In the interview recorded in the Carmelite Monastery on Thursday, the Prime Minister described the Fidesz-Christian Democratic People’s Party coalition as one of their greatest innovations and a special arrangement which is a Hungarian answer to a European challenge that has proved to be fatal for many parties.
He argued: In Europe Christian parties should simultaneously stand for the truth that follows from Christian teachings and gather the majority vote that is necessary for governance, but due to the secularisation and liberalisation of European society, today this is almost impossible.
Therefore, Christian democratic parties started making decisions which may have been popular with the majority of society, but have removed them in the meantime from Christian teachings. Today, most large Christian democratic parties are no longer Christian democratic and not even right-wing; they are located somewhere at the centre, but are increasingly tending towards the left, and not only do they not make any reference to Christian teachings, but even acknowledge and accept the liberal rejection of such references, he observed.
It was in response to this challenge that they forged the Fidesz-Christian Democratic People’s Party alliance. In this alliance, Fidesz gathers votes, while the duty of the Christian Democratic People’s Party is to continuously show Fidesz, the government and the Hungarian public as a whole what would follow from Christian teachings for one issue or another, and how to make one decision or another on the basis of those teachings.
In most cases, we are able to follow their advice, but there are times when “we must openly admit that there is no social support behind one issue or another, and therefore, we will make a compromise of some kind,” he said, adding that this is a public and open process, meaning that they do not deceive anyone.
The Christian Democratic People’s Party as the only ideology-based party plays this anchor role to the highest standards, Mr Orbán said, adding that he is responsible for the anchor rope. “I only allow the use of an anchor rope which is just long enough – meaning that I only permit as much deviation from Christian teachings with a variety of compromises – to allow me to retain the anchor and to secure enough votes for a majority,” he explained.
He also said this is a complex task, but as they have done it together with the Christian Democratic People’s Party for almost decades now, they have gelled well and this arrangement is working well.
“I regard the Fidesz-Christian Democratic People’s Party cooperation as Europe’s most successful Christian profile preservation experiment,” he stated.
Mr Orbán said it is important to separate Christianity as personal faith and Christian culture, meaning that they should not be expected to discuss matters of faith that belong in one’s personal life. The government can be held accountable for whether it stands on Christian foundations, whether they attempt to keep the country on such foundations and to make decisions that conform to Christian traditions. This in turn is also acceptable for people who have no living faith, he pointed out.
The Prime Minister said the fact that our Constitution is a Christian one is owing to the Christian Democratic People’s Party’s beneficial impact on Hungary which also manifests itself in specific decisions. Before the Fidesz-Christian Democratic People’s Party two-thirds came into being, “we had a liberal, superficial, transitional Constitution which conveyed no value content” and which “kept a distance from all truly important, deep historical and cultural issues like from some patient suffering from the plague.”
He added: later, they were compelled to supplement this Constitution on a few points, following the logic of European political struggles. As part of these amendments, they included in the Constitution – which they previously never thought should be written in the Constitution – that a person is either a man or a woman, that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman, and that the father is a man, while the mother is a woman. The thoughts, basic principles and teachings related to gender and family protection are expressly owing to the Christian Democratic People’s Party and the Christian Democratic People’s Party-Fidesz cooperation, but this is also the source of the connection between nation and Christianity, and a number of other considerations relating to privacy rights in the Constitution, he listed.
Mr Orbán said there are two political trends in Hungary: Fidesz-Christian Democratic People’s Party and the Left, “whatever it’s called at any particular time.” For some of the Left, the church is an enemy, while others within the Left take the view that there is no difference between a stamp collecting society and churches. This is their mentality, and if they obtain a majority, this is what they will enforce. Those who support the Left’s political aspirations from the Christian side should be aware that they will support an anti-Christian political force or a force that will relativise Christian values when in government.
He also spoke about the fact that the state-church separation was invented by the liberals in the western world, and it later transpired that rather than aiming at a fair separation, this concept merely sought to remove churches from public life and to push them back within the boundaries of private life. Therefore, the Hungarian Constitution – offering a linguistic alternative to the state-church separation – lays down that the state and churches “function separately.” He said it is important that this separated functioning does not exclude the two working together towards shared goals because there are goals which are professed both by churches and the government, while there are things, such as preaching the gospel, in which churches cannot and indeed need not cooperate with the government.
He also said that the debates breaking out from time to time which criticise the overly close cooperation of the state and churches are, in his view, pointless “debates that serve to cover up ambitions within churches.”
Mr Orbán described Hungarian churches as “defeated, beaten churches” in a political sense. He said communism carried out terrible devastation, while after 1990, “there were another extremely chaotic 20 years” when “the liberals beat churches as hard as they could even further.” In continuation, he said since 2010, in the past almost 20 years, churches may finally have had the impression that not only do they receive what they are entitled to, but they are appreciated, recognised, and those in power regard the service that they perform as valuable. Today, one can say with a head held high, with pride or humility, but with self-confidence that “I’m a Hungarian Christian,” and this has only become conflict-free in the past twenty odd years.
“So, if we don’t want to see Christians with their heads bowed down again in this country, we need a Christian, patriotic government because the Left will push us back into the twilight, into the realm of private life, and won’t recognise the values and acts of kindness that our community has to offer the country,” the Prime Minister pointed out.
In answer to a question relating to the 2015 migration crisis, Mr Orbán recalled: it was evident that on the issue of refugees, the Hungarian government’s position did not fully coincide with the position of the Holy See, and he was concerned that Hungary’s migrant policy would be received with heavy Catholic criticism in Hungary, but this did not prove to be the case. The Hungarian Catholic Church “represented the Hungarian national interest well, not only here at home, but I think also in the Vatican,” he said, adding that he is grateful for this.
He said he was sure that the building of the fence was the national interest, but he needed a certain moral compass on this matter, and so he consulted with Christian leaders with experience regarding the issue of Muslim-Christian co-existence. They confirmed his concept that a country with the tradition of St. Stephen must protect Christianity and must help Christian churches operating in mixed areas. He also consulted his Muslim friends, and they, too, said ‘stop them.’
In summary, he said “I informed myself on this matter – seeking a moral compass – as diversely as possible, I did that job, and this is why I’m saying that what we did and what I’m doing is essential and necessary not only from the viewpoint of the Hungarian national interest, but it is a morally defensible position according to the rules of Christian morality as well.”
Regarding the war in Ukraine, he pointed out: in this regard, he does not accept any moral criticism; in fact, he has moral criticisms of his own. Those who support the war in actual fact assist the crippling and killing of around 9,000 people a week, that is 36,000 people a month, and 400,000 people a year, and this has been ongoing for four years now. There are surely political and other considerations, but there is a higher Christian viewpoint from which the situation should be viewed from time to time, and we should focus all our efforts on peace, he stated.
Mr Orbán warned: today’s European civilisation is like a cut flower which is still “magnificent,” and its life can be extended with some solution that may compensate for the mother soil, but it has been severed from the ground from which it derived its richness, splendour and colour. That people in the West have severed themselves from Christian soil will have tragic consequences, he said, describing the alteration of the elements of the Christian tradition relating to families as the gravest consequence.
Same-sex marriage is a change that goes expressly against Christian teachings, but when – with the reversal of the Muslim-Christian ratio – they succeed in putting an end to the one man, one woman Christian family structure, Christianity will become a finished story in the history of Western Europe.
In answer to a question concerning the elections in Hungary and the post-election period, the Prime Minister said if we approach politics with a Christian mentality, that also helps with the acceptance of the election result and the ensuing reunification, consolidation of the country.
“I have no better offer to the Hungarians than that they should elect for themselves a parliament with a majority which is comprised of Christian believers and a government which attempts to follow Christian teachings during its day-to-day work,” Mr Orbán said.
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