The premier used the Hungarian term for “great distance” to say that the distance was as great as that between Mako and Jerusalem.
As Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated on Friday to Radio Kossuth, Hungary feels that Ukraine is extremely far away from joining the EU and that Budapest will not back down from its stance on membership discussions in exchange for a possible unfreezing of funding by Brussels.
“Ukraine is not at all prepared to engage in negotiations over its EU membership bid. Using a well-known Hungarian expression, he declared, “Ukraine is as far from EU membership as Mako is from Jerusalem.”
The phrase is considered to be a play on words based on the similarity between the names of the town in southeast Hungary and the port of Akko, through which a large number of European pilgrims passed en route to the Holy Land. The latter settlement is today Acre, in Israel.
The European Commission suggested on Wednesday that official membership negotiations between Kiev and the EU begin. About 90% of Brussels’ conditions, according to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, have been met by the Ukrainian government in order for it to advance to the next stage.
The EU’s stance on Ukraine, particularly its backing of arming the nation against Russia and the choice to cut off European economies from Russian markets and supplies, has been sharply criticised by Hungary. Budapest contends that it has harmed EU members more than Moscow and has failed to put an end to the carnage in Ukraine.
READ ALSO: Ukraine war: Army chief Zaluzhny’s aide killed by explosive birthday gift
The Orban administration’s detractors assert that he is using his position to exert pressure on Brussels about internal Hungarian matters. Under the current prime minister, Budapest has been criticised by the EU leadership of regressing in terms of democracy and the rule of law.
According to a Reuters story from last week, Hungary is expected to get €13 billion ($13.6 billion) in money that Brussels is considering offering to unfreeze in order to gain support for aiding Ukraine and the membership negotiations.
“I categorically deny any relationship. About the fictitious agreement, Orban declared, “We will neither initiate [such a deal] nor accept it from Brussels.”
Saying that the current EU leadership “fulfils the mandate of globalist elites” rather than the people of member states, the prime minister attacked the current leadership. Orban continued, “One instance of how Brussels’ policies contradict the interests of the member states of the bloc is the conflict in Ukraine.”
