(21 Dec 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Budapest, Hungary - 21 December 2022
1. Various of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arriving for news conference
2. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Viktor Orban, Hungarian Prime Minister:
"Since everyone in Brussels knows that this didn't just start, and the general view has always been that Brussels is full of corruption, the question is why didn't the protection mechanisms work? Without throwing the ball back at you, I would quietly ask, where were the investigative journalists in Brussels over the last decade when these types of cases were happening and becoming almost a daily practice? So, there is work for everyone to do here, but again, the most important thing is to drain the swamp."
3. Camera
4. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Viktor Orban, Hungarian Prime Minister:
"So in relation to Ukraine, it is worth stating that the existence of an independent and sovereign Ukraine is also in the Hungarian national interest. The second thing is that it is not in our interest to permanently divide the European and Russian economies into two, so we are trying to save what can be saved from our economic cooperation with the Russians, that is, from Hungarian-Russian economic relations."
5. Media reporters
6. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Viktor Orban, Hungarian Prime Minister:
"We have debates with the European institutions, and we would like to transform them. But the fact that they lose credibility, that this hypocrisy - which we know very well - is revealed, it destroys the strength of the community to which we belong. At the same time, it also proves that the decision of the Hungarian Parliament in the debate on the future of Europe, on how we envision the future of the EU institutions, was not without foundation. In the Parliament's resolution it says that the Hungarians would like for the European Parliament to be dissolved in its current form. We want the European Parliament to be made up of representatives from the national parliaments."
7. Hungarian flags
8. Reporters
9. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Viktor Orban, Hungarian Prime Minister:
"The real question is how we look at war, and that reveals a difference. The Poles think that the Ukrainians are fighting for their freedom and security as well. But we don't think that at all. So I don't think that the Ukrainians are fighting for the security or freedom of Hungary. Ukrainians are fighting for their own country, heroically, as a matter of fact. But not for Hungary. Hungary will never be protected from anything by Ukraine. Hungary will be defended by itself and NATO. So our security is not provided by Ukraine. It is our membership in NATO and the Hungarian defence capability integrated with it, and that is what we believe in. In this sense, the outcome of the war in Ukraine has no influence on Hungary's security.''
10. Orban leaving stage
STORYLINE:
Hungary’s prime minister thinks it’s time to “drain the swamp” in the European Union, he said on Wednesday, something he imagines could lead all the way to dissolving the bloc’s legislature.
In an annual international news conference in Budapest, Viktor Orban said a recent corruption scandal involving several members of the European Parliament had drawn into question the credibility of the institution, and that he supports abolishing the body as it currently exists.
“The Hungarians would like for the European Parliament to be dissolved in its current form," Orban said.
Adding to the tensions between Budapest and Brussels is the Hungarian government's lobbying against sanctions on Moscow for its war in Ukraine.
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