It is necessary to openly fight Soros and his “army” and to establish that they want immigration and their ideological motivation is a multicultural Europe, Orbán told public Kossuth Radio.

“They do not like the traditions of Christian Europe and they believe that if they mix us with other peoples, then Europe will be more liveable,” he added. “They want to ruin Europe because they expect large profits; that’s just the nature of financial speculators,” he said.

However, “we do not want to be mixed with others,” Orbán said. “We are fine the way we are now”, as regards Christianity, the language, culture and way of life, as well as the freedom of religion and the approach to family and relations between men and women, he said.

Next year’s European Parliamentary elections will concern these issues and the conflict of values, the prime minister added.

Commenting on a planned constitutional amendment submitted to parliament, he said that considering the required two-thirds majority support is granted, there is no room for hesitation “at times like this”.

The government expects to begin a 1-1.5-year-long revision of the constitution in September “to determine what has worked or could have worked and highlight the areas that could have been regulated by the fundamental law but with which the subsidiary laws were not in line,” Orbán said.

Further, the review will aim to pinpoint regulatory gaps that will need to be bridged by new constitutional text, the prime minister said. Last Tuesday, the government submitted to parliament a constitutional amendment proposal covering the issue of constitutional identity, issues related to the courts and issues concerning privacy protection.

Orbán also welcomed recent political developments in Europe, saying that “some tough boys have appeared in European politics.”

“We are gentle and mild mannered compared to the new leaders who have now opened their mouths,” he said, citing Austria and Italy as examples.

The Italians have said they want to put a stop to migration and instead of distributing illegal migrants, such migrants must be removed from Europe, Orbán said.

The Visegrad Group had previously offered billions of forints to the government in Rome to promote this plan, he added. In response to a question concerning the possibility of renewed migration pressure on the Balkans, he said that Hungary as the gate to the Balkans has a vested interest in making sure that “things progress well”.

As a result, Serbia will continue to be considered a strategic country and Macedonia will be equally important, he added. “We can indeed see signs ... of the flow approaching” which will be a challenge and even though Hungary has “managed to prevent migrants coming this way, our neighbours are not protected and they need to be helped,” he said.

On another subject, he described next year’s draft budget as a “robust and earthquake proof” one that will ensure secure growth. As regards the deficit target of 1.8% of GDP, Orbán said the budget will be a balanced one in the sense that operating expenditures and revenue will balance out, with “investments in the future” creating the deficit.

Orbán said that although it was possible that an economic crisis may be coming over the next few years, he did not want the government to have to implement austerity measures. This requires a disciplined handling of the economy, he said. The prime minister said a global economic crisis could be triggered by rising interest rates, high levels of indebtedness, especially among euro zone members, and the impact of possible trade wars.

“It’s not raining yet...but clouds are in the sky,” Orbán said. The increased budget reserves are an “umbrella”, he added. But all of this will not deter the cabinet from pursuing its goals of safeguarding Hungary’s security, promoting growth, reducing unemployment and supporting families with children, he said.

MTI Photo: Máthé Zoltán