“If you take this fight on, we will win, if you don’t, we won’t win, not even if I personally put my all into it,” the Prime Minister told the attendees of the forum, adding that they will have to win these elections.
“You’re the professionals and there are volunteers, but if the sound of the trumpet falters, then the volunteers won’t move,” he said. He asked the municipal leaders of the government side to appreciate the responsibility involved. Mr Orbán stressed that they were facing an election where there would be a race in mobilisation, rather than “special stunts or magician’s tricks.”
“We have our voters, we are more numerous, right-wing, patriotic people are in the majority, people who have faith in us, support us and want us to continue our work are in the majority in this country,” he laid down, pointing out that the only question is whether they will go and “we’ll take them to vote.”
“Our job, your job is to take each and every Fidesz-Christian Democratic People’s Party supporter, each and every patriotic Hungarian, from the smallest town to the innermost parts of the capital, to the polls. And then, according to the laws of mathematics, there will be a result that will favour us and the country,” the Prime Minister said.
Mr Orbán proposed the retailoring of the municipal system as a task for the period following the 2026 parliamentary elections. He said in the past 16 years, they have completed an impressive amount of work: this is a different country, a different economy, a different municipal and county system than there was in 2010. He added: they have used all the energy and resources that this reform had to offer, and while it would be nice to continue things as they are, if they want to take a bigger step and change the magnitude, then the present system will not be enough for that.
“I suggest that rather than fine-tuning, we should ask some important questions, and should retailor the municipal system, wherever necessary, in 2026-2027 after a series of consultations,” the Prime Minister initiated. He said it is time to ask the questions which have accumulated in the municipal system after 16 years; we must take stock.
He added that eighteen months earlier he had asked Minister for Public Administration and Regional Development Tibor Navracsics to start negotiations in preparation for the changes that they would implement after the 2026 parliamentary elections. He described ‘division of responsibilities’ as the key term. He observed that there was no need to throw everything out. There are many good things in this system, but it is difficult to follow what constitutes mandatory and voluntary tasks for local governments.
Regarding weather conditions in recent weeks, Mr Orbán thanked municipal leaders for the fact that they managed to maintain the continued operation of the country. He asked them to continue to stand by because difficult weathers conditions are not over yet, and their work will also be required during the weeks ahead.
He said Fidesz-Christian Democratic People’s Party is the only political force in Hungary which is at home everywhere in the country. “We don’t visit the country, we come from there,” he stated, stressing that Fidesz-Christian Democratic People’s Party’s “heart chakra” is in the countryside. He observed: seeing their challengers, he is surprised how a party with just 26 members takes the liberty of venturing to govern after a few tours which are merely enough to make a cursory acquaintance with the countryside. “This is a serious matter. If you’re not there everywhere in the country, if your mayors are not everywhere, if you don’t know the locals’ problems, you mustn’t venture to do the job of governing because without local knowledge this country cannot be governed,” the Prime Minister concluded.
He recalled that in 2022, there had been only two constituencies outside Budapest where they had not won. They received 2.4 million votes in the countryside, and 80 per cent of their total party list votes came from the countryside. The story of local governments and Fidesz-Christian Democratic People’s Party does not go back to just a few years as after the 2002 left-wing turnaround, local governments and settlements were the bastions of national resistance, he pointed out.
The Left did not forget this, as long as they could, they took revenge for it, and they would do so also now if they could. “Do not underestimate the fact that in Hungary there is a revanchist elite who found themselves pushed out of power, but they want to return and threaten to take revenge,” he warned.
He said their challengers “want to take revenge not only on us, governmental actors, but on everyone who belongs to this patriotic community, including you.” He pointed out that left-wing governments had bled local governments out, had shifted all the responsibilities onto them, without giving them “money, horses or weapons.” As a result, by 2010 debts worth HUF 1,400 billion had been accumulated within the municipal system. Additionally, 60 per cent of this debt was foreign currency-based, meaning that local governments were also exposed to the risks of exchange rate fluctuations.
By the beginning of 2010, the debt portfolio of the municipal sector had increased to 4.6 per cent of the Hungarian gross domestic product, and local governments had no money left even for the fulfilment of their most basic responsibilities. It was this burden that the patriotic government then assumed in 2013; this was one of the greatest decisions and results of the governance of Fidesz and the Christian Democratic People’s Party, the Prime Minister pointed out.
He observed: it is a pity that this is now all “in the display cabinet,” no one seems to care anymore because the Hungarians are such that they take anything good that has already happened for granted.
Mr Orbán also spoke about the fact that the economic performance of the countryside had increased by 50 per cent in the past 15 years. In consequence of this, revenues derived from the local trade tax have increased two and a half-fold.
Today, their distance in terms of level of advancement from the European average is much smaller than before, he concluded. He also said today only 10 per cent of local governments have debts, and the ratio of debt to the totality of municipal assets currently stands at 1.6 per cent. This is unparallelled in the whole of Europe, he indicated, also reminding his audience of the Modern Cities and the Hungarian Village programmes.
He highlighted that Hungary must never resign itself to becoming increasingly urbanised parallel with the disappearance of its villages. “When after the election victory we sit down to discuss the tasks in hand and try to retailor the municipal system as a whole, we will have to answer the question of how we can provide Hungarians with access to urban services without destroying our villages,” he stated.
He recalled that those over sixty had grown up, believing that it was impossible to alter the reality that the country had a western half and an eastern half, not only culturally, but also in terms of living standards. “If you take a look at the governance of the past 16 years, you will see that we have changed this fate. We are very close to achieving a point of equalisation. The major developments and investments which will raise the eastern part of the country have already been completed, and in the next few years, you will see growth in Eastern Hungary that you won’t believe,” he said.
The Fidesz-Christian Democratic People’s Party alliance can be proud of the fact that it has put an end to the unfair division of Hungary which had existed between East and West for a long time, he stressed. He added: from the viewpoint of regional development, the greatest task of the next 10 years will be – after Fidesz and the Christian Democratic People’s Party remedied the country’s East-West division – to also rectify the difference between North and South, rather than by pushing the North down, by raising the South, he said.
Regarding the solidarity tax, the Prime Minister said solidarity emerges not only in the relationship between richer and poorer settlements, but it is also one of the general basic principles of the functioning of the Hungarian economy as a whole as the bank levy and the tax imposed on multinational corporations, too, are solidarity taxes. He added: a change of governments would pose the greatest threat for the very reason that it would do away with them.
He highlighted that the opponents of Fidesz and the Christian Democratic People’s Party had so far named two individuals that they would invite to the Hungarian government. One of them is a banker, the head of an Austrian bank, while the other one is the executive of an international-multinational energy company. “It’s all over for the bank levy,” “it’s all over for the reduction of household energy bills,” Mr Orbán pointed out in response to this.
He said it is the duty of “the ministers parachuted here from Brussels” to do away with the solidarity mechanisms in the Hungarian economy, with the aid of which the country is today able to grow at an even pace. He indicated that with the assistance of Minister Tibor Navracsics, he was prepared to discuss the issue of the solidarity tax and the Programme of Competitive Districts, and to find fairer and more appropriate mechanisms than the current transfers. “We are free to talk about everything,” he added.
He said if tasks are re-distributed after the elections, they will be able to assign sufficient funds to them on the basis of a logic which simultaneously recognises the merits of fast-growing cities and does not abandon settlements which, due to their size, are unable to grow so fast.
“My plan is that after winning the elections and after sweeping the bankers and multinational executives parachuted onto us from Brussels out of the country, we will maintain the mechanisms in the Hungarian economy which will allow the sectors of the economy which are able to make extra profits to take responsibility for the other sectors of the economy as well because at the end of the day, we are a nation, a community, and everyone must accept this, even if they came to Hungary from an Austrian bank or a Dutch energy company,” the Prime Minister laid down.
He said this country belongs to the Hungarians, and the Hungarians must help one another. He added: we may have disagreements, but at the end of the day, we are all Hungarians, and so the mechanisms of solidarity must work without breaking the logic of the performance-oriented economy and discouraging those who are capable of more, who are able to render a higher performance and who are able to achieve greater economic results.
He observed: we should not be surprised that there is a dispute revolving around money as “we are only human, where there is meat, there are also flies.” Meanwhile, the government is there in order for someone to hold the fly swatter, he said.
Regarding the threat of the war, Mr Orbán warned that there was no settlement in Hungary that did not have World War I or World War II monuments. Therefore, Hungary must persevere with the policy of peace in order not to have to erect a third one next to those. “We lost two wars, we only just survived them, we only just endured them, I think we couldn’t even endure a third one. We mustn’t risk a third one,” he stated.
The fact that we were defeated in both wars also imposes a moral duty on us, we must loudly tell the winners that on the whole, you can only lose on a war, he stated. He suggested to members of his audience that they check out what Eastern Ukraine looked like before 2015 and what it looks like now. “This cannot be taken lightly,” he warned, stressing that if Hungary’s response is not rejection from the very first moment, it will be dragged into the war.
Mr Orbán said the European experience is that European peacekeepers always turn into warkeepers, “therefore, I don’t recommend that Hungary should send troops to territories beyond its borders as part of any European peacekeeping mission.” However, it is not enough to stay out of the war, we must also stay out of the financing of the war, the Prime Minister-President of Fidesz stressed.
He said there is as much money as the Hungarian economy is able to generate. If it is taken to Ukraine, there will not be enough here. There is no such thing as propagating money. You cannot spend one forint in two places: either we spend it in Ukraine or in Mátészalka, either in Dnipro or in Veszprém; either in Kiev or in Budapest, that is the situation, he laid down.
He took the view that today Europe was being controlled by “a Germany war troika,” the President of the European Commission, the German chancellor and the head of the largest party group of the European Parliament. In continuation, he said these “pro-war Germans” have agents in Hungary as the Tisza Party is a member of the European People’s Party. This is their pro-war party, they represent Brussels in Hungary. They always vote for everything that Brussels wants, including the continuation of the war, he stated.
He said Brussels has to date sent EUR 193 billion to Ukraine, and now they will send there another loan of EUR 90 billion which will be enough for the war for two years. He pointed out that every week nine thousand people died or became maimed on the two sides of the Ukrainian front, totalling eight hundred thousand victims over a period of two years. When “the fair pro-war forces” in Brussels decide to give 90 billion euros, “that means that we produce eight hundred thousand maimed or dead people in the immediate neighbourhood of Hungary,” he laid down.
Mr Orbán pointed out that there was no money in Brussels, and therefore, if they wanted to send money, they would have to borrow. He highlighted that Brussels had squandered the future of European children and grandchildren by financing the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainians will never repay the loans borrowed from the money markets, consequently, the Europeans will have to repay them, and this in turn means that “our children, our grandchildren will repay them.” We must stay out of this, he stated.
At the end of his speech, the Prime Minister said Fidesz will win the 2026 parliamentary elections, pointing out that while the other side keeps shouting, shakes their fists, raises hell, threatens, talks about revenge and locking people up, “we are doing our job day after day in a calm and composed manner, with a disciplined and serious posture, sincerely, honestly, showing the people clear plans.”
He added that work would resume immediately after the elections; there are as yet many tasks to be fulfilled in various sectors, and their experts concerned with the economy, transport and energy are facing serious professional challenges. He said after a major pay rise, education, too, could do with improvement. There are many tasks ahead, but due to the many players involved, not one is as complex as creating a new municipal system will be.
This is an enormous task which requires responsibility, expertise and experience. No one other than us can do this job because Fidesz is the safe choice, Mr Orbán stated.
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