Orbán on Russian-Ukrainian peace: Trump isn't strong enough to get European leaders on his side

“Prime Minister, you have repeatedly said that you had high expectations from Donald Trump, both in terms of peace in Europe and in terms of finally ending the war. I think that by now many of us find it difficult to follow the news and understand what he is announcing and what he is saying or waiving at a given time,” a young participant of a conversation with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at MCC Fest said, introducing the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the peace agreement promised by Donald Trump who has been making a different decision every day. In his response, the Prime Minister expressed unusual criticism of the US president.

"Indeed, I thought – since I am an optimist – or I hoped that at least half, but rather three quarters of 2025 would be peaceful. I thought that the American president would be sworn in in January, then there would be some pushing and shoving, and say, three months would pass, and then the roadmap for how the world would achieve peace would be revealed," said Viktor Orbán.

"By the way, we also based the 2025 budget on this. It is obvious that as long as the war continues, the economic outlook will be completely different than when there is no war. This is true for economic growth, and it is also true for inflation. But that is not how things turned out," the Prime Minister said, adding that he has been working for months to ensure that the prioritized programs set out in the budget would not have to be abandoned, even though we still don’t have “a budget of peace”.

According to Orbán, the fact that there is still no peace in Ukraine constitutes a serious economic disadvantage for Hungary, and he went on to explain why he thinks the situation has turned out this way. “I thought that the US president would be strong enough to get European leaders to toe the line, whether they liked it or not. And then everyone would have to dance to the same tune.

But he wasn't strong enough. So I don't see the Russians or the Ukrainians being the problem, because things have always been this way with them, but rather that the US president isn't strong enough to get European leaders on his side. This is why there has been a transatlantic rift. The Americans have taken the position of “peace, and if there is no peace, then we will just leave you to your own devices.”

At the same time, European leaders want to win a war against Russia on Ukrainian territory, and so far Trump has been unable to change their position. "This is where we are right now," Orbán said, repeating that he believes this is a suicidal approach. "I mean, we can continue down this path for a few more months, but this path is just not viable. Or if it is passable, then there's a cliff at the end. So it’s not something we can finance. (...) We don't have the money for it, we especially can’t afford spending what we have on buying American weapons instead of developing our own military industry, so developing our own military industry and buying weapons too – we don't have that kind of money," he said.

Viktor Orbán believes that the development of the entire European economy has come to a standstill, so if there is money, it should be spent on the economy rather than on war. "And slowly but surely, public opinion is also shifting away from this liberal pro-war stance," he noted.