June 28, 2022
Hungary said last week that the only way that Europe can avoid a recession is if there is an immediate ceasefire announced in Ukraine and warned that Europeans will grow weary of a war that is unfolding “far away.”
Balázs Orbán, the political director for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (no relation), told the Financial Times that the EU should move towards “rationality” and, instead of backing the Ukrainian military, call for a peaceful settlement.
“They see that they can beat Putin, they can occupy the Kremlin and that’s their goal,” he told the paper. “At the beginning of the conflict, at least in the media, that was the mainstream opinion. But I would make a bet with you [on] how it will look in four months’ time… more rationality will come up.”
He told the paper that the middle class will begin to suffer in Europe and that will lead to new pressure for politicians.
“In Portugal or in Spain, people will not accept the fact that they are at war because they are far away…So it will cause political tension for sure,” he said.
His comments are in lockstep with his boss, the prime minister, who said that he is opposed to additional sanctions imposed against Russia and that the world should look to peace.
“We say yes to peace and no to more sanctions,” the prime minister said, according to Prensa Latina. He made the comments at the European Union summit in Brussels.
GLOBSEC institute conducted a recent opinion poll in Central and Eastern Europe that found only 48 percent of Hungarians blamed Russia for the Ukraine invasion.
There’s an ongoing debate in the EU about how long a united front against Russia could last when the fall and winter roll around and these countries are forced to function without Russian gas.
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