During the debate on the programme of the Hungarian Council Presidency in Strasbourg, ECR Co-Chairman Nicola Procaccini expressed strong support for most of the priorities outlined by Viktor Orbán, but criticised the Prime Minister's stance on Russia.

Procaccini acknowledged that “the peoples of the European Union are going through a period of chilling demographic winter, which must be tackled by taking better care of the primary building block of any political community: the family. And immigration cannot be the solution to falling birth rates.”

Procaccini also shared the idea of a revised approach to the EU’s green transition, noting that “its limits and problems, which were foreseeable, are already clearly visible. These include the loss of competitiveness, the loss of economic resources to be able to protect the environment and the weaker social classes, and also the growing industrial and political dependence on an insidious regime like China.”

As another common goal, he named the fight against “the progressive fury that wants to erase Western culture and with it the reason for our togetherness.”

However, Procaccini criticized Orbán’s geopolitical alignment, particularly with Russia and China: “But we also have a much more dangerous external enemy that you seem to be unaware of, and that is the alliance of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

“The so-called quartet of chaos, which is the antithesis of every Hungarian, European, and Western patriot. The antithesis of freedom and beauty, of justice and democracy. Of those values that define us and that we want to defend, as the Buda boys of 1956 taught us,” Procaccini concluded.

ENDs

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Mr. Procaccini’s speech reads in full:

Thank you, Ms President, Mr. Prime Minister,

Mister President Orban, we share several objectives of your programme.

I will only mention a couple of them for reasons of time. The peoples of the European Union are living through a period of chilling demographic winter, which must be tackled by taking better care of the primary building block of any political community: the family.

And immigration cannot be the solution to falling birth rates. On the contrary, if immigration is not carefully regulated, stopping departures and collaborating with the migrants’ nations of origin and transit, Europe risks imploding along with its heritage of civil rights; a heritage painstakingly accumulated over time.

We too believe that the European Union’s green transition must be changed, as its limits and problems, which were foreseeable, are already clearly visible. These include the loss of competitiveness, the loss of economic resources to be able to protect the environment and the weaker social classes, and also the growing industrial and political dependence on an insidious regime like China.

Here, as a friend, I must also tell you what we do not like about your geopolitical plan. We share an internal adversary, and that is the progressive fury that wants to erase Western culture and with it the reason for our togetherness.

But we also have a far more dangerous external enemy of which you seem unaware, and that is the alliance of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

The so-called quartet of chaos that is the antithesis of any Hungarian, European, Western patriot. The antithesis of freedom and beauty, of justice and democracy. Of those values that define us and that we intend to defend as the Buda boys of 1956 taught us.