We are looking good, and we are many. There are more of us now than ever. There are so many of us that if we stood on each other’s shoulders, [the Hungarian astronauts] Tibor Kapu could climb all the way up to the International Space Station. Sunday, bright sunshine, heroes of ’48, wonderful performers, a fantastic crowd: in Budapest today we could not find better company. God grant you welcome! God grant welcome to every one of you! We also greet those who are not here, but are with us at home.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Celebrants,
A Hungarian does not need to be told what freedom is: we breathe in the air and immediately know where we stand. This is how we know that fraternal love is tangible, and we feel the ennobling power of unity. Multitudes alone are never enough: freedom can only spring forth from fraternal love, and only unity can strengthen it. No matter how large the crowd, there will never be freedom if it was brought together by hatred and anger. This is why we shall never allow Hungary to be governed by hatred and anger.
Fellow Celebrants,
“May there be peace, freedom, and concord”: this is how the “12 Points” of the Youth of March begins. These 12 Points of Freedom are about what the Hungarian people desire. But beware! Today, Brussels is also dressed as a Hungarian. Their 12 points are the 12 points of servitude: they express what the Brusselites want. We, the Children of March, will never accept Budapest’s “labanc” collaborators turning the Hungarians’ 12 Points into the Brusselites’ 12 Points. We shall not allow what we have built over sixteen years to be sold off for thirty pieces of Brussels silver. We shall not give up our national and Christian constitution. We shall not give up the reductions in household utility bills, nor the thirteenth and fourteenth months’ pensions. We shall not give up our world-beating family support system. We shall not give up Europe’s best tax system. We shall defend support for mothers, and we shall defend our children. And we shall not let them replace our national colors with a Ukrainian or rainbow flag. Long live Hungarian freedom!
Fellow Celebrants,
In 1849 our struggle for freedom was crushed. The imperial and Tsarist armies joined forces to defeat us. But twenty years later, under the leadership of Ferenc Deák, we prevailed. Building on our struggle of 1848, we regained our constitutional freedom. We restored the Hungarian Kingdom and launched the greatest economic development in Europe. It was that driving force which led to the building of this magnificent square where we now stand: the nation’s main square, the spiritual heart of Hungarian freedom. And after forty-five years of communist destruction, we rebuilt it. Everything that makes this city the most beautiful in the world and the pride of the Hungarian people today, everything that surrounds us here, could only come into being because we fought our War of Independence in 1848–49. Glory to the heroes!
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let us celebrate the Rákóczi Uprising. Let us celebrate the 1848 War of Independence. Let us celebrate the 1956 Revolution. We lost these, every single one. But no, my friends, we have not lost our minds. Those who might celebrate those military victories over us no longer exist. Today the victorious courts of Vienna and Tsarist Russia should be celebrating here – but they no longer exist. Nor can the Battle of Mohács be celebrated by the victorious Ottoman Empire – because it no longer exists. Nor are there any celebrations by Germany’s Third Reich, which occupied Hungary in 1944 – because it no longer exists. And neither can the Soviet Union, which crushed the 1956 Revolution, celebrate – because it also no longer exists. They no longer exist. But we are here, and we will still be here – even if Brusselite paratroopers rain down from the sky in their hundreds. We will round them up, dust off their pants, and send them back – some to Brussels, and some to Kyiv/Kiev. Hungary is a thousand-year-old state; it is no country for them.
Can you see, Ukrainians? Can you see, Zelenskyy? This is the thousand-year-old state of the Hungarians. And do you think you can scare us with an oil blockade, with blackmail, and with threats against our leaders? Use your heads, and stop all that! Anyone who wants to break the Hungarians will have to rise earlier – a few hundred years earlier. You have enough problems on the Eastern Front – why are you attacking us? We are a peace-loving and forbearing people. Give us our oil, then roll off in your vans to the vaults in Brussels for the Westerners’ money – since they cannot say “no.”
Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Celebrants,
The world’s seas of sorrow boil. War to the east of us. War in the Middle East. Ukraine is blocking the path of oil to Hungary, while the other war is blocking the path of oil to the oceans. I also remember well that the 2015 migration invasion began when war broke out in Syria, and millions of people set out for Europe. Iran is nine times larger than Syria, with ninety million people—and four hundred million are in the region. Moreover, the Israeli–Muslim conflict has moved into Western Europe, because there they let in migrants. Let us give thanks to God that our hearts were in the right place: we had the courage to say “no,” and we did not let them in. And I promise that it will stay that way for as long as I am Prime Minister.
My Friends,
And meanwhile, the ground is also shaking under the European economy: to our west, one million industrial jobs have been lost. Entire industries have disappeared, and the woes just keep growing. We, too, have had four difficult years here. This has been unjust, because we deserved better. It is unjust that we have to defend our country from troubles caused by others. But we have defended it. Hungary is now the safest country in Europe. We have succeeded in protecting jobs, reducing household energy bills, and supporting families – and we have not left our pensioners to fend for themselves either. We did it: together, we did what our country demanded of us.
My Friends,
We have had our fill of constant danger. We long for years free of such “excitement” – even for boring years. But alas, that is not what lies ahead. I do not want to mislead you. I will speak honestly and seriously, as befits us: trying times are once again pounding at our door. War has come closer. Brussels has taken on the war in Ukraine, and this is why it is now preparing for war. It has already switched to a war economy. There they do not want to keep the trouble at a distance: they are marching right into it – even more weapons, even more money, even more soldiers. We are facing a trial that even old warhorses like me have never seen – and we have seen a thing or two. We cannot know the day or the hour when the first soldier from Brussels will set foot on Ukrainian soil. But one thing we know for sure: it will happen. They themselves proclaim it proudly and enthusiastically. They can hardly wait for soldiers bearing the European Union’s insignia to march into Ukraine. Well, this is what we must stay out of. This is what we must defend ourselves against. And I pledge that even in such a turbulent world, we shall preserve Hungary as an island of safety and tranquility.
We Hungarians know what war is. In war, it does not matter who you are, it does not matter what you have achieved, what you are good at, or what you want to accomplish in life. In war, the only thing that matters is whether you can handle a machine gun. What matters is how you run after or away from the enemy. The only thing that matters is how many people you have killed, how many bullets your body has taken. But we do not intend this fate for our children. We do not intend the fate of the mothers of our children to be the burial of their sons on foreign soil, under foreign flags. It is time for both Kyiv/Kiev and Brussels to understand this: our sons shall not die for Ukraine, but shall live for Hungary.
My Friends,
On April 12 the Hungarians will decide. I am an old hand at this. I have been fighting long enough to know when we are truly facing a difficult and important election. In twenty-eight days, we will face such an election. We are not just voting for a parliament and a government: we are choosing a destiny – for ourselves, and for the Hungarians who will come after us. We have reached a crossroads. I know what this is like. I, too, have stood at a crossroads before. I stood there when, as a young man, I said “no” to the Soviets. Do not forget: we did not invite them in; we sent them home. And I stood at a crossroads when, as Prime Minister, I said “no” to the Germans on migration. And I stood at a crossroads when I said “no” to Brussels on the war. And I stand at a crossroads now, together with you, when I say “no” to the Ukrainians. We must choose who will form the government: Will it be me, or Zelenskyy? With due humility, I offer myself for the post.
My Friends,
Enormous forces have mobilized to push Hungary off its chosen path. Their plan is to squeeze our country in a pincer movement from the west and the east. They are blocking what is rightfully ours: our money from Brussels, and our oil from Ukraine. They are blackmailing, threatening, and intimidating us – the bureaucrats in Brussels, and the wartime mafiosi in Kyiv/Kiev. Everyone is doing it with whatever they have. They want a change of government in Hungary because we will not hand over the keys to our treasury. Because we will not let them flood Hungarian farmers with cheap Ukrainian grain. Because we will not let the big multinationals – the Shells and the Erstes – take your money. Because we will not let Ukrainians move around millions of euros and gold bars – who knows for what purpose – inside Hungary. And because we will not let Ukraine join the EU, and thereby bring war down on Hungary’s head. Therefore we are standing in their way.
And indeed we shall not let that happen – because we have our own roadmap. Fidesz will win, and peace will prevail, household energy bills will remain low, and wages will rise. Fidesz will win, and everyone who works will benefit. Fidesz will win, and families will be strong – with even those who did not vote for us faring well. This is our plan for victory.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Celebrants,
Now is the time to be truly vigilant. This is an old story: they want your money – the Hungarians’ money. They want to take it to Brussels, and from there to Ukraine. This is because war requires money, and in Brussels they have run out of it. They need a top-up. They also need the Hungarians’ money. But even that is not enough: they need loans, too – lots of them, and long-term ones. And they need the Member States to back them. Our money will not be enough for them: they want to get their hands on our children’s money and grandchildren’s money as well. Citing Ukraine, they want to turn you into debt slaves – for generations to come. With all due humility, I can only say this: as long as I am Prime Minister, I shall not let them take what is yours and what you are entitled to. I shall not let them fleece Hungary.
My Friends,
They have thrown everything at us, and so far we have stood our ground. We have twenty-eight tough days ahead of us. We not only need to win like we did four years ago – we have to do even better. We do not need the number of votes we got four years ago: we need more. We must renew the anti-war alliance we forged in the last election, and three million votes will not be the ceiling: it will be the threshold. We must not just reach it – we must cross it. We must achieve a historic victory, because the next government will bear a historic responsibility.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Celebrants, My Friends,
Today is March 15. Today we are celebrating. But tomorrow we will ride out. After the April election, what we need is not hotheads, but calm, composed, and confident leaders: a clear head, calm nerves, a steady hand. Strategic composure and experience. And we have all of this – in fact, only we have it. Only Fidesz and the KDNP can provide Hungary with the security we need right now. And we are the guarantee of that. Knowing this is one thing. Going out and voting is another. We have this knowledge, but the votes are yet to be cast. That will come on April 12. And we will get them if we work straight through the next twenty-eight days without compromise, driving ourselves on mercilessly. And then we will achieve a dazzling victory – so dazzling that even Brussels and Kyiv/Kiev will be left blinking in its glare. And our poor River Tisza will finally regain its honor.
Fidesz is the safe choice! Your country needs you! May there be peace, freedom, and concord! Raise the flags high! Onward to victory!
God above us all, Hungary before all else! Go Hungary! Go Hungarians!
