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Good day, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Rector, Distinguished Representatives from University, Secular and Ecclesiastical Life, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It used to be the task of kings to be satisfied with everything; now it is the task of a prime minister to be satisfied with nothing. I will talk about the direction to go in from where we are now.
Honourable Rector,
Thank you very much for inviting me. When historical writings – or even vernacular sources – recount the origins of the Hungarians, the way of life of early Hungarians, they describe us as a people with great knowledge of animals and of keeping animals. According to legend, we were led to our home in the Carpathian Basin by an otherworldly animal – the Miracle Stag – that marked out our place in the world. It is also said that the manner in which the conquest of the Carpathian Basin took place meant that someone always had to watch over the herd of horses to ensure that they did not set off to return to Asia. This is not confirmed by written records. The stories of my childhood taught me to care for and protect our animals from harm. The shepherd must guard the lamb with golden fleece. The youngest prince must free the shaman’s steed, and even carry it on his shoulders because it is feeble, and he must heal it because it is sick. Just for historical fidelity, I can add that the cure for such a horse is to feed it coals from the fire. I am afraid that the University may have abandoned this remedy. But in our profession, in politics, it still works – in fact it is the most effective. In summary, our survival depended on our knowledge of animals. Whether we could shoot arrows on horseback at an enemy in pursuit, deliver a foal, or keep Hungarian grey cattle. If one was not a good vet, one could not expect a great future – either on the steppe or on the Great Hungarian Plain. Without animals and animal husbandry we would not be here today.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Hungarian veterinary medicine is world famous to this day. This is perhaps the country with the highest quality of education and the most scientific discoveries in the field. This university is proof of how much we can achieve if we learn to develop our thousand-year heritage to world-class, contemporary standards. It is ranked among the top 150 universities in the world. This is an achievement of which all Hungarians can be justly proud. I am pleased to hear that the University aims to be in the top 50, meaning that those who research and study here want to be the best. This can be achieved with these buildings and research laboratories being handed over today. We now have the platform that will enable students, teachers and researchers here to perform above average in terms of research output, in international publications and in the development of patents. Please do not aim for less, you must not aim for less!
Dear Friends,
What is happening here, at this university, is part of a new era in Hungarian higher education. Hungarians want our universities to be among the best in the world. As we have heard, the EU are not our most committed friends, but according to the latest EU figures Hungary spends – as a percentage of GDP – more on higher education than any other European Union country. In the last ten years we have trebled the resources devoted to research and development. Thanks to this, five years ago there were only seven Hungarian universities in the top 5 per cent of the world’s universities, while now there are twelve. In ten years the number of foreign students studying in Hungary has almost doubled. And we shall not allow Brussels to disadvantage young Hungarians because we are defending our sovereignty. We have created the Pannonia Scholarship Programme. We can see that we do not need other people’s money. We ourselves are capable of creating fruitful scientific cooperation with the best universities in the world.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We know that the sharpest weapon of all is the human mind. And it is the minds of the young that cut the sharpest. This is important to remember, because the world is about to change radically. The liberal world order is at an end. Among nations, the winners can only be those which make the most of the changes ahead of us. Those who fall in line, those who fail to live up to their values, who fail to discover the strength within their national character, will soon become irrelevant. Hungary is preparing to put its role in the international arena on a new footing. We do not want to follow the path set by others, but to make use of the advantages derived from our own history, our own economic structure and our own culture. We want to be connected to all the economic power centres of the world as the westernmost Eastern people and the easternmost Western people. In this we are doing well, with the result that Hungarian universities will be big winners.
In this spirit, allow me to both congratulate you on the University’s renovated buildings, and on the results achieved so far. Thank you to all those whose work has contributed to these successes. And the next big plan for the University’s development is already in the pipeline. In 2025 I hope that we will put the war behind us, put the European economy back on track, put the Hungarian economy on a growth path, and generate the financial resources needed to further develop your university. Let this institution continue to be an inescapable point of reference for Hungarian veterinary science and the Hungarian future. Thank you for your attention.
Go Hungary, go, Hungarians!
