The Prime Minister was asked about the incidents at the Röszke border ten years ago. He said it was revealed at Röszke that the migrants were not refugees, had mobile phones, were capable of coordinated action, and their movements were more of a military nature than those of refugees. There, it was revealed that they had bank cards and were being coordinated by people smuggling organisations, and there, it was also revealed that the network of George Soros’s civil society organisations was behind the whole thing.
He said his most vivid memories are, however, connected not to Röszke, but to the visits he paid to the Debrecen and Bicske refugee camps. When he had the Debrecen migrant camp closed down, had he allowed the people, they would have carried him down the main street of Debrecen on their shoulders, and in Bicske, too, everyone kept shaking his hand when the conditions which were previously prevalent in parks and in the streets finally came to an end, he related.
He spoke about the fact that when the Germans said that they can handle the issue of migration, it was credible because it was a different Germany back then. However, it has transpired since that slowly, but surely they are hardly able to handle anything. Their automotive industry has been destroyed, the Chinese are beating them in car production, they are in debt and are taking out enormous loans, the Prime Minister listed the problems. In summary, he said he was sure that whatever the Germans were saying, “for us Hungarians this is surely not good. Then it turned out that Germany, too, had changed. This is not good for them either, and they can’t handle it, the Chancellor promised to do so in vain.”
He also mentioned that wherever migrants had been allowed in, public security had drastically deteriorated, public spaces had become dangerous, some quarters were unliveable now, the local residents were moving out, and clashes between criminal gangs out in the open street, too, had become a part of life in Western Europe, causing no surprise among the locals anymore.
In the Prime Minister’s view, it is an even bigger problem that this mistake cannot be rectified. He said “once the toothpaste has been squeezed out of the tube, you can’t put it back in.” The western world has changed once and for all, and they do not know what to do with this situation, he pointed out.
The Swedish prime minister has been sharpening his tongue on Hungary for a long time now, he recalled. He said the Swedes are likeable people, but Swedish politics is extremely aggressive and lecturing in its nature, not only vis-à-vis us, but regarding the world in general, and the Hungarians do not take kindly to this. It is unacceptable that while underage girls are used to commit violent crimes, in fact, crimes resulting in murder, while violence is raging in Swedish cities, while last year alone, there were more than 300 bombing incidents, the same Swedish prime minister and Swedish government lecture Hungary on the rule of law – meanwhile, they are unable to guarantee their own citizens’ security, Mr Orbán pointed out, recalling that the Swedish prime minister himself said earlier that the government is unable to control the wave of violence raging in Swedish cities. In light of this, what are we talking about? the Hungarian Prime Minister asked.
Mr Orbán said the Swedish prime minister should instead be talking about the fact that now that he let these migrants in who kill people, rape women and engage in gang warfare, should he not take responsibility for this?
In the Prime Minister’s view, there is no agreement in Hungary on the issue of migration, “this is nothing more than a myth.” If there is a national government which is not scared and is, in fact, brave and confronts Brussels, then there are no migrants and there is security. If there is a pro-Brussels government in Hungary, there will be migrants and there will be no security anymore. He argued that they had left the European People’s Party because they had been unable to come to an arrangement on the issue of migration. Tisza joined the European People’s Party, and they evidently came to an agreement, he said.
He pointed out that on the issue of migration, he trusted no one other than themselves. He recalled that in Brussels the Tisza Party had voted for the accelerated implementation of the migration pact which was catastrophic for Hungary as well as for direct financial support of an increased amount for migrants.
He highlighted that the Hungarians preferred flat-rate taxation and stood for it because if there was a flat-rate tax, you paid less tax than you would under progressive taxation. “The concept of flat-rate taxation is extremely simple. You earn ten times more, you pay ten times more. This tallies with one’s elementary sense of justice,” he said. Progressive taxation was invented by the communists in the 19th century. If anyone wants to find the source of this concept, “they should start digging in the vicinity of Marx,” he recalled.
All progressive taxes are necessarily bureaucratic, cumbersome, full of potential for abuse, a hotbed for ill use, he stressed, reminding listeners that Hungary has already tried both regimes of taxation. The essence of the civic, national, pro-market, pro-business and pro-family system of taxation lies in a flat-rate tax and enormous tax benefits supporting children, he stated in summary. He highlighted, however, than more than one half of Tisza’s voters wanted progressive taxation. The pro-government voters do not want this, and the majority of those standing in the middle do not want it either.
“But I understand that a party called Tisza and its president can’t really stand for anything other than what the majority of their own voters want,” he observed. There is an issue of trust behind the whole thing because the question is not only who wants what, but what they admit. And this is already an issue of trust. An order has been issued in Tisza that they must not tell the people what they think and what they are preparing for because if they did, they would lose the elections, he warned.
The people should know the consequence of their decision, this cannot be concealed, Mr Orbán pointed out.
“This is similar to the Őszöd speech, except Ferenc Gyurcsány had more sense to only state after the elections that he had duped the people, while Tisza told the people already before the elections that they were going to dupe the people,” the Prime Minister observed.
He highlighted that the national consultations helped to bring important questions to the surface, and to give people answers to them. According to their calculations, Tisza’s tax increase plans would cost teachers HUF 364,000, nurses HUF 280,000, police officers HUF 154,000, members of the military HUF 476,000 and doctors HUF 3,172,000 a year in excess taxes, he stated, adding that the government thinks in terms of families, rather than individuals. There is a family tax benefit in Hungary because families cannot survive without work; hence the decision not to raise the family allowance which is an individual entitlement. He highlighted that this was even supported by the stratum of society most affected by unemployment, the Roma. “I’m convinced that there is a close correlation between the recent progress of the Roma community in Hungary and the tax benefit available in relation to children, and flat-rate taxation in general, while the process of a robust middle class coming into being has also started,” he said.
The rule of law prevails in Hungary, not even a former chief of staff can walk about with a gun and threaten people, the Prime Minister stated, switching to another topic. “If politicians want to carry guns because they feel threatened, then I should be carrying a cannon,” Mr Orbán said, responding to the fact that former chief of staff Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi and President of the Tisza Party Péter Magyar, too, suggested that they had received serious threats, but the police had refused to deal with these meaningfully, and this was why Mr Ruszin-Szendi carried a gun whilst attending a forum with the participation of members of the public. Mr Orbán dismissed this argument as ridiculous, and stressed that if someone did not have the sense to realise that if they engaged in a public role and met with the people, they could not carry a gun, then it was only right that the authorities should remind them that “there is no such thing, this is not possible.”
He took the view that “a firearm in itself doesn’t look good,” but the attached comments coming from the former chief of staff, “that his trigger finger is itching, that he’s trained in this, and that he could sort this out,” are “even more painful.” “We don’t live in the jungle, hold your horses, what exactly do you want to sort out? The situation is that here the rule of law prevails, there are rules. You can’t just start shooting because you were chief of staff and a big boy, and threatening people. What gives you the right? Here in Hungary, there is the protection of persons and there is legal protection. The situation is that you can’t do this, you can’t threaten anyone, your trigger finger is itching in vain. Especially not when you address many people, you can’t boast about this, there is no such thing. Because you’re not above the rest of Hungary’s citizens, not even if you were once chief of staff. You don’t have any privileges on this score. You’re one of us. Accept the rules, stop carrying a gun, my friend. And if you don’t have the sense of your own accord, the authorities will remind you,” Mr Orbán said. He stressed that in Hungary every citizen had equal rights. It is not written in the Constitution or the laws that “the chief of staff may have an itchy trigger finger, is trained in this, can take care of things and can carry a gun.”
Regarding the 1.6 per cent supplementary pension increase, the Prime Minister recalled that in 2010 the government had concluded an agreement with pensioners, guaranteeing the protection of the value of pensions. “Short reckonings make long friends, this is what the alliance of the government and pensioners rests on,” he said, adding that the value of pensions has not only been preserved, but has even risen recently, while the government also re-introduced the 13th monthly pension.
In the radio interview, the Prime Minister announced that he would initiate declaring antifa organisations terrorist organisations in Hungary. “In Hungary, too, the time has come for organisations such as Antifa – following the American example – to be finally declared terrorist organisations,” Mr Orbán said in connection with the fact that earlier this week, US President Donald Trump announced that he would seek to proscribe antifa organisations as terrorist organisations. The Prime Minister said he is happy about the US President’s decision, and will himself initiate “that we do the same here in Hungary.” He said “Antifa is indeed a terrorist organisation, they came to Hungary, too, beat peaceful people up in the street, some were beaten within an inch of their lives, and then they got themselves elected as Members of the European Parliament and now lecture Hungary from there about the rule of law, from the left.” This cannot be allowed, he added.
Friendship matters in politics, too, the Prime Minister said regarding the fact that from 30 September, the restrictions of the visa waiver programme will be lifted in the United States for all Hungarian nationals. He recalled that during Mr Trump’s candidacy for president, he agreed with him that “we’ll delete from the system” all punishment introduced by the Left against Hungary. In continuation, he said “the ship is big,” it takes a few months for such a decision to go through the United States’ bureaucracy, but the President kept his word, and restored the possibility of free movement and visa-free travel for the Hungarian people.
He recalled: it was the Biden Administration that decided that as Hungary did not agree with the US Democrats either on the issue of migration, or on the issues of gender and the war, “they should deal us a heavy blow.” He added that there were quite a few people who had business in the United States, studying or doing business there, and for them this was an inconvenient measure, “a kind of punishment that hurt.”
