If there is no reduction of household energy bills in Hungary, lower living standards will knock on our doors, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Mandiner’s programme ‘Hotel Lentulai’ on Sunday.
He highlighted that the people could also see that the government had been fighting for years in order to prevent this from happening.
He underlined that despite price rises, inflation, the war and Covid, they had managed to preserve the regime for the reduction of household energy bills which was in everyone’s best interests, this was not a party policy issue.
He pointed out that it took the United States, Russia and Turkey, too, for Hungary to continue to remain in the special and privileged situation that the people here pay the lowest household energy bills compared with all other European countries.
He observed that the Romanians paid double the Hungarian household energy costs, the Poles paid three times more, the Czechs four times more, while the Austrians and the Germans even more than that. It is true that they earn more, but they do not earn that much more, he laid down, adding that life is becoming harder, especially as regards supplying households with energy and its price.
He highlighted that the state was there to intervene at points where the economy started working against the people, this was normal. You must intervene by making sure that the effect can be maintained for the longest possible time and that the system should be acceptable for everyone. This is possible, though the liberals and left-wing people do not believe in this and regard any such intervention as wrong, he underlined.
Regarding TISZA’s statement that the Hungarians are this way unable to learn to become more economical, he said this “stems from a genuine liberal, Bolshevik mentality coupled with a superiority complex” which sees the world in such a way that ‘there are us, the smart ones, and there are the people who are not smart and must be taught to be smart.’ He described this mentality as one that makes one’s blood boil.
The Prime Minister took the view that this year had been noisy, a great many things had added up.
He recalled that old-new US President Donald Trump had entered into office in January, and since then the world had changed. His entry into office closed an era not only symbolically, but also in reality. Quite evidently, a new era is beginning to unfold, and one can see ever more clearly what that new era that we will live in will look like, he argued.
Therefore, this is not the usual noise of a pre-election year; that noise is combined with the noise coming from the transformation of the world, he stated.
In the context of Advent, he said there is no quiet, everyone “keeps shouting at the top of their lungs.” Internal politics is noisy and active, while foreign policy is even noisier and more active. Not only is it loud, but additionally serious things are happening, he pointed out.
He also spoke about the fact that also during Donald Trump’s first presidential candidacy, he thought that changes were coming in the world, amidst which you needed “tough guys who are not afraid of challenges,” we would need a single leader coming from outside the circles of the traditional elite who “is not afraid to upset the table” because the known institution of democracy would not be enough for the adoption of the necessary decisions.
Already back then, he believed that Donald Trump was suitable for the task, he added, observing that the positive consequences of the second term of the US President “will exceed the negative ones by magnitudes.”
The Prime Minister described the confiscation and delivery to Ukraine of the frozen Russian currency reserves as nothing short of a declaration of war.
“I don’t know what the consequences will be, but this is a much more serious affair than one would believe at first hearing. This seems like an economic affair, but it isn’t. This is a direct move towards entry into the war,” Mr Orbán said.
He highlighted that something new was unfolding in world politics. The two pillars of NATO – the Americans and the Europeans – “are relaying markedly different messages.”
The United States wants peace, while Europe wants war, he stated, adding that the new world unfolding before our eyes evidently conveys the possibility of US-European conflicts.
In the context of the war in Ukraine which has been ongoing for almost four years now, he recalled that in the beginning “we were not as alone as we are now” with our position aimed at staying outside the war because the Germans agreed with it. Then “the Americans and the other countries from the European Union pushed them into the war,” and it was from here that we got to the point where the NATO Secretary General frightens people with a world war.
Regarding his visit to Washington, Mr Orbán observed that as a result of it, not only had we been granted exemption from the sanctions imposed on Russia, but we had also concluded economic, energy procurement, nuclear cooperation, defence industry and financial agreements. We concluded the latter for the event that “Hungary should find itself faced with financial problems, say, as a result of Brussels scheming.”
Mr Orbán said the recently released new US national security strategy lays down that “US-Hungarian relations have become special relations,” while the US position regarding the state of the world and the tasks to be achieved “is markedly different from and is also in contrast to what the Europeans think about the very same issues in Brussels.”
There is a completely new situation in the world, he added.
He said the reason why Hungarians are interested in foreign policy is experience. Everyone has the historical experience and knowledge that dictates that whatever happens in the world will, sooner or later, also emerge here in some form. In the 20th century, these things mostly emerged in a negative form, we were at the receiving end, and the single exception was the collapse of the Soviet Empire which had an overall positive impact on us, we could start building a world in which we feel more at home.
The people, too, can feel that something is changing, something is happening in the world that is unusual, the Prime Minister observed.
The Prime Minister said he launched the Digital Civic Circles because they had the feeling that “the digital world is not ours.”
He said people on the Left occupied the digital world because it is better suited to their life philosophy. They tend to be nihilists, while people on the Right tend to stand for things.
He added that public life, too, had moved over to digital space ever more noisily, and the discourses of the future, too, were more likely to take place there. In light of this, digital platforms must be adjusted to right-wing philosophy.
Mr Orbán said it has been revealed in the meantime that “the masters of these technical platforms,” including Facebook, will restrict the space for political thinking, and while they can ban many things, they cannot ban conversations between people. This in turn will have a major impact not only on the elections, but also on politics and public life.
The Prime Minister described the Digital Civic Circles as a movement which concerns itself with political issues, but which must not be drawn into politics.
In answer to the question of what he thinks regarding the practice that the TISZA Party organises events in the same places and at the same times as the events of the roadshow of the Digital Civic Circles, he said while right-wing people get together in order to have a good time, the other side merely wants to provoke. “They get together in order to spoil our fun, in order to provoke us,” he laid down.
He said the present new world requires new skills which we must adapt to. People will either succeed or they will not, but they will not throw those off the boat who do not, he said, adding that you always need experts and smart people.
The Prime Minister said he has a great many pessimistic observations from a cultural point of view in connection with the digital world, but it does have a positive side, too, namely that whatever is fake does not survive. “If you make up something fake, you’re exposed within thirty seconds, people switch to something else and you are of no interest anymore,” he pointed out.
Six months before the elections, the Left usually mobilise all their available resources, he said, adding that compared with the fact that the government parties scored a two-thirds victory in the previous election, five or six months before, all you could hear was that they would lose by a two-thirds margin.
Six months before the elections, “there is cacophony,” the election period separates the wheat from the chaff, and by the time the elections come, only what is of essence remains, the truly important things, he said.
Approaching the elections, the focus is increasingly shifting towards the things that truly matter, including the ability to govern, responsibility, suitability, reliability and security, he stated. The government has 15 years behind it which is a disadvantage on the one hand because you can always find fault with the work they have completed, but on the other hand it offers a chance to prove their seriousness, allegiance and loyalty, he argued. In summary, he said as the elections approach, the ability to govern will become increasingly important, and this is in their favour.
Regarding undecided voters, the Prime Minister said the people themselves are not undecided, they know what they expect, except the moment has not yet come when their criteria regarding life and politics meet with their decision. They know what they want, except they have not yet translated this into a political decision, he added, stressing that “they will get there, and as they always do, I believe that they will vote for security, the ability to govern, predictability, seriousness and experience.”
He described TISZA Party supporters as being “in a state of passion.” There is this knowledge in politics that if there is something bad, based on that, you should inflame emotions and should turn voters emotionally against your political opponents, Mr Orbán explained. He takes the view that they regularly do this on the Left, they always place themselves into a position of passion, and “embellish everything with energy stemming from passion.” This, however, passes, it only works for a few days and cannot be adjusted to the day of the elections, he stated. As the elections approach, the truly important considerations tend to take centre stage, he said, adding that the Hungarian people “like to say tough things, but decide cautiously.”
Mr Orbán agreed with the idea that since 1990 reason had always prevailed over emotions on election day.
Regarding the Szőlő utca affair, he highlighted that there were children in every society who had no parents for a variety of reasons. As the communists eliminated churches and civil-society organisations which provided for children also without the state, the state must now fulfil this duty. The state takes care of this somehow; for instance, it must ensure that only appropriate individuals may become foster parents. At the same time, children who are not in the care of foster parents remain in state institutions, and these institutions must function properly, he pointed out.
He stressed that the Szőlő utca facility was a special institution because “it is reserved for underage offenders, they all committed crimes of some kind, mostly serious crimes, including murder,” meaning that it is a type of prison. In the scene in the released video footage that was recorded in the facility and that upset many people, a carer tried to solve a difficult situation in this difficult environment in an unacceptable manner; in actual fact, what he did amounts to a criminal offence. You cannot treat even an underage offender the way this carer treated the young person in custody, this is unacceptable, and the state uncovers and punishes instances such as this. There are five such correctional facilities in Hungary, and in the past few days, the interior minister has appointed epauletted police officers to head all five, he recalled, adding that he expects police officers to restore order because things like this cannot happen in institutions overseen by police officers, not even if the footage was recorded approximately ten years ago.
The Prime Minister was asked about whether this affair had been arranged. In response, he said this cannot be ruled out, but it is of no significance.
