The long-awaited speech by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Strasbourg was supposed to be an opportunity to outline some priorities of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. It turned into a spectacle, during which the Fidesz leader removed several pebbles from his shoes. In the face of a storm of critical interventions, the Hungarian Prime Minister responded point by point, on topics such as support for Ukraine and Hungary’s (close) relations with Russia, accusations of corruption and his idea of a traditional family .
There was no shortage of a personal attack aimed at the Italian MEP Ilaria Salis, who escaped a criminal conviction in Hungary thanks to her election in the European Parliament in June. Some MEPs from the far-right group Patriots for Europe, founded by the Hungarian, described today’s session as a sort of “tribunal”, with Orbán as the main defendant. Even without lawyers, he defended himself with his “weapons”. Below are the salient and controversial phrases with which the far-right leader addressed the European Parliament.
Defeat on the Ukrainian front
Regarding the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, generously financed and militarily supported by the European Union, Orbán stated: “In Hungary there is a hundred-year-old saying: ‘If we want to win, we must first have the courage to admit that he’s going to lose.’ And we’re actually losing on the Ukrainian side and you’re acting like that’s not the case.”
Then the criticism directed against Ursula von der Leyen. “And also thanks to the president of the European Commission, the European Union, on the basis of wrong data and with a wrong strategy, intervened in this war. If we want to win, we must change this strategy”, declared the Hungarian prime minister, reiterating the need of “diplomatic activity” and “communication with the parties in conflict.
The political intifada of the left
Orbán also reacted in the face of numerous interventions aimed at denouncing the impoverishment of the rule of law in Hungary pursued by the Fidesz party, with laws against the judiciary, the free press and the opposition, “I would have liked to discuss the program of the Hungarian presidency but you don’t care: you wanted to organize a political intifada and you repeat the lies of the Hungarian left.”
The beating of von der Leyen
On the distances between Budapest and Brussels, the Fidesz leader has decided to directly attack German politics in his second term at the helm of the EU. “There are differences of opinion between the Commission and Hungary, it’s true. I didn’t mention it, given that we as a presidency work for Europe: it was an unfortunate choice by von der Leyen”, he added, commenting on the speech by the president. “Von der Leyen has made the commission a political weapon at the service of the left,” he added.
The idea of the traditional Hungarian family
For years Orbán has been intent on attacking the LGBT+ community in his country, in a similar way to what Vladimir Putin is doing in Russia and proposing concepts also dear to Giorgia Meloni. “Our Constitution, which does not change, defends the family and children and among other things says that it is made up of a man and a woman. The father is a man, the mother is a woman. We have the right to determine our constitutional structure”, said the Hungarian prime minister.
The priest friend of Orban and anti-LGBT who participated in gay orgies
Just a few weeks ago, a priest and leading exponent of the Hungarian ‘pro-life’ movement ended up in a scandal for having participated in homosexual orgies, with videos ending up on various porn sites. Gergő Bese is a no ifs and buts supporter of Fidezs, the party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Corruption: Orbán mentions Qatargate
There were multiple interventions in the chamber by MEPs, both Hungarian and other states, aimed at recalling the corruption problems that afflict Hungary and which have been denounced several times by both the opposition and the international press. “I reject the accusations of corruption in Hungary. There have also been cases of corruption in the European Chamber. Are you talking about corruption? But are you serious?”, said Orbán in response to the European Chamber plenary referring to the Qatargate scandal which exploded in 2023 and which involved various European MEPs and people who worked in the world of EU institutions.
On relations between the EU and Russia
“Say that Hungary buys energy from Russia. Since the beginning of the war, EU countries have bought 8.5 billion worth of refined oil in India and Turkey, and this is a ‘hypocracy’, the power of hypocrisy”, underlined Orbán , arguing that this shift from Central Asian countries allows “French, German and Spanish” companies to evade sanctions on Russia. “Among other things, your companies pay billions of dollars in tax revenue to Russia and then criticize us. It is you who finance the Russian war!”, the Hungarian leader chanted.
The numbers of Russians in Europe
Still on the topic of relations with Moscow, Orbán defended himself regarding visa liberalization, which facilitates the entry of Russian citizens into Hungary. A decision that was read very critically by Brussels. “Three thousand Russians work in Hungary. Since last year with everything we have reached seven thousand permits. Von der Leyen is German and what about Germany? 300 thousand work in Germany, 100 thousand in Spain and 60 thousand Russians in France. Sincerely criticized Hungary because there are 7 thousand?”, Orbán criticized.
Orbán’s attack on Freund and Salis
After the interventions of the MEPs, the Hungarian prime minister spoke again and personally attacked some MEPs, including the Italian Ilaria Salis, elected from the ranks of the Alleanza Verdi Sinistra last 9 June. “Whoever accuses me of corruption like the Honorable Freund (Verdi, ed.), he is the most corrupt, because he is paid by Soros”, said Orbán. “I find it absurd that here we all have to listen together to Ilaria Salis who had beaten peaceful people in Budapest with iron bars. Are you talking about the rule of law?”, thundered the Hungarian prime minister, referring to the criminal trial against Salis in Budapest for having attacked, according to the accusation, exponents of the Hungarian far right. “The debate has gone beyond common sense, I have only heard accusations resulting from your well-known propaganda. If you do not read the reports financed by Soros but other independent data you will see that Hungary is no worse off than others in terms of corruption,” he added.
Ilaria Salis’s intervention against Orbán
Salis had said in the chamber: “The presidency of this Hungarian government is very improper. United Europe was born from the ashes of the defeat of Nazi-fascism. And it is paradoxical to have a presidency led by someone whose objective is to dismantle the EU in the name of nationalism. Hungary under Viktor Orbán has become an illiberal and oligarch regime. An authoritarian ethnic state, some have called it a modern tyranny.” An intervention that was particularly unpleasant to the authoritarian Hungarian leader.
