President Emmanuel Macron is right in saying that the Russian-Ukrainian war is costing Europe much more than the United States, wrote Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in a recent tweet.
“If we want European industry to survive (the war), we have to deal with the European energy crisis quickly. It is time to reassess sanctions,” Orbán added.
In the post, the Hungarian prime minister also linked to an interview with the French head of state on CBS’s “60 Minutes.” In it, Emmanuel Macron spoke about how the Russia-Ukraine war has also created tension in the historic alliance between the United States and Europe.
“I think that this administration and President Biden personally are very much tied to Europe. But, if you look at the situation today, you can see that that relationship has been desynchronized. Why? The answer is energy,” said the French president. He then pointed out that Europe is buying energy from the U.S. because of the end of Russian energy dependence, but at a much higher price than U.S. businesses and households can obtain it, which amounts to a six-fold difference, according to CBS.
In the interview, Macron said that “this is not how friends behave towards each other,” adding that in war they have a common interest, they are fighting for the same thing, but they are not paying the same price, “and that cannot be ignored.”
Orbán has described Europe as having “shot itself in the lung,” due to its sanctions policy, and has called on Europe to end sanctions on Russia by the end of the year. This sentiment has been echoed by some politicians in Europe, as well as a number of business leaders in Germany, who argue that they condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine, but that it is ultimately not Germany’s war.
