Steven N.A so-called “pro-peace” resolution was passed 130-24 by the Fidesz-KDNP majority in Parliament on Friday morning on a primarily party-line vote.
MPs from DK, Our Homeland, Momentum and Dialogue all voted against the resolution, as well as KDNP representative János Latorcai. MSZP, Jobbik and Dialogue also submitted amendments to the decision, but they were rejected by the governing parties.
Máté Kocsis from Fidesz and István Simicskó from KDNP submitted the eight-point proposal, originally drafted to commemorate the first anniversary of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Among other things, the resolution states that “the National Assembly condemns Russia’s military aggression and recognizes that Ukraine has the right to self-defense.”
However, the government also managed to weave its own “pro-peace” narrative into the document:
- in point seven, it states that Hungary, as a “committed member” of NATO and the EU and as a sovereign state, “will do everything to promote peace;”
- point eight states that an immediate ceasefire is the only acceptable course of action, while also condemning the transport of “weapons that cause death” and calling on public figures not to drag Hungary into war through their public statements.
Several opposition parties submitted amendments to the Fidesz proposal. MSZP wanted Parliament to adopt a resolution identical to one passed by the UN, which was put forward by Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on behalf of Hungary, and which the Hungarian government voted for.
Dialogue’s proposal stated that only Russia and Vladimir Putin were responsible for the war.
The government is apparently continuing to attempt to portray all of its political opponents as “pro-war,” in contrast to its own “pro-peace” stance. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who was not in Parliament for the vote, spoke about similar themes in his Friday morning interview on Kossuth Rádió.
Orbán also said that the threat of a world was “not a literary exaggeration.” [HVG, Magyar Hang]
Besides accusing the opposition of shared responsibility for most “harmful” Western inflences – LGBT rights, refugees and migration, the war, witheld EU-money, etc, it looks very much as if Orbán tries to signal Austrian FPÖ that he want’s to tag along in the Austrian bid for negociation.
There is a large obstacle, which Orbán hasn’t got a credible answer to – Austria isn’t a NATO member, has a good rapport with Ukraine and have a history of international conflict-negotiation, which the EU isn’t reluctant to recognize – Hungary on the other hand, can’t check any of those boxes.