Hungary: EU sanctions policy is a total failure – and those who promoted it should be held accountable.

By Romegas

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Szijjártó blamed the EU’s sanctions for “sky high” inflation, bigger utility bills and higher gas and food prices, putting the continent’s economy into a recession.

During an interview with public radio broadcast on Sunday, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said European Union sanctions against Russia have neither “forced Russia to its knees” nor brought peace any closer, but they have harmed Europe. He called the sanctions policy “a total failure”.

He noted that Brussels had “promised” at negotiations for the first round of sanctions that the punitive measures would drain Russia and advance efforts to achieve peace. “This was a complete failure as it is now clearly apparent that those sanctions hurt Europe much more than they did Russia while doing enormous damage to the EU economy,” he said. Minister Szijjártó said that gas prices had started to rise after the sanctions were cleared and some European politicians and officials started to talk about extending the sanctions to gas. “The market priced that in, causing gas prices to skyrocket,” he added.

“We will not approve any decision that harms Hungary’s national interests. The security of our energy supply remains a red line. Any sanction that puts our energy supply at risk is unacceptable for us,” he said. Minister Szijjártó noted that he had discussed the security of Hungary’s energy supply and the expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, at a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Responding to the suggestion that the United States is benefitting from the EU’s sanctions policy, Szijjártó said “the American economy is a winner because of these sanctions, without a doubt”. While the EU slips into recession, the US economy, bolstered by cheap energy prices, among other factors, is becoming more competitive, he added. “I don’t know who can tug EU officials out of this extraordinarily unsuccessful and hypocritical policy, but one thing is for sure, these sanctions are harming Europe,” he said.

“I must honestly say that the sanctions policy has failed. And its supporters do not admit this yet, only because if the sanctions policy has failed, then the question arises – what about the politicians who promoted it? he said.

In his opinion, the logical outcome for officials will be that those who promoted and advocated for sanctions will have to leave, since someone should be held responsible for the damage caused to Europe.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Hungarian Prime Minister went even further and accused those who play up Ukraine’s chances of victory are lying:

“Anyone who is involved in politics understands logic, numbers, data, knows that this is impossible. This is a tragedy for Ukraine. Their soldiers will run out earlier than Russia’s,”

Commenting on Western liberalism, Orban stated that is now indistinguishable from Marxist totalitarianism.

Full interview here: