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There are five days before the elections, now we can do what we could not 110 years ago: the entire Hungarian community can say no to war clearly, within democratic boundaries, he stated.
War is never inevitable, war is always a question of human decisions, and in the shadow of weapons, no life or justice ever grows, only death and injustice, the Prime Minister stressed.
Today we must endeavour to accomplish that in which Prime Minister István Tisza failed: we must prevent Hungary’s involvement in another European war, Mr Orbán said, adding that today our chances are better than they were 110 years ago; we are sovereign, “and sovereignty is every Hungarian’s own business and right.”
He recalled that 110 years ago the peoples of the Carpathian Basin had fought for their sovereignty against the Hungarians. At the time, everyone – including the Czechs, the Austrians, the Slovaks, the Romanians, the Serbs and the Croats – eagerly awaited and hailed the war.
He added at the same time that today when a war was threatening us again, the peoples living in this part of the world had clearly let the great powers know that they had learnt the lesson and did not want war.
“The will of the peoples of the Carpathian Basin is clear, they don’t want to be expendable pawns – mere vassals that can be sent to war – on the imperial chessboard; not for the sake of Brussels, not for the sake of Washington, not for the sake of George Soros,” he said, adding that all this is stated the loudest by the Hungarians – the members of the largest community in the Carpathian Basin – but “we know that the others, too, feel the same way.”
In his view, by now it has also become clear that the rights of the peoples of Central Europe can be best defended not against the Hungarians, but in cooperation with the Hungarians. Therefore, on the Day of National Cohesion not only we Hungarians must cling to each other, but “the peoples of the Carpathian Basin, too, should see the fellow sufferer in one another.”
He took the view that the peoples living here are tied together not only by cold geopolitical necessity, but also by a shared history and “a strange, inexplicably similar worldview, the Central European quality of existence in this part of the world.” National cohesion is not only a fact, but also a programme, a programme for forging the nation together, the Prime Minister stated. In his opinion, it is not enough to remember the common past that ties us together; we must also want and plan a common future.
Those who propose that we should dare to be small commit a sin against the community of Hungarians, Mr Orbán stated, taking the view that the Hungarian is the nation which “has a home in every country of the Carpathian Basin,” and it is the Hungarians who make a whole more than the totality of the constituent parts.
He stressed that the Hungarians must urge cooperation and solidarity time and time again, and we must also be happy about the success of our neighbours.
The Prime Minister described 4 June as the day of an assassination attempt against the Hungarian nation, highlighting that 104 years ago a cruel, merciless and unfair dictate was handed down to us.
Millions of Hungarians became strangers in their own native land, we lost the best of Hungarian industry and arable land, our great universities, most beautiful cities, cultural values and the determining scenes of our national history found themselves beyond the borders, he said, listing the consequences. “A Hungarian is a person to whom the national wound inflicted in Trianon hurts most,” he said.
So many years on, we can now clearly see that the Trianon dictate sought to bring about the death of our nation, he stressed, adding, however, that the great powers used to colonisation did not know the character of the Hungarians. “They wanted to bury us, but they didn’t know that we were seeds,” he observed.
He recalled that in the darkest hour, they handed our country over to people about whom even a hundred years on it is difficult to decide whether they were a greater blow to the country because of their inaptitude or ill intentions. He quoted Sigmund Freud who wrote that from among all the many counts, the smartest – István Tisza – was assassinated, while the “dumbest” – Mihály Károlyi – was made prime minister.
Mr Orbán said the loss of country of 104 years ago was caused by a war which the then prime minister – István Tisza – opposed with all his might. However, the country did not have enough strength to stay out of the war because it was chained to an empire which reserved the question of war and peace for itself.
He stressed that at the time both Vienna and Budapest had been full of war agitators, false prophets and foreign agents, and so Hungary had been compelled “to march into a war that was forced upon it.” In his view, however, World War I proved to be a source of loss not only for the defeated, but also for the victors.
“Europe’s peace ceased on the day of the Trianon dictate. In Europe, its result was not peace, but fear of yet another war which caused an even mightier cataclysm two decades later,” he added.
He stressed that the dictates closing the war had brought to the Carpathian Basin even more destruction, not peace and rest. Soon afterwards, much greater ethnic tensions flared up than there had ever been in the former monarchy, and eventually, countries came into being which proved to be even more reliant on one another than ever before, but due to the invisible wounds of history, they looked upon one another with animosity and eventually became the vassals of foreign empires. This is how the Carpathian Basin first became a German, and later a Soviet zone of influence and occupation, and this is why Central Europe is unable to have its voice heard – loud enough – even in today’s European Union. He indicated at the same time that by now, we had got to a point where – despite all imperial intrigue – the peoples of the Carpathian Basin wanted to be free and sovereign.
At the same time, Prime Minister Orbán pointed out that while a hundred and so years ago, in consequence of a devastating war, the nation had lost two thirds of its territory and a third of its population had found itself behind foreign borders, this nation had chosen struggle and survival, not resignation and death.
Today, this nation is capable of declaring year after year its boundless will and desire to live and to belong together, and is finally also capable of paying tribute to the family which has given it so much, he observed.
In his words, the history of the Tisza Family became one with the ideal of a free, independent and sovereign Hungary. He recalled that the Tiszas had taken part in the fights against the Turks; however, despite their military merits, they had been compelled to fight for almost a century to recover their ancient estate. “We can’t be surprised, even the then western empire was not in the habit of recognising and giving the Hungarians what was rightfully theirs,” he said.
He also reminded his audience that two of the Tiszas had even undertaken to take on the political leadership of the country, and that the last strong and successful period of the Kingdom of Hungary was inseparable from the family.
He highlighted that the death of István Tisza had been not only the loss of an excellent man and a formidable prime minister, but had also marked the painful end of a historical era.
The Prime Minister also said the national government and “the enormous majority and strength behind it restore, rather than repair things.”
“Rather than fumbling at walls and scraping off paint, we restore things, meaning that we refurbish, rebuild, reconstruct things. We want to set right the dislocated time, we want to patch up the tear that has developed in the fabric of Hungarian time. We take revenge on communism by stepping right through it as if it had never existed. We take revenge on the 45 years that were stolen from us by connecting together Hungary before the German and Soviet occupations with today’s Hungary. Just as it is laid down in the Fundamental Law,” Mr Orbán added, pointing out that this is the original and profoundest meaning of the regime change after the fall of communism.
He stressed that they had used the two-thirds mandate received in 2010 to this end, and continued to use it to this end every day to this day.
He added that those who came to the Geszt Castle could see and understand what the Tiszas had wanted and also what the present generation wanted.
“Those who come here will understand precisely what our generation’s slogan means: no match is over until we win,” he said.
