Hungary has defended itself, “and we’ve now proven to ourselves many times that Hungary can do this,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview with commercial broadcaster TV2 on Tuesday evening. Orbán, who gave the interview after inspecting the flood defence work near Dunaszekcso, in the southwest, said Hungary had “defeated” the flood, and though receding flood waters could sometimes cause problems, they were not expecting any this time.
He said the water was receding fast and the peak of the flood wave would flow beyond Hungarian territory two days sooner than originally anticipated.
The prime minister praised the “fantastic work” carried out by water management people, and hailed the efforts of soldiers and police officers as well.
He said this was the fifth flood defence he has overseen as prime minister, and that cooperation between the state and local councils was smoothest this time. He noted that this had been the first time, and an “exciting moment” that he approved the release of a river into an emergency reservoir as it happened in the case of the Leitha last week.
Water management experts are still conducting patrols, and the rivers are being monitored, he said, adding that he did not think there would be any problems.
He said Interior Minister Sandor Pinter had managed the operative part of the defence work, and only 400 police officers had to be reassigned to assist it. He said this was important because the problem with big floods was that a redeployment of police officers could easily lead to public safety problems.
But this time police did not have to be mobilised because there were many water management experts and volunteers taking part in the defence work, and soldiers also contributed, Orbán said, thanking them for their efforts.
He said prison inmates who had been sentenced for lesser crimes had also assisted the flood defence work.
Orbán said Hungary had a tried and tested flood protection system, adding that the difference compared with neighbouring countries was “obvious”.
He noted that Hungary’s current flood protection system has been in place since the mid-1960s that was designed with “the water’s own logic instead of bureaucracy” in mind.
“So if an expert who retired in 1968 were to return to work, he’d know exactly what his job was,” Orbán said.
Concerning flood defence infrastructure, the prime minister said that the flood barriers to the south of Budapest had been built well more than a hundred years ago, but flood defence was more difficult along the rivers’ mountain sections.
As regards the difficulties related to flood defence along the Danube, Orbán said the islands near Baja in the south caused some problems, adding, however, that the more serious challenges were along the upper sections of the river, in the Danube Bend, Esztergom and around the Szigetkoz island plain in north-western Hungary.
In response to a question, Orbán said that just like after the 2013 great flood, the water management authority will prepare a written report on the experience gained and the lessons learnt in the defence work.
Once that report is turned in, the government will discuss it and decide what further work is needed, the prime minister said.
He said the Hungarian section of the Danube was “a special one” because Budapest was the only capital in Europe where the water level of the river flowing through the city “cannot be adjusted”.
“Everywhere else this can be taken care of with dams, but Hungarians don’t want to build a dam on the Danube, which makes the Danube a holy river which can’t be desecrated with cross dams,” he said.
Meanwhile, Orbán said the flood defence work carried out by Hungary has also been “outstanding” in an international comparison, adding that one reason for this was that Hungary had always had “an advantage of two to three days” compared with the other countries battling the floods. Since most of the rain falls in the mountains, “the trouble arises there immediately”, and by the time the water makes its way to Hungary, the country is better prepared for defence, he added.
“So it’s true that we’ve done a good job with the defence work, but we also have a positional advantage,” the prime minister said.
He said with the flood wave over in the country’s territory, the next very important phase in flood defence would involve a public health clean-up.
Orbán said there was no extensive damage from the floods since the water was kept confined to the riverbed.
He said the biggest expenditure was the cost of defence and the salaries and overtime payment of people working on the dams.
He said this flooding of the Danube would be remembered as one of the biggest floods in the history of Hungarian water management “in which we were in serious danger”.
Orbán hailed the work carried out by Hungarians, saying the country was now hearing about “anecdotes and uplifting moments, but there were dangerous periods as well”.
If cooperation had not been as smooth as it had been among those participating in flood defence efforts, “there could’ve been big trouble,” he said.
Asked whether Hungary would rely on its own resources or similarly to other countries would turn to Brussels for help as regards the flood defence costs, he said that in Brussels, money for such purposes was uncertain.
Orbán said he always told everyone “not to worry about Brussels because we must be able to defend Hungary, which is our country, without Brussels or anyone else”.
“Nobody else will defend it for us,” the prime minister said.
Hungary must be able to find the resources to cover the costs and “if someone from somewhere is willing to cover at least part of it, we will then say thank you with great respect, but we should not build our lives on this”.
Asked about the war in Ukraine and the EU’s competitiveness woes, the prime minister said that “we are living in a time of two great troubles”.
