Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Monday denounced the “suicide” of the West and recalled his “red line” concerning sanctions against Russia, during his investiture ceremony in front of Parliament.
“The western world is experimenting with the ‘great replacement’ program. [Ce] program wants to replace endangered Christian children with migrants from other civilizations,” said the 58-year-old head of government, who “sees the same way” the “madness” of gender theories.
This conspiracy theory, popularized by the extreme right, argues that elites would organize the replacement of Western populations by immigration. It was, among other things, cited by the young white supremacist who targeted a Buffalo supermarket frequented by many African-Americans last Saturday.
Large winner of the legislative elections in early April, Viktor Orbán had previously been sworn in for a fourth consecutive term after being re-elected by 133 votes out of the 199 in Parliament. He presented Hungary, a “haven of common sense” where having “God’s blessing remains important”, as “the last bastion with Poland of the conservative Christian West”, while “the European Union has given up “.
Two opposition parties left the hemicycle, calling the new government “illegitimate”, after 12 years of building an “illiberal” state in Mr. Orbán’s words, international organizations for their part castigating an “authoritarian drift”.
The question of Russian oil
While discontent is mounting in the EU against Budapest’s blocking of the oil embargo project against Russia, Mr. Orbán, who has been getting closer to Vladimir Putin in recent years, recalled that “threatening energy security” remained “a red line” not to be crossed.
Hungary rejects the sixth package of sanctions for lack of guarantees on the maintenance of its supply, and quantified Monday at between 15 and 18 billion euros the cost of a cessation of purchases of Russian oil.
Despite this discord, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, “congratulated” him. on Twitter for his “re-election”, saying he was “looking forward to collectively successfully tackling the unprecedented challenges” facing the EU.
Dear Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, congratulations on your reelection today.
The EU faces unprecedented challenges.
I look forward to working together to ensure we can collectively address them successfully.
—Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 16, 2022
The oldest EU leader for his part reiterated his wish to see his country “remain a member of the EU in the coming decade”.
He also judged that Hungary’s membership in NATO was “an existential question”, while regretting the current escalation concerning its Ukrainian neighbor. “The Russians launched a so-called military operation and the United States decided to fund Ukraine with unlimited military equipment and material, which led to the worst possible combination,” he said.