Manfred Weber has joined the elite club of the left, where the political right only has extremes and the political left only has a center, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban wrote on Wednesday, responding to the EP group leader of the European People s Party (EPP). The Prime Minister s Press Office issued a statement about Mr Orban s letter to Hungary s state news agency.

Hungary s premier responded to Manfred Weber after the German politician – in an interview with the conservative German Welt am Sonntag newspaper – had reacted to Viktor Orban s interview published a week ago by the same paper.

In his letter entitles Samizdat No. 5, Hungary s premier recalled that to the German public, Manfred Weber has labeled Hungary s policies as being on the wrong track, adding that these policies „have been governing Hungary for ten years now.”

Before the COVID crisis hit, these policies have succeeded in cutting unemployment from 12 percent to below 4 percent and „decreasing state debt from 84 percent to less than 66 percent. Meanwhile, we have more than doubled the minimum wage and nearly doubled the average wage. At the same time, the financial assets of households have grown threefold,” Viktor Orban wrote, stressing that „since 2014, Hungary s GDP has grown 2-3 percent above the EU average. Hungary has spent the most in relative terms on family support, culture and sport. We guarantee places in creche and nursery schools and provide free school meals and textbooks for Hungarian children.”

„Is this the wrong track?” – PM Orban asked.

It is „public knowledge”, he said, that Manfred Weber resents Hungary. „He blames us for his failure to become the president of the European Commission. This is true. But should a leader of a European political party be allowed to let his vision succumb to personal anger or even hatred? – PM Orban asked.

„We expect that our leaders will strengthen our party family, elevate its weight and influence so that together we would be stronger than the mathematical sum of our efforts,” the Hungarian premier wrote.

„Manfred Weber has joined the elite club of the left, where an absurd European political geometry is currently in fashion. According to this geometry, the political right only has extremes, therefore, even its mere existence poses continuous threats: it is synonymous with fascism, Nazism, nationalism, anti-Semitism and homophobia. The political left, however, only has a center, therefore it poses no threat to the ideals of the European People s Party, and neither does it jeopardize freedom, democracy and market economy,” PM Orban wrote.

As a result, Weber and his allies have closed the gates towards the right, Viktor Orban wrote, adding that „first, they kicked the Brits out of the EPP and then the EU. The conservatives led by PiS cannot be considered partners, and it is also better to get rid of the suspicious, Fidesz-like Christian conservatives, too.”

„The gates must be opened towards the left. Let s welcome the Social Democrats, then the left-wing Liberals, soon the Greens. Who knows where it will stop? It s a slippery slope,” PM Orban wrote.

„The people in Brussels must understand that, for us in Central Europe, our contempt for Marx, Lenin and communism is no less than what we feel for Nazis and national socialism,” Orban stressed.

„A politician with ambitions for high office in Brussels must understand that Central Europe will never surrender its Christian values, national culture and our belief in the traditional – and, for us, the only – family model,” he added.

Those pursuing positions in Brussels must also understand that the goal is not the cultural, liberal homogenization of Europe but the construction of the alliance of free nations, Hungary s premier argued.

„The path of politicians pursuing positions in Brussels is not easy, if they are German,”he wrote. 

Politicians with ambitions for high office in Brussels „would be making a mistake if, instead of accepting our cultural and historical differences, they tried to force migrants on us or threatened us with sanctions, withdrawal of funds, starving us out and other assorted torments.”

„They would be making a mistake, if they denied the existence of national sovereignty, as does Weber,” PM Orban wrote.

„They would be making a mistake if, as Weber suggests, they placed the European Parliament above national parliaments, and, instead of the consensual decisions provided for by the EU Treaties, they would favor a majority decision-making process, one that suppresses smaller countries,” Viktor Orban stressed.

„It is not easy, but possible to thread the eye of the needle. Supposedly, everyone is capable,” PM Orban concluded. 

In an edition of Welt am Sonntag published on 20 December, Hungary s premier said Manfred Weber had insulted the Hungarian people. In response, the German politician told the same newspaper a week later that Viktor Orban s policies are on the wrong track.