Hungarian Foreign Minister Warns of ‘Energy Collapse,’ Demands End to War

Aug. 31, 2022 (EIRNS)—Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto warned on Aug. 29 that Western Europe is headed for an “energy collapse.” Western Europe’s policy of rejecting Russian energy, even in the absence of suitable alternatives, could lead to a systemic collapse, he said. “All these statements ... from Western Europe on the issue of energy supply simply do not work at all with winter approaching,” Szijjarto explained to a meeting of his country’s diplomats, reported UrduPoint News/Sputnik yesterday.

He also said that he will tell European Union Foreign Ministers at their Aug. 31 meeting in Prague to halt making moves that help to escalate the conflict in Ukraine, and rather focus on a peaceful settlement, according to TASS.

“At the meeting of European Union foreign ministers, I will ask for the war to finally end,” he said in a video posted to Facebook (however, Facebook is banned in Russia, TASS notes). He added that it’s now necessary to “forget the proposals that threaten to further escalate the war and allow Europe to focus on peace, as the consequences of war will be even more tragic if there is no peace in the short term.”

He then listed the threats to the global economy that were brought on by the conflict in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia: energy crisis, outflow of labor resources, shortages in the global food market, and new migration waves. “We should put aside proposals that are escalating the war and finally focus on creating peace in the world,” he said.