MINSK, 5 June (BelTA) - Some western European states impose their views on others, and many tolerate this, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at a press conference after the talks with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko in Minsk on 5 June, BelTA has learned.
The question was about the coronavirus infection and different approaches to tackling it in different countries. The prime minister was asked why some countries felt entitled to impose their views on the issue. “Western states often believe that they are representatives of a higher-level thought because they have built parliamentary democracies after World War II. They think it gives them the right to tell us what to do and how. This is one of the reasons. The second reason is that we tolerate this. Many countries simply do not express their position firmly. We can listen to different opinions of theirs but nevertheless, this is our country, our economy, our destiny, and we can make decisions on our own,” said Viktor Orban.
“I absolutely support everything that the Hungarian prime minister said. I know his position. I really liked this phrase (I will say it in my own way) that they put pressure on us because we are sometimes over-patient with it. This is the key thesis,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko.
Viktor Orban added that the current economic situation is forcing the EU authorities to change their approaches. For example, the main focus in the EU now is to ensure that each country channels as much financial resources as possible to revive the national economy in the post-pandemic period. “If we want our companies to be competitive, we must invest additional capital in them. It was not possible before, but today there is such an opportunity and we should use it,” the prime minister said.
