This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban — who has been assailed by the West for his often Russian-friendly stance — has suggested that Ukraine cannot win its war with Russia and pressed again for negotiations, even as a Hungarian opposition figure disrupted his news conference at the European Parliament.
“We don’t want to block anything. We just want to convince European leaders to change their strategy [regarding Ukraine] because the current strategy does not work,” Orban told reporters on October 8.
“If you cannot win on the battlefield — you have to communicate, you have to negotiate, you have to have a cease-fire.”
Orban is in Strasbourg to address the parliament on October 9 to mark Central European country’s six-month stint in the rotating EU presidency.
The populist Orban government has maintained ties with Moscow despite Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Orban has opposed aid to Kyiv and also angered the EU with his increasingly authoritarian rule and for his ties to China.
Marton Gyekiczki, an activist and city councilor for Hungary’s opposition Democratic Coalition (DK), interrupted Orban’s news conference, tossing a stack of what appeared to be banknotes at the prime minister.
“How much did you sell out the country for? How much have you betrayed the country for, Mr. Prime Minister?” Gyekiczki shouted.
“He sold out to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. He sold out to [Chinese leader] Xi Jinping!”
A video posted online showed Gyekiczki approaching Orban before he was escorted out of the hall.
Shortly before Orban’s press conference, the parliament’s rapporteur on the situation in Hungary and the rule of law, Tineke Strik of the Netherlands, told reporters “what Orban will not say in his speech tomorrow.”
Orban “will present himself as a competent and strong Council [of the EU] presidency, an honest broker even,” Strik said “But he will stay silent about the corruption, the total state capture, his 24-hour propaganda machinery, and his authoritarian chokehold on virtual every aspect of Hungarian society.”
Orban also told reporters that U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump — if elected – would immediately start working on a peace deal for Ukraine, not waiting until his January 20 inauguration, and that EU leaders would need to be prepared.
By law and tradition, newly elected U.S. presidents do not engage in setting government policies prior to taking office.
Orban has long endorsed Trump, who critics say would attempt to force Ukraine into agreeing to terms with Russia that have been unacceptable to Kyiv.
