We asked Gergely Gulyás why the Hungarian government's position on Ukraine's EU accession changed

Although Telex was unable to address questions to the Minister of the Prime Minister's Office at Thursday's government briefing, our colleague Gergely Nyilas was able to put a few questions to Gergely Gulyás after the press conference.

In March 2022, shortly after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó advocated for Ukraine's swift integration into the European Union. This has since changed, and at Thursday's government briefing Gulyás stated that the government does not support Ukraine's EU membership. Our colleague asked why the government's position had changed.

Gulyás said that the situation is different now than it was in March 2022. At the time, the war had only been going on for a few weeks and there was a realistic chance of an agreement through Turkish mediation. The situation is much worse now because, for instance, the size of Ukraine's population and its borders is not known. He also said that Ukraine's EU accession would be dangerous from an agricultural and economic point of view, among others. “It is important that Hungary's voice is heard on this issue.”

In March, Gergely Gulyás said that so far "we have had two boots on our chest", led by the US ambassador, who was in the first row at Pride. "This has now been removed, so we can breathe more freely," he said. Our colleague asked what this American boot on Hungary's chest meant, to which Gulyás replied:

“the US ambassador marched in the first row at Pride, and under the Democrats' administration, the US state exerted the most intense pressure on Hungary.”

By comparison, in 2022, when we asked leading Fidesz politicians what message they wanted to send to the participants of Pride in 2022, two of them said "Have a good time!" Relating to this, our colleague asked today whether the government politicians had answered our question under pressure in 2022. According to Gergely Gulyás, "they answered a question politely".