Orbán: Fico dropped out of work at the worst time possible

"Everyone is heartbroken by the assassination attempt, everyone is shaken, shocked, people keep saying, myself included, is this what Europe has come to?" Viktor Orbán said on Kossuth Rádió on Friday, reacting to the assassination attempt on Robert Fico. I don't think anyone is surprised by the fact that the level of violence is rising in Europe, he added. He then talked about the fact that there is more than one kind of violence, and then moved on to how the European narrative has changed since the war in Ukraine started, and how the pro-war narrative started dominating public discourse.

"The way violence has become part of our everyday life is tangible throughout Europe, and this is a big problem," he said.

The European Union's number one mission is peace, and the second one is prosperity, these are the two things it was supposed to provide to the countries that joined it. "We are praying for prime minister Fico, we are rooting for him, we wish him a speedy recovery," Orbán said, adding that "At the moment, Robert Fico is fighting for his life, he is still between life and death".

Even on Friday morning, Orbán insisted that the attacker was a "progressive leftist, pro-war" figure. He said this in spite of the fact that much of the Hungarian press has already reported that the assassin being thought to be a left-winger is the result of a mistranslation, since the adjective "levický" (from the town of Léva) in the original Slovak texts is translated by most automatic translation programs as "left-wing" (which is "ľavicový" in Slovak).

The Prime Minister also touched on the political aspect of what happened, saying that Fico had dropped out of the job at the worst time for Hungary, because he believes that the question of war and peace in Europe will be decided based on the European Parliament and the US elections. "We would have really needed a Robert Fico for this fight", as he is pro-peace.

Even until now, there were not many of us who spoke up for peace. Except for the Holy Father, but he doesn't vote, and then it’s us and Slovakia, Orbán said.

On the Russian-Ukrainian war, he reiterated that there is no solution to this war on the battlefield, that diplomats should step in again instead of soldiers, but that NATO is preparing a mission instead. "It's not only human lives that are suffering, but the economy too" he continued, saying that the effects of the war are also visible in the prices in Europe. "We must confront the Soros empire, and if necessary, US foreign policy," and we must make them understand that the parties should get back to the negotiating table.

"I can see that during the First World War István Tisza wanted to stay out of the war, he wanted to keep Hungary out of the war, because he knew that if we lost, we would be in big trouble. It is likely that he didn't even know just how much trouble we would be in – Orbán said, giving a historical retrospective. "Of course, historical situations are never the same, but there is no doubt that the great powers around us are pushing Hungary into war. (...) Our predecessors failed, but we will succeed," he explained. And for that to happen, he said, we need national unity, and with that, he arrived at the elections, where voters can show what their position is, and sovereignty must be defended.

The visit of the Chinese President and the agreements that were reached last week were also mentioned during the interview. Orbán said that he had compared China's economic strength and importance with where it was twenty years ago, and found that the country had now doubled its strength. When asked why it was necessary to bring in technological innovations from China, he said that China had in recent times become a world leader in a number of areas, including rail technology, telecom and IT companies and the battery market. He said he did not want to shut out a country because of ideology.

"I would like to see Hungary as a bridgehead, not the deck" Orbán said, explaining that he did not like the analogy of Hungary being a bridge between east and west, which many use. He would prefer to see the country as a meeting point between the West and the East.

During the conversation with the Prime Minister, it was not mentioned that a few years ago Russian secret services carried out a large-scale cyber-attack against the IT network of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and that this has now been confirmed by new documents published by 444.hu.

Over the past few weeks, Viktor Orbán has campaigned in several places throughout the country, although much of the press only found out about his appearance after the fact. Two days ago in Sopron, he said that "Hungary is the only one speaking the language of peace, and we see signs of war preparations all around us, even in NATO. We therefore need as much authorization as possible to represent peace in Brussels".