UNITED NATIONS, New York – Hungary continues to chart a path that officials believe best represents the “will of the people,” even as it puts the national government at odds with a liberal European Union.
“We have been a Christian state for more than 1,000 years since our first saint, King Stephen, offered the country into the hands of Mary the Virgin, and we take it seriously,” said Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, to Fox News Digital in a statement. exclusive interview during his visit to the United Nations in New York.
“We stick to our Christian heritage. We stick to our Christian roots,” continued Szijjártó. “We implemented a Christian Democratic political strategy.”
Hungary has found itself increasingly at odds with the European Union following aggressive moves by the European Commission to cut some €6.3 billion in funding for various Hungarian institutions; most recently, he voted to cut funding that will affect universities and students studying abroad on the Erasmus programme. Program.
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Hungary has even threatened to sue the EU over the decision, but the EU has argued that Hungary’s education system does not adequately protect academic freedom from political interference.
“When you ask the liberal mainstream in Brussels, in Washington, what they think democracy is, then they think that a political structure can be considered democratic if it is liberals who rule,” Szijjártó said. “That’s why they always talk about liberal democracy, but our position is a democracy is a democracy. You don’t have to use other words.”
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó spoke to Fox News Digital in the East Room of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
(Peter Aitken/Fox News Digital)
“We believe that a democracy means that you, as a government, as a political structure, do everything possible to carry out the will of the people,” he added.
Szijjártó accused the European Commission of suffering from “Hungarophobia” and continuing to add problems even as Hungary works to implement previously agreed targets.
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He called the action against universities “crazy”, claiming that other European nations have similar cases but don’t face the same kind of “double standards” for it, saying: “What is acceptable in one country is considered unacceptable in the rest”. other.”
“It’s really unfair that once you have an agreement on a closed list of issues, what to expect, you ask the question, is it enough?” argued Szijjártó. “So we did it, and then the European Commission submitted a new request[s].”
Musicians and dancers perform on stage in front of light-painted churches in Veszprem, Hungary, during the grand opening on January 21, 2023, when the city and its region became the 2023 European Capital of Culture together with Elefsina, Greece, and Timisoara, Romania.
(Attila Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images)
Two major issues raised by the commission centered on Hungary’s treatment of LGBTQ+ issues and the country’s asylum system.
Specifically, European leaders expressed concern about Hungary’s law limiting schools from teaching about homosexuality and transgender issues and accused the country’s government of failing to comply with the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.
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Szijjártó said the Hungarian government doesn’t care “who people fall in love with… who they share their private lives with,” but that the government believes that “education of children regarding sexual orientation is an exclusive right of parents”.
“When it comes to children, we will always protect them,” Szijjártó said. “So that is why we have prohibited NGOs from LGBT organizations, whatever, from going to our schools, to our kindergartens and without any kind of control for our children. You know, it’s unacceptable.”
Hungarian soldiers patrol the border between Hungary and Serbia near the town of Tompa, Hungary, on June 14, 2017.
(Reuters/Laszlo Balogh)
“We are their parents,” he added. “We know them better. I’m pretty sure there isn’t an LGBT NGO in the world that knows my kids better than I do.”
And while Szijjártó noted that it would be “highly inappropriate” to give any advice to President Joe Biden on border issues, he noted that Hungary’s experience has shown that “only with human resources, that is, only with the police, border guards, the army, it was impossible to protect the border”.
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Hungary tackled the problem by building a border barrier in 2015, intended to limit and control the flow of migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan, as well as a surge of migrants from Syria that divided Europe across Europe.
“We will never give up our national right to make a decision on our own who we allow into our territory and who we do not allow,” Szijjártó explained.
A girl who fled Ukraine with relatives sits on a bunk in a classroom converted into an emergency shelter at a school in Zahony, northeastern Hungary, on the border with Ukraine, on March 4, 2022.
(Marton Monus/Image Alliance via Getty Images)
“So there is no external force that has the right to take this ability of the right of choice from ourselves,” he said, noting that when former President Donald Trump was in office, Hungary and the US were aligned on their point. view on immigration policy.
The border has taken a new approach as the Russia-Ukraine conflict nears the one-year mark: Hungary has accepted around 1 million refugees from Ukraine but has kept out around 260,000 illegal immigrants from other countries.
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“They have crossed a number of safe countries,” Szijjártó said. “They have no right to enter. There is no reason for any person to violate the border between two peaceful countries.”
Hungary remains concerned about Ukraine, noting that the impacts of the conflict are “grave and immediate” for his country due to “refugees, skyrocketing inflation, skyrocketing energy prices, skyrocketing food prices.”
Szijjártó noted that for the United States, the conflict may seem “from an ocean away,” but the consequences are “really dire at home,” which is why Hungary advocates peace talks and a shift to “current war rhetoric.” “. She argued that the peace talks also benefit the Ukrainian people because “they are suffering.”
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“The longer this war lasts, the longer it will drag on,” he said. “The more it escalates, the more people will suffer.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
