There's a lot in there:

Posted on: October 17, 2022 at 20:26:24 CT

We’ve now entered a phase in which geopolitics has become the most important thing, and this is torturing the V4 – it’s pulling at its seams. But there are two other things here that I don’t know whether you Germans are used to talking about.

If you look at the map of Europe’s values, you’ll see that on migration, on family issues, on gender issues, on the concept of the family, on the issue of national feeling, there’s a line dividing Europe that starts at the top, runs along the western edge of the Baltic states, comes down to the Czech Republic, comes down to Hungary and ends at Slovenia. Those to the east of this line think in terms of the traditional family, reject gender and reject multiculturalism. These countries don’t want migration, seeing it as a threat rather than a help. And east of this line, where we live, national feeling and national pride is the main driving force, and is a positive thing.

To a German ear, national pride probably sounds like a terrible thing. But east of this line I’m talking about, every country says that you need three things to live: your mother, your father and pride in your nation – otherwise there’s no life.

So this is why it’s important that the V4 represents a Europe based on conservative values. We understand what you’re doing: migration, the fact that here same-sex couples can marry, that soon there will be some kind of group thing here. We understand all that. We understand that migration should be welcomed, and that from a German point of view this is surely logical.

But we don’t think that way, and we have a different conception. Ours is under constant attack, and it must be defended. It’s easier to defend it together than individually. This is one of the reasons for the V4.

Forgive me for speaking at length, but there’s another reason which is perhaps even more important: the British. Everything that’s wrong has its roots in the British: if the British hadn’t left the European Union, the internal dynamism of the EU that has prevailed for the past thirty years would have been maintained, because together with the V4 the British never accepted a federal conception for the European Union. You Germans and the French wanted a federal Europe and we didn’t – along with the British. And this was more or less in balance, more or less in equilibrium. And if we wanted to come to an agreement, neither side was dominant and we had to agree. Now the British have left, and so the federalists – the Germans and the French – have gained the upper hand and the dynamics have changed. If the British had stayed in, there would never have been a rule of law procedure in the EU, there would never have been a conditionality procedure, there would never have been a debt community.

All these are national rights that are being taken away: what used to be national law is now being transferred to Brussels. The British always opposed this. Now that the British are gone, we are left without them. We’re small and you Germans and French are forcing these federalist conceptions on us. If the V4 cannot cooperate for geopolitical reasons, things that we don’t want will be forced on us. So the weakening of the V4 because of geopolitics is a big blow. It’s a big blow to us, to the nations of Central Europe – and also, I think, to conservative people in your country and in Western Europe who understand and share our values in the way we organise Central Europe.