Viktor Orbán warms emotions with his actions and statements. Even though our relation was friendly a long time ago, present it was on knives.
The Prime Minister of Hungary said any harsh sentences about the geopolitical game of Poland. He presented her with an analysis worth reasoning about. Known – Pole, Hungary 2 nephews (in Hungarian: Lengyel, magyar – két jó barát). But recently, the brothers had a hard fight, they went for knives.
Nephews
Our eternal relationship is obvious, after all, even the founder of the Hungarian state, Saint Stefan, was the boy of Adelaide – daughter Mieszko I. General Bem is the commander in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, whose monument stands in Budapest and under it the 1956 Uprising began... Polish Miracle over Vistula saved the train with 80 wagons of Hungarian ammunition, which arrived at the station in Skierniewice on 12 August 1920.
Legendary is besides the answer to which the Hungarian Prime Minister Pál Teleki He offered Hitler a joint attack on Poland: “I will blow up our railway lines more rapidly than I will participate in the invasion of Poland. For Hungary it is simply a substance of national honor not to participate in any military action against Poland". besides aid of Hungarian soldiers during the Warsaw Uprising, or blood from Poland for the fighting Budapest in 1956...
Today Polish mass trips to Budapest to celebrate Hungarian national vacation on March 25. Or the Polish-Hungarian relationship Day on 23 March, passed by both parliaments, and in the Polish Parliament by acclamation in the name of “1000-year relationship between our peoples”. At the seat of the Prime Minister of Hungary (pretty placed in the old Carmelite monastery on the Buda slope overlooking the Danube and Budapest) on that day there are 2 flags: Hungarian and Polish.
Cooperation and conflict
Today's political paths of Poland and Hungary in Europe sometimes merge, sometimes completely diverge. Viktor Orbán, inactive in opposition, tried to inspire the fighting spirit of Polish politicians. His 2009 message entered the book of quotations from the Polish right hand: “When I read criticism about Poland in the left Hungarian press, that it has aspirations to become a regional power of Central Europe again, then I talk out to myself: Well, finally!”.
Indeed, during the years of the PiS and Fidesz governments they fought together in Brussels and achieved success, sometimes reaching for hard tools, like the EU veto towards the budget. The continued shooting of the liberal majority in Brussels surely encouraged cooperation. However, after coming to power in Poland the liberal part of the political establishment – it goes like after December. In the issue of Polish thought (Viktor Orbán's peaceful mission | Think Poland (myślpolska.info)) I described Viktor Orbán's peace mission to Moscow. It caused an angry attack of the EU elite, but besides of the Polish government. Donald Tusk presents himself as the leading Liberal of Europe, so he took the chance to be the first in grilling the Hungarian Prime Minister. Hungarians abstained from criticism, Viktor Orbán softened: “Let us remember, all Poles are our friends.”
However, whether it was the right or the left that ruled Poland (because in Hungary there is inactive Orbán and Fidesz) always, but that was always 1 reason for sharp divisions and criticism on the Polish side. Russia.
Russia divides Poland and Hungary
In 2015, erstwhile Hungary invited president Putin to Budapest, Jarosław Kaczyński, then in opposition, he refused to meet Viktor Orbán. The allegation was very tasty: "The Hungarian Prime Minister's message is simply a storm of European solidarity". In relations with Russia, the PiS referred to "EU solidarity"! After the outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict, Hungary was accused that Budapest's policy was contrary to Polish interests in the east.
The Prime Minister of Hungary tried to soften, in July 2022 in Tusnádfürdő, as he said about Polish-Hungarian friendship: “The strategical interests of Poles and Hungarians towards the war are converging..., but the war hinders our relation with our friends, due to the fact that erstwhile it comes to reason and business, they overlap. The problem is in the heart. There's a heart problem in our relationship. We see it as a war between 2 Slavic nations. We want to stay distant from her and Poles feel that it is their war, they are almost fighting in her."
At the same time, he continued to defend our alliance, as there were opportunities for cooperation behind the Law and Justice. He so appealed, "If this is simply a substance of the heart and we cannot communicate, we must usage reason and save as much as possible from relationship and strategical alliance for post-war times." Peter Szijártó, the head of the Ministry of abroad Affairs added: “The interest of Hungary is to keep good, honest relations with Russia. We base abroad policy on national interests.” Accused of all the worst, Viktor Orbán, with his own intent of formulations, answered briefly and precisely: “Hungary in the Russian-Ukrainian War is on the side of Hungary”.
The Hungarian politician sees the place of our region not as the suburb of the West, but as the "area between the German and Russian world". Orbán besides learns a historical lesson from this situation: “Central Europe has always been the victim of conflicts between East and West. It is in our national interest to have a civilized and constructive dialog between them."
The war of earlier divisions has dramatically deepened, confronting our states, which were on 2 sides of the barricade today. As far as Moscow and Brussels and Washington are concerned, let alone Kiev. It is so hard to be amazed that the Hungarian Prime Minister yet said goodbye to diplomacy.
About Polish Geopolitics
Viktor Orbán in July at the 33rd summertime Free University for Youth Tusványos, where he gives his analysis of political problems all year, said any harsh sentences about Poland and our geopolitical game in Central Europe. They are worth quoting, more – thinking.
First, the Prime Minister hit hard: “Poles have the most sacred policy in Europe. They moralize and teach us for economical relations with Russia, and at that time they buy Russian oil carelessly, of course, through intermediaries.” French who “buy Russian LNG gas, at least not moral, and Poles do business and teach othersIt’s okay. ” Orbán concluded his tirade with sighs: “I have not seen politics at this level of hypocrisy for 10 years.” This ensured the publicity of his statements.
However, Orbán did a deeper, structural analysis of our strategy. He accused Poland of breaking the backbone of Europe, which for the continent was the axis of Paris – Berlin. It reminded us of the times erstwhile it was working, based on European interests. erstwhile America invaded Iraq more than 20 years ago and wanted Europe to join the war, Chancellor Schröder and president Chirac expressed their opposition together with president Putin.
Today, however, Europe is not guided by its own interests, and the mechanisms of this dramatic change, Orbán, described: “First we see the Chancellor of Germany saying that they will only send helmets to announce the shipment of weapons a week later. The same Chancellor agrees to sanctions, as long as they do not include energy, and in 2 weeks' time, he himself is at the forefront of sanctions policy." It's easy to say "crazy," but no, "on the contrary, he's in his right mind. He knows perfectly well that Americans and liberal opinion forming device – universities, think-tanks, investigation institutes, media – usage public opinion to punish a French-German policy that is incompatible with American interests. This is the origin of this phenomenon.”
Under specified pressure, the earlier construction was replaced by the London – Warsaw – Kiev axis. According to Viktor Orbán, “a Polish plan to solve the problem of the situation between the large Germans and the large Russia, by making Poland the largest American base in Europe. It's an invitation from Americans here, between Germans and Russians... This is an old plan to weaken Russia and overtake Germany."
The consequence of the Polish strategy was the demolition of the Visegrad Group's concept (V4), constructed as a 3rd entity between Belin and Moscow, but not aimed at conflict with them. Poland withdrew from this concept, implementing a strategy aimed at against these players.
However, the Prime Minister of Hungary is not a success for us, as the Polish strategy lacks solid foundations. It is simply a “Polish trap”: “They have put everything on the table, that is, the power of Democrats in America. These supported Polish goals, but alternatively imposed exports of democracy, LGBTQ, immigration and interior transformation of society that threatens to lose national identity". Since this policy entails serious costs, he believes that "the Polish task will neglect due to the fact that Poles do not have the resources to implement it. They will gotta return to Central Europe and V4. So let us wait for our Polish brothers to return.”
Viktor Orbán is more than a politician, he's a statesman. At the same time, with the day-to-day exercise of power, he analyses politics, besides global, to specify key forces of history, dominant trends and crucial events. He's not just a publicist, like me, given the modest, publically available crumbs of knowledge. It's inside the power mechanisms, it's part of it all day. Therefore, it is worth considering his diagnosis of the Polish strategy.
Andrzej Szczęsniak
photo profile of Viktor Orban
Think Poland, No. 33-34 (11-18.08.20124)
