The European Union should not become a federalized, centralized state, but should instead focus on ending mass migration and the war in Ukraine, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told national media in an interview on July 1, the day his country assumed the revolving presidency of the EU.
Orbán stressed that the leaders in Brussels “have made a power pact whose only aim is to dominate the political positions in Brussels for another five years, but it won’t work because you can’t govern against the people, and that makes those of us who want change even stronger. It will lift us up, it will increase our strength and we will achieve this change. If not in two weeks, then in two months, but it will happen,” he said.
“We do not want a Europe that takes away, diminishes and erases everything that is important to us as patriots,” Orbán added, according to Hungarian news outlet Infostart.
Orbán has formed a new alliance at the EU parliament level, with the new Patriots of Europe parliamentary group already attracting the biggest parties in Austria and Czechia, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and Czechia’s ANO, led by former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.
“This is the mindset of the people who have gathered, or are beginning to gather, under the banner that we three raised in Vienna on Sunday: the leaders of the largest Austrian party, the largest Czech party and the largest Hungarian party. We will be a large parliamentary group faster than anyone thinks now. In four to five more days, many people will be surprised,” added the prime minister, who also revealed that negotiations are underway with many political groups and that the formation meeting of the group will take place on July 8.
Asked how he would position the Alliance within the EU parliament, the prime minister said: “Our name means Patriots for Europe. We are patriots who are passionate about our country and who care about Europe,” he said. “We want strong European cooperation for the sake of our own country.”
“We do not want a European empire, we do not want a United States of Europe, we do not want a gray blob, a command-and-control system controlled from Brussels. We want national sovereignty and independence under our own national flags.”
One of the common themes of the group is its promotion of peace within Europe, with the group looking to bring together parties that do not want to prolong the war between Ukraine and Russia, but instead want a ceasefire and an end to hostilities.
“What has gone wrong?” the Hungarian prime minister asked. “The people of Europe want peace. Today, instead of peace, the people of Europe are getting war. We want order and security, but instead the people of Europe are getting migration and the resulting threat of terrorism and crime.”
