The Hungarian government on February 13 denied that Prime Minister Viktor Orban had floated the possibility of withdrawing from the European Union during a campaign rally the previous day.
Orban’s spokesman, Zoltan Kovacs, posted on Twitter that Germany’s dpa news agency “got it wrong.”
“PM Orban didn’t hint at leaving EU,” Kovacs wrote. “On the contrary, he said: ‘We, for our part, want to keep the EU together…. The EU only has a future if we can stay together.”
Dpa's story covering a speech by Orban on February 12 was headlined: Orban Hints At Possibility Of Hungary Leaving EU.
Speaking in an annual address that this year marked the start of his campaign for Hungary's parliamentary elections on April 3, Orban said the EU is waging "a holy war, a jihad" against Hungary under the slogan of the rule of law.
Orban told his supporters in Budapest that the EU should show "tolerance" toward Hungar.
Orban also warned of a possible flood of refugees from neighboring Ukraine if Russia launches a military invasion there.
“The Russia-Ukraine conflict is urgent,” he said. “Hungary’s interest: War must be avoided first and foremost.”
However, he also spoke against the EU’s plans to impose harsh sanctions on Moscow if it attacks Ukraine.
“Sanctions, punitive policies, lecturing, or any other kind of arrogance on the part of the great powers are out of the question,” said Orban, who has perhaps the closest relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin of any EU leader.
Since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014, Orban has consistently opposed EU sanctions against Moscow, although in the end Hungary has voted to support them.
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Orban spoke just a few days before the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice (ECJ) is due to rule on a new mechanism that would link the allocation of EU funds to respect for the rule of law in member countries.
Hungary and Poland had filed a complaint against the mechanism adopted in December 2020 that would see countries that violate rule-of-law principles cut off from funds from the common EU budget. The ECJ is due to deliver its ruling on February 16.
EU bodies and human rights organizations accuse Orban, who has ruled Hungary since 2010, of assaulting democracy and the rule of law.
Orban railed against the accusations, saying, "For them, the rule of law is a means by which they want to knead us into something that resembles them."
However, Orban said, Hungary wanted to keep the EU together "despite growing cultural alienation."
That is why Budapest has made "offers of tolerance" to Brussels on several occasions, he said.
"There is no other solution, only tolerance. This is the only way we can find a common path," Orban continued.
Some 80 percent of Hungarians are in favor of their country's membership in the 27-nation bloc.
Orban for the first time faces a united opposition in the upcoming elections, and opinion polls predict a close race.