In an appearance on Hungarian Kossuth Radio, Prime Minister Orbán launches a new attack on the EU's sanctions.
It's time to throw out the sanctions through the window and create a sanctions-free relationship with Russia, says Orbán according to the news agency Bloomberg.
The crisis is acute as Hungary has announced that it is not yet ready to extend the parts of the sanctions that would otherwise expire on January 31, and which primarily affect the Russian economy.
Hungary wants to wait for Donald Trump's inauguration as President of the United States before making a decision, in order to know how the new US leadership will position itself.
Royal decree?
According to the Financial Times, the EU is considering an unusual countermeasure to at least be able to keep the 190 billion euros of Russian state assets that have been frozen at the international depository institution Euroclear in Belgium.
A Belgian law from 1944 gives the head of state – currently King Philippe – the right to block money transfers from the country.
If Orbán does not back down, a national solution is the only possibility, says an EU Commission source to Financial Times.
The Belgian royal court does not want to comment on whether the question has been raised, but emphasizes that the real responsibility lies with the Belgian government.
"Serious threat"
In his radio appearance on Friday, Orbán also accuses the Democrats in the US of having rigged the presidential election in 2020.
If there had been no fraud, which should be unthinkable in a Western democracy, then Donald Trump would have continued as President. And if that had happened, there would be no Ukrainian-Russian war today, says Orbán according to a summary posted by government spokesman Zoltán Kovács on X.
According to Bloomberg and AP, Orbán also claims that Ukraine after the war will be "a serious threat to the European economy" and that a potential Ukrainian membership in the EU would force other European farmers to shut down.
Viktor Orbán (born 1963) has been Hungary's Prime Minister since 2010 and leads the conservative Fidesz, which at the EU level is part of the far-right group PFE, together with, among others, the French National Rally and the Belgian Vlaams Belang. Orbán has been married to Anikó (born Lévai) since 1986 and has daughters Ráhel, Sára, Róza, and Flóra, as well as son Gáspár.
Philippe Léopold Louis Marie – Filip Leopold Lodewijk Maria in Flemish – (born 1960) has been King of the Belgians since 2013, when his father Albert II abdicated. Philippe has been married to Queen Mathilde (born d'Udekem d'Acoz) since 1999 and has four children: Crown Princess Elisabeth, Princes Gabriel and Emmanuel, and Princess Eléonore.
