Menu
At the conference entitled ‘The Age of Geoeconomics: Evolution of Central Banking,’ Mr Orbán spoke about the fact that the liberal era will be succeeded by a sovereigntist era in the future. He added that “we Hungarians – alone in the western world – have been building the sovereigntist era for 15 years, we can tell you a thing or two about the specificities of the period ahead.”
The first important experience is stability and security. Security will gain in importance during the period ahead, those who are unable to defend themselves are not partners, nor allies; they can only be subordinated even in a best-case scenario, the Prime Minister stressed. He said therefore preserving the ability of self-defence will be key for every nation.
He added that rather than the Russo-Ukrainian war, migration and its “mathematically projectable consequences” will be in the focus of this.
As a second experience, he mentioned that the period ahead will also be about a race among state organisation models as the neo-liberal state organisation models are falling just now one by one. He added that this had already taken place in the United States and would also take place in Europe. The question is what other models will follow from different national cultures and national characteristics.
He spoke about a connectivity-based foreign policy as a third experience, stressing that a country that is not willing to connect itself with the other important players cannot be successful, while a country that is able to connect with everyone else will find its weight and role gaining in importance.
He observed that Hungary was usually described by the government’s liberal opponents as an isolated country. Compared with this, he continued, today in the whole of Europe, Hungary has the best relations with the new US Republican administration, China and Russia all at once.
“It is the European Union, not Hungary that is isolated” as the EU fell out with the new US administration, isolated itself from China by having started a tariffs war and isolated itself from Russia with which it is at war, he stated.
“Who is isolated? […] We have the feeling that we are walking in the main street of history, while the European Union is wandering aimlessly in some muddy side street,” he said.
As a fourth experience, the Prime Minister laid down the need for a strong middle class. He said in Europe in the coming decades, we can expect very serious social shocks to take place, and in this new world only those countries will survive where these troubles will not lead to internal political instability; only those countries can be successful where the social order resting on the foundations of the middle class is unshakeable and unassailable.
He stressed that Hungary had not allowed that which had happened in the West to happen: in the West, the liberal state organisation model has weakened the middle classes. He added that while the European middle classes are diminishing, in East Asia, large social strata in the hundreds of millions are being elevated into the middle classes with which they are able to create not only stability, but also economic prosperity.
He highlighted that since 2010 the Hungarian government had worked hard to create a strong middle class; today, a million more people have jobs than in 2010. The employment rate of the age group between 20 and 64 years has risen from 64 per cent in 2010 to 81 per cent, while the financial assets of households have increased four-fold to around HUF 90,000 billion which is the 13th largest in the whole of the European Union. He pointed out that this was not an accumulation of assets over generations of families because that had been frustrated by communism, but the achievement of a middle-class policy.
He also highlighted that nine Hungarians out of ten lived in their own properties, while in ten years micro-businesses had doubled their revenues, reaching HUF 20,000 billion.
He said the middle class has been reinforced under circumstances where, due to the close relations maintained with the US Republicans, the Brussels bureaucracy wants to keep Hungary under financial sanctions, while due to the Russo-Ukrainian war, in three years the Hungarian economy lost EUR 19.5 billion.
He added that in Hungary every year since 2010, the real incomes of 60 to 70 per cent of workers had increased, except in 2023 when due to the war, there had been a real income decrease.
In this regard, he observed that therefore, the ending of the Russo-Ukrainian war, the success of the peace efforts of the new US administration was not an ideological, not even a geostrategic, but a crucial, everyday economic interest of Hungary.
He added that they were hoping also for this reason that there would be peace, that the sovereigntist world political transformation would take place and that they would be able to conclude an overarching US-Hungarian economic agreement with which to give the Hungarian economy a boost.
Mr Orbán laid down as a normative concept projected to the entire world that every nation has the right to regard itself as the centre of the world and the most important point of reference.
The Hungarians believe that regardless of economies of scale, at the end of the day, Hungary is the centre of the world, Mr Orbán said, adding that the same as we accept that every nation looks upon its own country as the centre of the world. It follows from this for every nation, including Hungary that we must seek the answer to the question of how to guarantee our survival and prosperity in this new world.
According to the Prime Minister, there is a good chance that “Hungary will find its own place not only on the old, but also on the new map of the global economy currently unfolding.”
The Prime Minister said in its present form, the euro favours economies that are strong and competitive as a matter of course, but does not help emerging economies gain in strength.
He added that Hungary had not introduced the single currency upon the advice of Sándor Lámfalussy, “the father of the euro;” he said “if you are not prepared,” “accession will kill you.”
Mr Orbán stressed that Sándor Lámfalussy as a true Central European had undertaken the lion’s share of work in ensuring the smoothest possible accession of the region’s states to the European Union. However, not even he could tell how much time would be required for creating a common fiscal policy in addition to a common currency.
It is never a good idea to leave such affairs to the sober wisdom of politicians, Mr Orbán observed.
He stressed that Sándor Lámfalussy, who had assisted his work as advisor before Hungary’s EU accession, had known better than anyone else the functioning of his own invention, the euro, also seeing its possible faults, and had predicted that the introduction of the euro would also bring with it the creation of a common fiscal policy.
Mr Orbán mentioned that since the introduction of the single European currency, the productivity and competitiveness of the United States have improved much more swiftly than those of the Eurozone; since 2000, its GDP has increased by around 170 per cent, while that of the Eurozone by 140 per cent.
He recalled it as one of the greatest takeaways and lessons of his life that when “a shamelessly provocative liberal journalist” asked Mr Lámfalussy about his Christianity, he said “I keep trying, but I don’t always succeed.’
This reminds us Christians that Christianity is not a theory, but a practice which may even have a place in financial policy, the Prime Minister observed.
Mr Orbán recalled that he had first addressed the conference in 2014. His speech delivered back then included all the warnings relating to today’s most important geopolitical challenges; three years later, he spoke about the visible signs of the transformation of the world. Since then, he observed, “the world has changed so much that we can barely recognise it.”
Praising Governor of the National Bank of Hungary György Matolcsy, the Prime Minister stated that “this is not yet the end of the story,” adding that he is certain that the central bank governor whose mandate will run out in the near future “will remain a significant, determining player of the conception of Hungarian economic policy ideas.”
Thanking him for the past ten years, Mr Orbán said the heritage that Mr Matolcsy is leaving behind will elevate him to the ranks of the greatest such as Kálmán Széll, Sándor Wekerle and the first central bank governor Sándor Popovics.
Mr Matolcsy is an epoch-making economic politician and an epoch-making central bank governor, we are grateful for his work, the Prime Minister said.
Mr Orbán also lauded economics professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, who spoke before him, recalling their acquaintance going back many long decades. The Prime Minister described him as the most renowned western economist who came to the Central European region to help with the economic transition. He referred to himself and the economics professor as old soldiers of the westernisation and cohesion of Central Europe.
He also said that while they have had their differences over the years, they have always agreed and continue to agree that the Hungarians must connect to the entire world within the shortest possible time and as thoroughly as possible.
In the past 30 years, their positions have approximated. The very same globalists who once urged the opening of the borders next urged the formation of blocs, isolation and war. George Soros is at the vanguard of this, he observed.
He added there had always been and also today there were financial circles – let us call them globalists – which 30 years ago managed to “make money hand over fist” by spreading neoliberal tenets; today, they are able to make money hand over fist with the war.
“The rest is just empty talk, deception or an obscurant play, that’s the naked political truth, pure and simple,” the Prime Minister stated.
By contrast, the professor has always insisted that the world can be made a better, more peaceful place with the help of free trade and cooperation and connection on the foundations of common interests. In the past few years – not entirely independently of the character of the US administration – he was excommunicated for this opinion of his, but he persevered, always standing for the same position, and for this he commands our respect, he said in summary.
“In thirty years, we have moved from the Washington dissensus to the Budapest consensus,” said Mr Orbán, adding that the previous liberal Washington consensus appears to have expired. It was already on its deathbed in previous years, but since Donald Trump’s victory it cannot even hope for a resurrection, he stated.
