Szijjártó confronts Orbán’s Ukraine war scare after Magyar’s victory
As Telex notes, during the election campaign, Péter Szijjártó’s Fidesz party repeatedly claimed that the opposition would drag Hungary into the war. (Photo: REUTERS/Ramil Sitdikov)
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó gave an interview
after the ruling Fidesz party lost parliamentary elections — and had to answer
questions about the “war for Ukraine” scare that Viktor Orbán’s government had
used to alarm voters, Hungarian outlet Telex
reported on April 22.
Szijjártó was asked about Fidesz’s campaign rhetoric and
whether he would receive a draft notice after the opposition Tisza party won
the election.
“Probably not at this point, because I was never in the
military, and I don’t believe that if someone looks at me now, at 48, they
would consider me fit to go fight on any front,” the foreign minister said,
adding that he hopes the new government will be able to keep Hungary out of the
war.
Telex noted that during the election campaign, Fidesz and
its leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, repeatedly claimed that the opposition
would drag Hungary into the war.
At the same time, Szijjártó said he was “really alarmed by
the fact that we are living in wartime conditions in Europe” and described
flying on the same plane as two Ukrainian prisoners of war whom Russia had
handed over to Hungary — an experience that he said made him “feel how close
the war is.”
“I even told my boys at home not to consume or watch too
much political content, because Hungarian politics is much harsher than it
should be,” he said.
Telex noted that pro-government media and politicians had
repeatedly pushed the claim that Hungary would enter a war with Russia if
Fidesz lost the election. Orbán even published an AI-generated video showing
Hungarians supposedly fighting on Ukraine’s side.
“We do not want our children to be sent to the Ukrainian
front in Hungarian army uniforms, or even to Ukrainian territory, and to come
back in coffins,” the video description said.
Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on April 12.
According to the final vote count, Péter Magyar’s opposition Tisza party will
hold 141 seats in parliament, giving it a parliamentary majority. Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party will receive 52 seats, while Our Homeland
will have six.
Magyar said on April 15 that Hungary’s president would ask
him at the parliament’s inaugural session to form the next government, which
could be sworn in by mid-May or slightly earlier.
He said one of his first steps as head of government would
be to suspend the operation of state media.
Magyar also said he expected Orbán to lift his veto on a EUR
90 billion EU loan to Ukraine after oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline
resumed.
Péter Magyar is set to be sworn in as Hungary’s prime
minister on May 9, reports said on April 22.
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