He stressed: the Ukrainians are financing Tisza because they want a pro-Ukraine government at the head of Hungary and want to see the Ukrainians’ man in the prime minister’s seat, “I’m not their man, I’m yours, and therefore I’m not good for them, they’re looking for someone else,” Mr Orbán observed.
The Prime Minister said today, there are two types of political competition on in the Hungarian elections. One of them is the one we call patriotic politics, “this is ours,” while the other one is pro-Ukraine politics.
Mr Orbán added: the Hungarians’ money cannot be taken to Ukraine, our children cannot be taken there, and neither can our weapons be taken away because we need them so that we can defend ourselves. This will be the most important issue during the period ahead, the Prime Minister laid down.
He highlighted that what was at stake was whether there would be a pro-Hungarian or pro-Ukrainian government in Hungary after the elections.
He took the view that it is not enough to talk about the most important affairs and the four years behind us, we must also talk about the future because that motivates the people most. “In the next four years, the war will be the key issue and how to keep Hungary out of the war,” he stated.
The Western Europeans have decided that they will win the Russo-Ukrainian war on the frontline. “I think the moment will come sometime between 2026 and 2030 when also soldiers will be sent from Europe to the war in Ukraine,” the French and British state leaders have already signed an agreement on this, and the Germans have joined them, he said. According to the Prime Minister, they are doing this “because they’re running after their money,” given that they have already spent EUR 200 billion, they are in the process of providing another loan of EUR 90 billion, while the Ukrainians are asking for yet another EUR 800 billion for the functioning of the country.
They have also presented a demand for USD 700 billion for weapons, and the Western Europeans take the view that there is only one way to recover this money, “if they defeat the Russians and make them pay reparations.” This is an adventure “we mustn’t embark on,” he pointed out, adding that Hungary must stay out of the war, must provide neither young soldiers, nor weapons, nor money for the war.
We must stay out of the war and the financing of Ukraine, Mr Orbán stated.
The Prime Minister recalled that most recently, a loan of EUR 90 billion had been voted for in Brussels for the Ukrainians in such a way that Hungary had opted out of this together with the Slovaks and the Czechs. We only allowed this to happen if we were allowed to stay out; we will not indebt our children and grandchildren, he pointed out.
The Prime Minister stressed: the situation is that there is no money in Europe, “therefore, the money that needs to be sent to Ukraine can only come from credit.” He added that the loan so taken out would be lent on to the Ukrainians “under the cunning condition” that they would only be required to repay it when the Russians paid them reparations.
According to Mr Orbán, anyone who enters this loan trap indebts their children and grandchildren, or will win the war the way people in the West thought this out. But in order to win it, they must take part in it. Therefore, the key sentence that our coming years will be about is that we must stay out of this.
For this in turn we need a strong government which is able to keep the country out. “A virulent prime minister” is not enough in itself, we need a strong government, a stable parliamentary majority, and also national unity because “we already wanted to stay out of great wars twice before, and we succeeded not once, we were pushed in,” he mentioned.
Regarding election mobilisation, Mr Orbán said “the campaign will be decided by hard work;” not by the prime minister, not by excellent orators, not by excellent candidates, not by experts, this election will be decided by hard work. If voters are taken to the polls on our side in a smaller percentage than the opponent’s, “then we’ll lose the elections.”
He asked the attendees to volunteer as activists, to offer to put in working hours, especially in the last week after Easter. Those who also have digital skills should visit the website of the Digital Civic Circles where there is a fresh appeal called ‘Forty days for the honour of the country’ explaining to visitors what members of those communities are asked to do on which day.
“There will be a mobilisation race,” luck will take the side of those who will have done more for it. “No one is able to tell what the outcome of these elections will be in percentages, neither do we know how many parties will make it to Parliament because everything is turbulent, up in the air,” but rather than concerning ourselves with others, “we must only concern ourselves with ourselves,” the Prime Minister stressed.
He took the view that “difficult times are coming, dangerous times,” there are developments around us against which we must be able to protect ourselves, “and this is no time for change, for innovation.” Experience, predictability, routine, knowledge, familiarity with the issues in hand, battle experience and wounds “have all become values because we need security.”
In order to stay out of the war, we need a firm hand, and therefore, Hungary would do well to place security in the number one spot. “I’m not saying that you can’t find a better prime minister than me in Hungary, but I’m telling you with due modesty that I don’t know anyone who has a better chance of keeping Hungary out of the war than me,” Mr Orbán laid down.
At the Pétervására forum, the Prime Minister recalled that he had been to the region several times. As a politician, he first visited the area sometime in 1989; at the time, they gathered together in order to discuss how they will get rid of the communists, the Soviet Union, Comecon, and how Hungary will again become a free, independent and great country.
The Prime Minister spoke in words of praise about Member of Parliament for the constituency László Horváth with whom, he said, you can always talk about anything sincerely, who has always been faithful and persevered with the government.
Mr Orbán stressed that the campaign depended on people encouraging one another. We must fight against psychological intimidation, this is why they called the digital civic circles to life. According to the Prime Minister, polls are being used as another means of intimidation which evidently show large differences. He told his opponents “to take good care not to go above 100 per cent.”
Touring the country, seeing the signature collections, he is optimistic, “the opponent takes good pictures, while we collect many hundreds of thousands of signatures.” The opponent is all about appearances, while we are the real thing, he observed.
The opponent’s mobilisation is above 90 per cent, while Fidesz’s stands at only 80. This means that the party’s supporters have not yet taken this election seriously enough. There are this many people who voted for Fidesz in 2022, they are ready to do so also this time, but for them the elections are quite simply too far as yet. We must contact them all, we must speak to them, and in the end, we must take them to the polls, the party president stressed, adding that for election day they will have to raise the level of mobilisation to where it is on the opposition’s side.
Mr Orbán argued that on civilisational issues the majority of the people were clearly on Fidesz’s side. These include the issue of migration, “we will decide whether we let anyone in, or allow Brussels to tell us what to do.”
According to the Prime Minister, people in Western Europe have lost this match. They have let migrants in among themselves who are transforming the lives of their countries step by step. If someone goes there, they can sense a lack of security, the daily threat of terrorism, and can see that step by step the world that was once Christian is being turned into a world that stands for a mixed, different culture.
The vast majority of the Hungarians agree with the incumbent government, “we must keep within our hands the right to decide, to tell whom we allow into this country, and whom we want to live together with and whom not,” the Prime Minister stressed.
He pointed out that the Hungarian was the only European government which had stopped migration, everywhere else there was trouble. Only the Hungarian government built a fence, adopted laws and said no when Brussels wanted to send migrants here.
He drew attention to the fact that a difficult moment will come on 1 July: the migration pact, which the Hungarian government is not prepared to accept, will take effect on a European scale. Hungary would be required to take over hundreds of migrants and to build a refugee camp that is able to house minimum 20,000 persons.
The Prime Minister therefore said the most important issue of the elections on the civilisational front is the connection between independence and migration.
The Prime Minister said in the past 16 years they have built a workfare society which a large majority of the people support. “The people are now more prepared to state openly ‘Why should anyone want to support someone who is able to work, but does not want to work from my hard-earnt money?’” he pointed out, adding that the majority of the country agrees with Fidesz regarding the role of work in people’s lives.
“In the past 16 years, we have built a family-based country,” Mr Orbán stated. He said the regulation of taxation, the schooling system and the financial system must be based on the family because the family is a value. “We turned this into the cornerstone of our politics,” he laid down.
The government combined family support with work, and has doubled the tax benefit available in relation to children. They introduced lifetime personal income tax exemption first for mothers of four, later for mothers of three, and now also for mothers of two. Additionally, they launched a fixed 3 per cent housing credit programme, thanks to which young people in Hungary can buy a home most easily in the whole of Europe. The system is working, many tens of thousands of young people have availed themselves of this opportunity, the Prime Minister stated.
In his words, it is also part of the appreciation of the family that “we won’t allow anyone to make fun of it.” To this end, they were compelled to lay down in the Constitution that a marriage is concluded between a man and a woman. He observed that in the past there had been no need for this “because the people knew this as a matter of course.”
For an election victory, the government must also be able to render an account of the past four years, the Prime Minister pointed out, adding that “not only do we take credit for, but we proudly take credit for these four years because we have managed to keep Hungary out of the war, we have not given our money either to Brussels or Ukraine, we have managed to launch housing grants, to double the tax benefit available in relation to children and to make the child and infant care benefits tax-free.”
Mr Orbán said while last year Hungary’s economic growth was just one per cent, the minimum wage has increased by 11 per cent, and while the government did not pledge to do it, they nonetheless embarked on the introduction of the fourteenth monthly pension.
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