Sanctioned in Brussels, Viktor Orban continues his anti-European rhetoric in Hungary

Inspired by a ritual established by Vladimir Putin, to whom he remains close despite the war in Ukraine, Viktor Orban organizes a press conference once a year, the length of which is supposed to compensate for the rarity. This exercise was held on Wednesday, December 21, in a dark context for the Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister. The Hungarian economy is facing the worst inflation in all of Europe (+23.1% in November), the European Union (EU) has just decided to freeze more than ten billion in funds due to the government’s undemocratic excesses and a poll, published on December 21, shows that two-thirds of the ten million Hungarians now consider their country “going in the wrong direction”.

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“2022 was probably the most difficult year for Hungary since the fall of communism”, recognized in opening Mr. Orban. But he immediately assured that his country had “achieved exceptional results”, blaming, for the negatives, ” Brussels “them “penalties” against Russia or “Hungarian Central Bank”. The latter had to raise its rates to a record level of 13% to curb the fall of the forint, the national currency.

“If there were no energy sanctions, Hungarian inflation could be halved”, hammered Mr. Orban, to explain the relative seriousness of the economic situation compared to that of its neighbors in Central Europe. In reality, the country benefits from an exemption on the European embargo on Russian oil, which came into force in December, and there are still no sanctions on gas.

Media at the Prime Minister’s boot

But reality counts for little in a Hungary where the narrative is dominated by the media at the boot of the prime minister. They recently launched a crusade against the country’s latest critical press titles, described as “dollar media” on the pretext that they would be financed from the United States. The propaganda media hammer home the message of power so effectively that a poll by the Political Capital Institute published in mid-November showed that 36% of Hungarians believe that “their government did not vote for sanctions against Russia”. A proportion that rises to 50% among Fidesz voters, the party of Mr. Orban. However, Budapest approved all the packages adopted in Brussels.

“We did not veto the sanctions, but we did not support any of them”acrobatically supported the Hungarian leader on Wednesday, to maintain this confusion. “Anyone supplying weapons is involved in this war at least to the ankles. Whoever trains soldiers is knee-deep. And whoever finances one of the belligerents – as the EU currently does to the tune of 18 billion euros – is involved up to the neck”, he added, in an all-out attack on the European policy of support for Ukraine. Then he defended his plan to build a new Russian nuclear power plant.

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