Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has called on Europe to “fight the fundamentalist greens” to end the energy crisis in the West, calling for coal, nuclear power and gas to be rolled out on a wide scale.
The comments come as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen calls for “mandatory” energy usage cuts by member states this winter, saying that the EU must “flatten the curve” of energy consumption.
NOW – EU will propose a "mandatory target for reducing electricity use at peak hours" in order to "flatten the curve." pic.twitter.com/Q6EuLLTM0L
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) September 7, 2022
Furthermore, von der Leyen recently urged countries not to “backslide” into using “dirty fossil fuels” like coal, even despite the ongoing crisis.
EU warns against fossil fuel ‘backsliding’ as coal replaces Russian gas https://t.co/zU3IxzZ3T6
— Financial Times (@FT) June 20, 2022
Orbán slammed this attitude, saying that “fundamentalist greens must be defeated.”
“The situation is that Europe has run out of energy,” Orbán said in a Facebook post, adding that “energy is the alpha and omega” and needed for running everything in society.
“There are few continents in such a difficult situation as ours, but only our continent makes our own lives this much harder.”
He went on, slamming “bureaucrats” in Europe who he says are playing “geopolitical games.”
“We have to fight the fundamentalist greens and the bureaucrats involved in geopolitical games,” he said.
“They need to be defeated, and this argument is a real battle to not exclude various energy sources – carbon, nuclear, gas – from the possibilities.”
Concluding, he assured Hungarians that his government would “do what is required” to ensure energy supply, regardless of whether the solution was “green” or not.
“We ain’t gonna have no shortage of energy,” he said.
“This is not a prediction, this is a statement of fact. There will be gas in Hungary and enough electricity.”
The statement comes as Irish Energy Minister Eamon Ryan continues to double down on his opposition to a new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal on the river Shannon’s estuary.
Eamon Ryan doubles down on opposition to new Shannon gas facility, despite crisis in Ukraine https://t.co/Bdabnzeujp
— Irish Independent (@Independent_ie) September 5, 2022