During the debate, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wanted to primarily discuss Ukraine, which is entering its third winter of war. She then asked the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán if anyone blamed the Hungarians for the Soviet invasion in 1956. Up to this point, Orbán’s stance has blamed the war in Ukraine not on the Russian invaders but on the Ukrainian victim.
Prime Minister Orbán had the opportunity to present the priorities of the Hungarian presidency in a debate at the European Parliament in Strasbourg today. However, the entire democratic spectrum criticised him for his anti-EU policies, including alignment with Russia and China and obstructing the EU’s efforts to help Ukraine’s defence against the Russian invasion.
“And yet there are those who blame this war not on the invader but on the invaded. It is not Putin’s lust for power, but on Ukraine’s desire for freedom,” she said.
“So I want to ask them: does anyone blame the Hungarians for the Soviet invasion in 1956? Or the Czechs and Slovaks for the Soviet repression in 1968? Or the Lithuanians for the Soviet repression in 1991?”
“We, Europeans, may have different histories and different languages, but there is no European language in which peace is synonymous with submission, and sovereignty is synonymous with occupation. Ukrainians are freedom fighters, just like the heroes who liberated Central and Eastern Europe from Soviet rule,” President von der Leyen highlighted.
During the debate, several MEPs slammed Orbán for his attacks on the Rule of Law.
