Peter Marki-Zay: Hungary’s Unexpected Opposition Candidate

PETER MARKI-ZAY, HUNGARIAN OPPOSITION CANDIDATE: Hello, Christiane. And it’s a pleasure talking to you. Of course, my views are very different. But you also have to note that Mr. Orban’s stance on the migration is also controversial. So he did actually allow quite a few refugees even from Afghanistan. And, at the same time, he’s also accepting migrants for work visa, for example, 55,000 the last number from 2019. So I don’t think the big difference would be the practice. The difference is how you treat these people and also how you communicate, because Orban is using migration for his hate campaigns. It’s very strong rhetoric on migration, not necessarily so strong on the practices. Practices, I mean the numbers. So, yes, we need to treat people humanely wherever they come from, and, also, we should never, ever conduct hate campaigns against any minorities and the groups — any groups of people.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: OK, so just let me one more question on this then, because it’s important, and migration is one of the big issues of our time. As you know, Orban and his ministers — and I have spoken to his foreign minister a few times — tout the current system that you’re living under there as illiberal democracy. And beyond that, the foreign minister told me a few years ago that — he explained or at least he tried to explain, to answer, when I asked him about Orban calling for a Christian Hungary. This is what he said to me:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: What are you saying, that anything other than white Christians into your country are not accepted?

PETER SZIJJARTO, HUNGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: No one said that.

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: Excuse me. Your prime minister did say it, a Christian Hungary.

SZIJJARTO: Yes. Yes.

AMANPOUR: You deserve a Christian Hungary.

SZIJJARTO: Yes, because we are — we have been a Christian country for a millennium. And I don’t really understand, why is it bad news that we don’t want to change that? And I don’t understand, why is it bad or why is it unacceptable that we would like to stick to our history, to our culture, to our heritage, to our religion?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: So, Mr. Marki-Zay, you are also a devout Catholic. I just wonder whether you agree with that. You talked about how they have to be treated humanely and how the communication about migrants needs to be humane and respecting human rights. So, how would you be different than what Szijjarto and Orban say about them?

MARKI-ZAY: First of all, according to my views, there is nothing Christian about Orban or Szijjarto. They also started — they are the ultimate pragmatists.