Orbán: „Israel cannot be equated with an organization on the EU’s sanctions list” 

The prime minister justified why Hungary vetoed the EU statement condemning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with Europeanness and Judeo-Christian values, Telex writes

The Hungarian Prime Minister’s Press Office issued the statement in response to the fact that Armin Laschet, chancellor of the German party alliance CDU/CSU, recently stated that the European Union’s foreign policy should move toward majority decision-making. The German politician then said that 

Hungary was the only EU member state not to support the EU’s joint statement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

According to EU High Representative Josep Borrell, among other things, the statement included

that the EU condemned all forms of violence and that only a political solution could lead to peace; it also called for an immediate ceasefire. 

In his response, Viktor Orbán wrote that the Hungarian government acted in accordance with the EU Treaty when it vetoed the statement, as it required full agreement on the most important issues. 

„To accuse Hungary of non-Europeanness for exercising its right under the treaty is, in fact, deeply non-European.” 

According to Orbán, the French and Germans cannot ignore the opinions of their Muslim citizens, but few Muslims live in Hungary and 

„We still live our lives according to Judeo-Christian values, culture and perception of life,” while most Western European countries „have entered an era of a post-national and post-Christian perception of life.” 

According to the Hungarian prime minister, it is therefore natural for Hungary that 

“Israel cannot be equated with an organization on the EU’s sanctions list.”

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