“The decision of the US president flies in the face of all this,” Orbán said in an interview to public radio, adding that understanding the ramifications of Donald Trump’s move would require a lot more reflection.

Answering a question suggesting that neither German Chancellor Angela Merkel nor Martin Schulz, the Social Democrats’ chancellor candidate, considered the US a reliable partner, Orbán said “the Germans should show more modesty when it comes to remarks like that”.

He argued that “generalising statements have proved to be dangerous in European history”. He insisted that Europe “has not been able to find the way to serve the interests of its citizens in the past 100 years without cooperation from the US,” he said, adding that he was hopeful neither Germany nor the US would quit that cooperation.

Meanwhile, reflecting on a German proposal suggesting that cohesion funds could be cut for members breaching the rule of law, Orbán said he does not believe that “they meant it”. “The most important European value is delivering on contracts, and the migrant crisis broke out because the Germans breached [an agreement]”.

“If we wanted to tie subsidies to European values, Germany would be the greatest loser”, Orbán said. Concerning the government’s demographic policy, Orbán said the goal was to make Hungary a pro-family country, in which “women will say that it is good to bring up children”.

He said the current, negative demographic tendencies should be slowed down, stopped between 2025 and 2030, and then reversed.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Máthé Zoltán