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Ursula von der Leyen appeared to take a dig at Hungary and its prime minister, Viktor Orbán, on Friday as she warned that “peace cannot be taken for granted.”
Speaking at the Globsec security conference in Prague in her first public engagement since getting a second term as European Commission president, von der Leyen said that “some politicians inside our Union, and even in this part of Europe, are muddying the waters of our conversation about Ukraine. They blame the war not on the invader but on the invaded; not on Putin’s lust for power but on Ukraine’s thirst for freedom.”
She added: “So I want to ask them: Would you ever blame Hungarians for the Soviet invasion of 1956? Would you ever blame Czechs for the Soviet repression of 1968? The answer to these questions is very clear: The Kremlin’s behavior was illegal and atrocious back then. And the Kremlin’s behavior is illegal and atrocious today.”
While Von der Leyen did not mention Orbán by name, EU leaders have been fuming at the Hungarian leader for months due to his opposition to military aid to Ukraine and his pro-Russia views — especially after he visited Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in July.
In a speech that focused on defense and security, von der Leyen said that “we Europeans need to have the means to defend and protect ourselves and deter any possible adversaries.”
Europeans have “learned their lessons” about defense spending after being caught off guard by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she argued, adding that the EU needs to build up its military and industrial capabilities.
Von der Leyen doubled down on her promise to appoint a commissioner for defense in her next college, which she is currently composing, saying that Central and Eastern European member countries are “very well-positioned” to play a bigger role in Europe’s defense efforts.
