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At the opening event of the festival, the Prime Minister said he is certain that today’s young people do not want a sham life, do not want mere alibi jobs, and do not want to live off their parents’ money even as adults, but instead they want meaningful lives of their own with valuable knowledge, challenges and achievements. “Because you are capable of those things. Because you want to be capable of those things,” he underlined, observing that this is what he feels whenever he looks around at this event year after year, and sees that “the country will be in good hands.”
Mr Orbán told the young people taking part in the competition that “you are the students of a hopeful country that has every reason to feel confident.” He added that today a million more people had jobs in Hungary than 15 years previously, and for a safe living “there is no need to look for a state job.”
The Prime Minister asked young people to be proud of their parents because it was thanks to them that in Hungary the future lay with trades again.
He indicated that when in 2010 a national government was formed, Hungary “was nothing short of an abject failure.” The general conviction was that you could not live off work, and so people in the millions lived off benefits, trickery, the playing of the rules, or looked for a state job of some kind, he pointed out. In continuation he said, at the time, most people wanted to continue their studies in secondary schools of general education with a view to pursuing studies in higher education. “Many had more faith in a single piece of paper than in their own knowledge, diligence and will power,” he said, highlighting that such a country has no future, such a country “is doomed to a slow agony, and is bound to die sooner or later.”
“Our generation did not want to resign itself to this,” the Prime Minister stated, adding that they did not resign themselves to their children and grandchildren “growing up in a struggling country without hope that is unable to stand on its own two feet.”
“You have every reason to be proud of your parents who – with hard work – pulled Hungary out of bankruptcy, helped it back on its feet and gave its self-confidence back,” he pointed out.
Addressing young people, Mr Orbán also highlighted that they had their parents to thank for the fact that work had regained its old prestige, and that the majority of young people now wanted professional skills again. “We have them to thank for the fact that we have built in Hungary a modern vocational training system to the highest standards, we have developed vocational training facilities, classrooms, new buildings and new machinery fleets to the value of 140 billion forints. You have them to thank for the skilled worker scholarship system, the worker loan, and the tax exemption for the under 25s. You have them to thank for the fact that today a good carpenter can take home up to 800,000 forints a month, a good electrician can earn as much as a million forints a month, and you will earn even more than that if you learn the ins and outs of your trade, and are diligent enough,” the Prime Minister explained.
According to Mr Orbán, in the future, only such a country can prove to be successful which appreciates talented people cultivating their trades to the highest standards, and Hungary is such a country, he pointed out.
He said, at the same time, due to “swift changes and emerging threats,” “the Hungarians must stand their ground not only individually, but also as a nation.”
He argued that the bloody war being waged in our immediate neighbourhood, the tariff war, the mass migration that is ongoing at our borders, the shortage of energy in once-rich western countries, the climate change in nature, and “the war preparations that are under way in Brussels salons” all pose threats.
He said while “we have our own best-case scenarios regarding Hungary’s future,” “the worst-case scenarios are also on the table.”
Stressing the importance of the opinion vote on Ukraine’s EU membership, he said, turning to his audience, that “this issue will decide the quality of your next 20 years,” meaning “the most active, most productive, more promising” two decades of today’s youths.
He took the view that if young people want “a migrant-free Hungary also in the future,” and if they do not want “Ukrainian workers in the millions on their necks” who take their jobs and knock their wages down, they must not let others decide over their heads. Therefore, he encouraged everyone to take part in the vote and to decide.
In conclusion, the Prime Minister thanked young people and their teachers for their work, and their parents “for having raised able young people, rather than good-for-nothing idlers.” He then called upon students “to show the world what you’re made of so that everyone can see that the Hungarians are here to stay.”
