Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, addressing an international press conference on Tuesday, said he would do everything in his power to convince EU leaders that the security of the Balkan region was crucial for them, too. Stability in the Western Balkans needs to be made into a European issue, he said. If it is, the more powerful member states can be convinced to support enlargement, he said. However, if enlargement is not supported, Hungary will still need to do everything it can to promote the integration of the Western Balkan countries into the European economy without them being EU members, Orbán added.
Asked to comment on the Slovak foreign minister’s remarks against the Hungarian government’s criticism of Brussels, Orbán said that because Slovakia was a member of the euro zone, it did not have the same room for manoeuvre that Hungary did. “Hungary enjoys greater sovereignty because it has its own currency,” he said.
Meanwhile, Orbán said he saw no evidence that Russia was behind the Belarus migrant crisis.
Asked about the bribery allegations against former justice ministry state secretary Pál Völner, Orbán said he had known Völner since his youth, adding that the affair was “regrettable”. Asked about the possibility that Völner had been bribed to approve wiretapping, Orbán said all surveillance operations in Hungary were initiated by the interior ministry and could not be requested by the justice ministry. Asked about Justice Minister Judit Varga’s responsibility in the case, Orbán said he had not considered that Varga bore any responsibility and had no knowledge of any circumstances that would indicate this. The government has no authority to investigate the case, he said, adding that it had to wait for the prosecution to conclude its investigation before deciding on the next steps.
Asked if the bodyguards of President János Áder had been targeted using spyware, Orbán said if he wanted to know anything about Áder he would ask for himself, adding that he trusted the president more than “any gadget”. Asked if he himself had given instructions to spy on journalists, politicians and civil activists by way of the Pegasus software, Orbán said that application of any such secret service instrument was within the powers of the interior minister. He added, however, that the interior minister had “one guideline to follow: Hungary should have all the [secret service] capabilities of other countries in Europe. He also cited Interior Minister Sándor Pintér as saying that no illicit intelligence activities had taken place in Hungary since 2010.
Asked to comment on the idea that the opposition could amend the constitution with a simple majority if it came to power next year, Orbán described the plan as “unrealistic” and a “political bluff”. Hungary has a solid constitutional order in place, he added. In response to another question, the prime minister said the constitutional rules of procedure did not allow for the planned referendum on the Budapest campus of China’s Fudan University to be held before the spring parliamentary election. Asked about probable US meddling in next year’s elections, Orbán said that given its 1,100-year-old history, Hungary was not wary of any other state’s interference. “We’ve had everything and yet we’re still here,” he said.
Asked how the fairness of next year’s general election could be guaranteed if “public media is not unbiased”, Orbán said the government was not a body that had authority over public media and therefore could not and would not influence it. He said he was certain that the election would be fair, emphasising that Fidesz would never attempt to exert influence on public media.
Orbán said the Hungarian media landscape was pluralist, while Western media was hegemonist. Orbán said he believed 50% of Hungarian media outlets represented Christian Democratic and conservative values, while the other half could be characterised as progressive, liberal and left-wing. Orbán said he would be deserving of criticism if he tried to exert influence on any media outlet.
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