PM reportedly favors Russia over U.S. on leaked tape
In foreign policy, Hungary should concentrate on Germany, Russia and Turkey, not the United States, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told his party, according to what Hungarian online daily 444.hu says is a leaked recording. The recording was reportedly made during a March 28-29 Fidesz celebration at the Bibó István College in Buda, where Fidesz was founded.
While the three “power centers” continuously affect the region, the interests of the United States keep changing, the prime minister reportedly said. “Building a strategy on the United States’ CEE politics is strictly forbidden, because it can disappear from under your feet,” Orbán said.
He also spoke of moral differences with the U.S. leadership.
Orbán mentioned two examples in which Former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, a man that he has constantly vilified in public, made the right choice in opposing America.
During 2000-2006, Orbán said, then-Prime Minister Gyurcsány opposed U.S. pressure to accept military equipment for the “Star Wars” Strategic Defense Initiative. Later, when the American foreign affairs administration changed, “they were left hanging”. According to Orbán, Gyurcsány also chose correctly in favoring the South Stream gas pipeline promoted by Russia over the Nabucco pipeline being pushed by Americans.
“Americans were in favor of the Nabucco like hell. I represented that as well, and attacked Gyurcsány vehemently, saying it was foolish that they were supporting the South Stream instead of Nabucco. Then, out of the blue, the Americans announced that they will not fund it,” Orbán reportedly admitted.
Orbán reportedly said in the leaked tape that the American-Hungarian relationship has become tense because the foreign politics of the United States is determined by a “radical leftist” value system, which supports the marriage of homosexuals and sees a potential threat in “national identity”. When Hungary included “the trinity of God, Home and Family” in the fundamental law of Hungary, America acted as if this were an open provocation, Orbán said. “We were not looking for trouble … as at this time we were already in conflict with the banks and the EU as well,” he said.
According to the report, Orbán also said American and Hungarian interests conflict when it comes to Russia. It is “the USA’s identifiable interest is to confine Russia, which would have catastrophic consequences for us. Our interest is to create a beneficial and advantageous connection for us between the European continent and Russia,” the prime minister said.
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