In his Hungarian public radio interview Hungary's prime minister touched on, among other issues, the coronavirus situation and the latest government measures introduced, as well as on the migratory pressures Europe is experiencing. In connection with the latter, he said that Hungary is defending all of Europe, but Brussels is not helping in the defence.

In Hungary, although the number of new coronavirus cases and those in hospital care is rising, the number of patients requiring ventilation is declining. Consequently, some rules had to be changed, Viktor Orban told Hungarian public radio (MR1) on Friday morning.

From 15 February, only people who have received the third, booster dose or those who received the second jab within six months will be considered vaccinated, the Hungarian premier said. The self-isolation mandate is reduced to 7 days, but can be lifted after 5 days by testing negative,

PM Orban said, adding that anyone can get vaccinated without prior registration from Thursday to Saturday every week in January.

PM Orban noted that there is an ongoing debate about the defence [against the pandemic] across Europe, which is necessary, but must not weaken the strength of defence efforts. Hospital staff are going beyond their limits, doing everything they can to help patients, and they deserve recognition for their work, he said. Despite this, he added, the Hungarian left has produced fake videos and has falsified facts, thus weakening the power of the defence. In the PM’s view, his opponents are unable to make a distinction between attacking the government and downgrading the country.

In speaking about the criticism of Eastern vaccines, PM Orban pointed out that the debate regarding the Chinese vaccines are basically parenthetical, as they have been approved by the WHO.

Serious international organisations are looking at vaccines, assessing which vaccines are useable and which are not. No one should be so bold as to arbitrarily decide on the scientific issue in respect to which vaccine is good and which is bad, he said. Business interests exist in the vaccine market, but there must be a responsible, international, scientific community that is in charge of examining vaccines, the Hungarian prime minister stressed.

Touching on the latest campaign slogan that says „Hungary is going forward, not backward”, Viktor Orban said that this sentence incorporates the struggle the country has been fighting over the past 12 years.

He recalled that the currently ruling parties took over a bankrupted country in 2010, pointing out that Hungary has since rectified the consequences of the sins committed by the leftist governments: the unemployment rate can be considered good and growth is at seven per cent. Eleven years of work should not be thrown out the window, Mr Orban said. The second part of the campaign slogan is also significant, because the Hungarian left is now again urging people to trust them to run the country,

the premier explained, noting that these politicians could have proved themselves while in power, but did nothing to protect the people. The minimum wage was not raised and energy prices were not reduced, but the Hungarian left did not support the current government’s decisions after 2010 either, he recalled.

Mr Orban also expressed his opinion about the Hungarian left’s intention to privatise health care. As he put it, there are always business interests behind the privatisation of the Hungarian health care system, and privatisation favours big business and international capital. The left wants the people to believe that it is not the state that provides security, but the entry of private capital.

“Doctors’ salaries have recently moved in the right direction, nurses’ salaries have also risen, and we have also reached an agreement with the Chamber of Medicine to have a public healthcare system in Hungary, so we are working to create better conditions,”

Mr Orban said, adding that there is still room for improvement, as the global healthcare situation is also changing and developing.

“Migration as a threat is with us, and therefore the border protection system needs to be transformed.”

Regarding the growing migratory pressure, Mr Orban said that in 2020, 45,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended at the Hungarian borders, and in 2021 this number nearly tripled. The prime minister noted that he himself periodically visits the Hungarian border to meet with soldiers and police officers.

“I believe the Hungarian people are not aware of the work they are doing there. Constantly being on alert is what the border patrols say is the most difficult.They have to be watching constantly, because if they lose focus for a moment, the migrants have already come over or under the fence. So we should be grateful for their work,”

he said, adding that migration as a threat continues and therefore border protection must be transformed, with new forces being brought into the system.

The premier also said that the statement by the Swedish EU commissioner, who believes that immigrants are indispensable, is shocking. As he put it, “We think the opposite, we don’t want immigrant and migrant organisations to be involved in the economic recovery. We do not want any of this, even if it would be cheaper in the short term to let them in than to defend ourselves against them.” Mr Orban stressed that the Hungarians are defending the whole of Europe, while Brussels is not helping financially.