PM Orbán in radio inter­view: We will have 3.5 mil­lion peo­ple vac­ci­nat­ed by April 20

If we dis­obey the reg­u­la­tions dur­ing East­er, Prime Min­is­ter Vik­tor Orbán warned, “we could find our­selves in big trou­ble.” On Kos­suth Rádió this morn­ing, the prime min­is­ter spoke about vac­ci­na­tion plans for the upcom­ing weeks, the “sin­ful” anti-vac­ci­na­tion cam­paign, and future coop­er­a­tion with Mat­teo Salvi­ni and Mateusz Morawiecki.

Begin­ning his reg­u­lar Fri­day morn­ing inter­view on pub­lic radio, Prime Min­is­ter Orbán revealed that more than 2 mil­lion peo­ple in Hun­gary have already been vac­ci­nat­ed, and around 860,000 of these have already received their sec­ond dose. How­ev­er, the prime min­is­ter warned, “the experts are right;” if we dis­obey the reg­u­la­tions dur­ing East­er, “we could find our­selves in big trouble.”

“Soon, we will reach the point where the vac­ci­na­tion progress will lead to decreas­ing infec­tion fig­ures,” Prime Min­is­ter Orbán said, adding that fol­low­ing East­er, there will be more than 2.3 mil­lion peo­ple in Hun­gary who have received at least the first shot of the vac­cine. “The week after that, this num­ber will hit 3 mil­lion, and 3.5 mil­lion the fol­low­ing week,” the PM said.

Accord­ing to the prime min­is­ter, the fact that close to 2.5 mil­lion peo­ple will be vac­ci­nat­ed right after East­er means that new reg­u­la­tions, includ­ing longer open­ing hours and a lat­er cur­few, can final­ly come into effect. “If we reach 3.5 mil­lion peo­ple vac­ci­nat­ed, then we are going to intro­duce anoth­er round of new mea­sures, but I will talk about that prob­a­bly next week,” Prime Min­is­ter Orbán said.

“Many believe that we can stop the virus with restric­tions. They are wrong. This British muta­tion of the virus is dif­fer­ent; we can slow its spread, but we can­not stop it. The only way to kill it is with the vac­cine,” PM Orbán stressed. As to the fact that oth­er EU mem­ber states are lag­ging behind in terms of inoc­u­lat­ing their pop­u­la­tions, the prime min­is­ter said that “ignor­ing East­ern vac­cines due to polit­i­cal and ide­o­log­i­cal rea­sons, or because of an old feel­ing of supe­ri­or­i­ty, was a mistake.”

Speak­ing up against the anti-vac­ci­na­tion cam­paign in Hun­gary, the prime min­is­ter called it an “out­right sin,” as “those who are talked out of get­ting vac­ci­nat­ed may die; they will die if they lis­ten to left-wing parties.”

“The next time we meet, I hope I will be able to tell you that every­body above the age of 65 has received the shot,” PM Orbán said, adding that cur­rent­ly there are 3.7 mil­lion peo­ple who have signed up for the jab. “If we tie the ser­vices that are con­nect­ed to a hap­py and nor­mal life to get­ting vac­ci­nat­ed, then people’s will­ing­ness to reg­is­ter will also increase.

About his meet­ing yes­ter­day in Budapest with Pol­ish PM Mateusz Moraw­iec­ki and Italy’s Mat­teo Salvi­ni, Prime Min­is­ter Orbán said that the idea of a future coop­er­a­tion in Europe took cen­ter stage dur­ing the dis­cus­sions. “We believe that the Euro­pean People’s Par­ty has com­mit­ted itself to the Euro­pean Left for the long run,” the PM said, adding that the coop­er­a­tion of Europe’s Right and Left took the form of the right-wing accept­ing the Left’s program.

Source: abouthun​gary​.hu