Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Hungary's EU membership remains worthwhile for now, but there could come a time when this changes. "There could theoretically be a point when it's no longer worth staying. If I see that point, I'll tell the Hungarian people," Hungary's veteran leader said in an interview.

Orban's communications team has clearly shifted strategy, as the prime minister has intensified his campaign by giving two or three lengthy interviews to right-wing podcasters and YouTubers. Some of these feature light-hearted, humorous conversations, whilst others include questions he is not typically confronted with in the pro-government mainstream media or public broadcasters.

In an appearance on the far-right channel Ultrahang, Orban addressed topics and controversies he had long avoided, such as the enrichment of the ruling elite, his 2009 meeting with Vladimir Putin whilst still in opposition, seen as the turning point in his career and in bilateral relations, and he also weighed in on the question of Hungary's EU membership.

On that topic, he argued that the European Union Hungary had joined in 2004, is no longer the same. He claimed the bloc is now pushing Hungary to adopt positions on gender issues and to become more involved in the war in Ukraine, moves he opposes.

Referencing Brexit, Orban said the United Kingdom left because the EU had shifted from being an economic alliance to a political one. "Today, prosperity is no longer within reach in the EU," he said. "We might still succeed, but for many countries, that chance is already gone."

Orbán criticised the EU’s planned seven-year budget, citing major issues such as excessive funding for Ukraine and clauses that allow Brussels to withhold funds from member states. “As long as I’m prime minister, I will never vote for this,” he said, confirming his earlier comments that he would veto the MFF.

"So this budget would ruin the European Union," Orban said. "I don't think this budget will even survive the next year; the Commission will either have to withdraw it or backtrack one step at a time and rewrite it," he told state media on July 17.

On foreign policy, the prime minister reiterated that Hungary is not a Russian satellite and that his government opposes the war in Ukraine on Christian moral grounds. He argued that peace can only be achieved if the US and Russian presidents sit down to negotiate a broader bilateral agreement. He accused EU leaders and Ukraine of prolonging the war and questioned whether Russia genuinely seeks peace.

Orban also played down fears of Russian expansionism, saying Russia would not attack other European countries due to Nato's strength, but argued Moscow is trying to create buffer zones like in Ukraine to keep Western weapons away from its borders.

Commenting on US secondary sanctions floated by Trump, Orbán warned they would be highly damaging to Hungary, but said he would only speak about them on the "49th day of the 50-day deadline."

Regarding next year’s elections, Orban said he was not particularly interested in whether Fidesz would win, but rather in whether anyone else had a chance to win. He stressed that as long as the party continues to trust him, he envisions his future as a politician, even if Fidesz were to end up in opposition.

When asked about inequality and the influence of oligarchs, Orban rejected claims that friends and family had enriched themselves through state contracts. He said Lorinc Meszaros's rise to become Hungary's richest man was merely coincidental, and that about half of Hungary's wealthy elite gained their fortune before 2010, a statement way off base, as the former gas fitter had taken out only HUF9mn (€22,550) in dividends from his firm.

Orban's recent remarks questioning the value of Hungary's EU membership generated little reaction in the Hungarian media. As some analysts have noted, with signs of erosion in his core support base, the prime minister is increasingly trying to speak to all sides. In this interview, he appeared to be reaching out in particular to Eurosceptic and radical right-wing voters.

The interview, however, triggered an unusually sharp response from Poland's Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski and led to a clash of words between the two foreign ministers.

Sikorski accused the Hungarian leader of "sabotaging the EU in coordination with Russian President Vladimir Putin", in a striking escalation of diplomatic tensions.

On X, the Polish diplomat tweeted: "Viktor Orban has turned Hungary into the poorest country in the European Union, and now he's threatening to leave. This threat doesn't scare me because he's been sabotaging the EU for years, in coordination with Putin. I warn you: this is what theft and nationalism lead to."

Tensions have been brewing since Budapest granted political asylum to Marcin Romanowski, Poland's former deputy justice minister, who is wanted on corruption charges and is the subject of a European Arrest Warrant. His appointment to head a newly established institute in Hungary has further inflamed the row.

Last week, Warsaw withdrew its ambassador to Hungary in protest at the move, in a dramatic escalation of conflict between the CEE countries, once seen as strong allies.

Sebastian Kęciek officially ended his tenure on Tuesday, July 15, after being summoned in December to Warsaw "indefinitely" for consultations.

Hungary's repeated resistance to EU sanctions against Russia and military aid for Ukraine has made it an outlier in Brussels since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022. Some of these conflicts had been swept under the rug under the Jarosław Kaczyński-led PiS government, which maintained a pragmatic alliance with Orbán despite growing differences, but they have come to the surface more openly after the election of Donald Tusk in 2023, a vocal critic of the Hungarian prime minister.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, in response to his Polish counterpart's comments, accused Sikorski of having "lost his common sense to war-mongering," in an apparent reference to Poland's steadfast support for Ukraine in the ongoing war against Russia.