Von der Leyen responds to Orbán's fake "peace initiatives"

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, has explained in her first public speech after her re-election why Orbán’s calls for an end to hostilities in Ukraine are wrong.

Ursula von der Leyen, who spoke at the opening of the GLOBSEC international conference, which is being held in Prague for the first time, stressed that this was the first time she had made a public speech since her appointment in July as President of the European Commission for the next five years, and therefore this speech was particularly important. She started her speech by referring to Russia's war in Ukraine as a key event on the European continent.

In her speech, von der Leyen once again acknowledged the mistake of Western Europe, which for a long time underestimated the warnings about Putin's aggressive policy. "You've warned us already years ago about Putin's intentions... Well, we should have listened better to Central and Eastern Europe," she said.

However, the president, without mentioning Viktor Orbán by name, harshly criticised the policies of him and Hungary.

"Would you ever blame the Hungarians for the Soviet invasion of 1956? Would you ever blame the Czechs for the Soviet repression of 1968?" she asked.

Von der Leyen focused on the so-called Orbán's "peace initiatives", which call for an end to hostilities and oppose the supply of defence weapons to Ukraine.

"Those who argue to ‘stop support for Ukraine’ do not argue ‘for peace’, they argue for appeasement subjugation of Ukraine... But while many outside Europe are preoccupied only with  the end of fighting, my position is that peace is not simply the absence of war. Peace is a settlement that makes war impossible and unnecessary," she stressed.

"But in no language ‘peace’ is synonymous with ‘surrender’," the European Commission President added.

Immediately after the start of the Hungarian presidency, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán went on a "peacekeeping tour", including to Moscow. The European Union distanced itself from his actions and stressed that Orbán was only representing his country on these trips. 

In this regard, in late July, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said that Hungary was becoming increasingly isolated in the EU, and its position was irritating the other member states.