hungarian position had been followed over the past three and a half years, all this destruction could have been prevented.

In an interview a few days ago, former Polish President Duda said that Volodymyr Zelensky had tried to drag Poland into the war with Russia. From the outset, they wanted to involve everyone in the conflict.

That's right, I think so too, in the strongest possible terms, in every way, through provocation, diplomatic means, and so on. So they tried to drag European countries, including Hungary, into it with every means at their disposal, because we are right next door, and perhaps it is easiest to drag us into this war. That is why it is very important what the outcome will be, and perhaps most importantly, what the outcome of next year's parliamentary elections in Hungary will be, because we are here, in Ukraine's neighborhood,

the minister stressed.

If the question is who is easiest to drag into a war, then geographical proximity obviously counts. So it is always easiest to drag neighbors into it first. And that is why we must constantly fight against being dragged into war. And I don't think people really understand yet how much pressure there is. Day after day, week after week, various European forums are constantly pushing us in the direction of becoming part of this war. And we have been fighting for three and a half years to prevent them from achieving this, as was stated in the program.

In contrast, Matyas Eorsi, a former SZDSZ politician, has claimed that the Hungarian government wants to provoke a military conflict with Ukraine. Peter Szijjarto responded to this by saying:

I sincerely hope that he did not mean it seriously. Let us leave it at that. In my opinion, it is unacceptable to speak in this manner about Hungary's involvement in a war or armed conflict. We may stand on opposite sides of the political spectrum and think whatever we want about each other, but I don't think it's right to talk about Hungary being dragged into war like this, because we are in an extremely dangerous situation. We are not talking about science fiction, we are not talking about fantasy, we are not talking about something that is thousands of kilometers away from us, we are not playing with ideas, we are talking about cold, hard reality. There is a war going on in our neighborhood, and it is clear that our neighbor is doing everything it can to make us part of that war.

He said: We must resist as strongly as possible and use every means at our disposal to ensure that our neighbor's efforts to involve us in his war are unsuccessful. And I believe that all such statements, including the one we have just heard from Eorsi, are dangerous for Hungary, and that it is not right to put Hungary and the safety of the Hungarian people at risk in this way.

Migrant Violence Spreads Across Europe

On Friday, it emerged that three Moroccan immigrants had harassed and raped two Hungarian women on the island of Sicily. The program stated that even in places where Hungarians regularly go on vacation, they are no longer safe. The news outlet Magyar Hang, one of Tisza's most committed supporters, did not dare to mention in the title of its article that it was Moroccans and immigrants who had been arrested for rape. The cover-up continues, the concealment continues, and they still want to convince Europeans and some Hungarians that there is nothing to see here, that there is no problem.

Yes, you could call this political correctness, saying that 'they have not revealed every element of the truth'. This has been a long-standing tradition in Hungarian domestic politics since 2005–2006, if I remember correctly.

This method of not revealing every element of the truth is experiencing a renaissance. There is nothing new under the sun on the opposition side, this is clear to see. So what happened here? Migrants, migrants in Europe, in a popular country in the European Union, popular with tourists, and on its popular island, kidnapping, luring and then raping Hungarian women. If it is not yet clear to everyone what dangers illegal immigration entails, if it is not clear to everyone what risks the formation of parallel societies entails, then after this event, I think everyone can be convinced of how important it is that we have not allowed a single illegal migrant into Hungary in the last ten years , Peter Szijjarto emphasized.

And the same thing has happened and is happening in terms of migration as is happening in terms of war. They want to drag us into war, and they wanted to drag us into migration, because they say that Hungary should also let in illegal migrants, that we should share and distribute the illegal migrants arriving in Europe, in the territory of the European Union. Everyone should take in some of them, including Hungary. And of course we resist this, we do not allow illegal migrants in from the south, there is a border fence, our police are there, our border guards are there, and we are not accepting them from the west either, because we will not allow them to toss back to us the illegal migrants whom they invited to the European Union, whom they inspired or conditioned to come here. As long as we are in power, illegal migrants will definitely not be allowed to enter. What would a puppet government do in this regard? We can all imagine what would happen if its leader were held accountable by Brussels. A puppet government would allow illegal migrants into Hungary. We will not allow that,

the minister emphasized.

The Moroccans did not have residence permits in Italy, so they were there illegally. Nicolas Sarkozy's interview with Le Figaro was mentioned, in which he spoke not only about Ukraine and the war, but also about immigration. And if you are familiar with the problem of parallel societies, then what the former French president said is quite alarming. Sarkozy talks about anti-Semitism, which he says has completely run rampant in Western Europe, and he also says that the survival of Europe is at stake and that the worst is yet to come, with Europe aging and Africa overpopulated. 

According to Peter Szijjarto, the former French president is absolutely right that illegal migration is undermining the foundations of Europe. There is no question about that. Parallel societies and parallel legal systems are the oppression of the representatives of the majority community that has lived in Europe for centuries by a vocal, growing but still minority group. This is a visible, traceable phenomenon in Western Europe today.

Poor Hungarians have now experienced one of the consequences of this. So I think that illegal migration remains one of the biggest challenges. It is one of the biggest points of contention between Brussels and Hungary, and we maintain that illegal migrants should not be allowed into Europe. It is clear that patriots are gaining strength across Europe, and so is the position that migrants should be kept out of Europe,

the minister stressed.

What should be done? The French president is right. The population in Africa is growing very rapidly, and this obviously needs to be addressed in some way. I believe that the right policy for Europe would be to enter into a comprehensive economic development partnership with Africa, to implement developments in Africa similar to those Hungary is already undertaking, such as providing tied aid loans to African countries to build water networks to provide drinking water, improve hygiene, or implement developments in the food industry that enable large numbers of people to have access to safe, healthy food. In other words, economic development programs need to be implemented in Africa that enable the growing population to stay there, receive education and healthcare, and find jobs. We should not encourage them to come here to Europe, because it is clear that we cannot cope with the challenges posed by illegal migration. We must help everyone to live a dignified life in their own country, he pointed out.

Regarding the Czech elections, the minister said: It is clear that there is an extremely anti-democratic and dangerous trend in Europe, especially in Europe. This trend involves attempts to eliminate patriotic politicians. In the best case, this means removing them from political competition; in the worst case, it means removing them from life. Because what is happening? In Slovakia, they tried to kill the patriotic prime minister. In the Czech Republic, there is a campaign, and the patriotic prime ministerial candidate was just physically beaten over the head.

For months now, mass demonstrations have been organized from abroad in Belgrade and throughout Serbia, which on the one hand make it impossible for a significant number of students to study, and on the other hand have the obvious goal of overthrowing the Serbian patriotic president. In Hungary's case, the entire Brussels institutional system is already being mobilized to install a puppet government in our place.

In Republika Srpska, the Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a witch hunt against the leader of the Bosnian Serbs has been going on for years. So there is a trend. In Austria, external European pressure from Brussels and cooperation with them succeeded in excluding the victorious patriotic party from government. In the Netherlands, despite the patriotic party's victory, a coalition had to be put together that turned out to be unworkable, and now there is a government crisis in the Netherlands. In France, Le Pen's party won a million more votes than the second-placed party. Yet what happened? Due to the peculiarities of the electoral system, the losers joined forces and formed a coalition against the patriots.

So the situation for patriotic parties in Europe is very difficult today, because social support is growing, but the pressure and the intention to eliminate them is also growing stronger,

said the minister. He emphasized: I hope, and at the same time wish Prime Minister Babis a speedy recovery and every success, that ANO will win the election, that it will have such strong support that the losers will not be able to push it out of government, and that if Andrej Babis comes in, then with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, the new Polish president, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and Serbian President Vucic, a patriotic alliance will be formed in Central Europe that will enable Central Europe to grow stronger again despite the weakening of Europe.

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