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At the meeting held in the Parliament Building, the Prime Minister stressed that for the Hungarians the Carpathian Basin was more than a place of residence; this was our historical and spiritual home.
He laid down as the most important tenets of the Hungarian state of mind: being Hungarian means that our language is our soul; if we lose it, we lose ourselves. The survival of the Hungarians was not gifted to us, we must fight for it every day. Those who protect families protect the nation. Borders may separate us, but the nation belongs together.
Praising the Forum of Hungarian Members of Parliament in the Carpathian Basin, he said it is especially important that there is a pan-Hungarian forum whose members are democratically elected Members of Parliament. He also welcomed the fact that Hungarian organisations in Transylvania and Vojvodina had been successful in recent elections, and with this they proved the need for and success of ethnicity-based politics.
Mr Orbán further said the greatest challenge for the Hungarian community in the Carpathian Basin is the war, or to be more precise, the Brussels pro-war policy that fuels it.
He stressed that this pro-war policy offered us nothing good, and jeopardised our future. Due to it, the price of energy has gone up, and with this so has the price of almost everything we need in our daily lives, and this is why the European economy is suffering today.
The pro-war policy imposes an enormous burden upon the whole of Europe, including the countries of the Carpathian Basin. The pro-war policy takes precious resources away from developments and investments upon which the economic life and cooperation of the entire Hungarian community could be built, he warned.
He highlighted that this was not the European Union we had joined. The European Union had previously been legitimised by its achievements, and these achievements had also lent it identity. This was built on the fact that after the bloody first half of the 20th century, the European Union could create peace and welfare on the continent. However, all this is now a thing of the past, he stated.
Mr Orbán took the view that by now, “the West’s legendary quality of life is gone,” as the quality of life cannot be good in a place where there are migrants in masses, where the people no longer feel at home, and where one has to pay twice or up to four times more for energy than two or three years previously.
He stressed that success no longer legitimised the European Union, and so something else was required. Therefore, according to Brussels, Europe’s new goal is that “we must clash with Russia in the East.” According to the Brussels war propaganda, Russia could attack EU and even NATO Member States, and only a pre-emptive strike could stop them, the Prime Minister said, adding that “in their minds” the war in Ukraine is the pre-emptive strike, and already today, it is the Ukrainian army that prevents the Russians from occupying Europe.
He stressed that none of this was, however, true; Europe can be defended even without the continuation of the war in Ukraine.
In his view, Brussels also hopes that an increase in defence expenditure and the ensuing arms race will boost the economy, despite the fact that, in actual fact, the EU is financing the war, except not in its own territory. He described this as a new economic cycle in which the EU supplies Ukraine with weapons, Ukraine buys these weapons from EU loans, while the EU buys Ukrainian goods.
He took the view that the Russo-Ukrainian war had become the catalyst, in reference to which Brussels was making every effort to take ever more powers away from the Member States, and this had become the excuse for further centralisation and the elimination of the element of sovereignty. Mr Orbán described this as a coup and the derailing of the logic of European integration as seen to date.
He observed that it was ironic that according to the position of EU leaders, the consensus-based system of the EU with 27 members was too slow for the management of crises, and while decisions adopted in Hungary with a two-thirds majority were criticised, in Brussels they looked upon unanimity as a threat.
He said the intellectual foundations for a wartime Europe are also being laid, liberal think tanks churn out studies about the need for centralisation one after the other, and the conclusion of every one of these studies is that the range of issues requiring unanimity must be reduced, and it should be banished entirely from foreign policy, for instance.
In his view, the end result of the “Brussels plan” would be the elimination of national sovereignty, freedom and democracy, and the ultimate goal – a United States of Europe – would create an anti-democratic and unaccountable political structure.
He pointed out that the means resorted to in Brussels were no longer democratic already at this point in time. “They interfere with elections, surveil pro-sovereignty parties, shut down right-wing, conservative events, and finance federalist and pro-war fake NGOs and media in the whole of Europe,” he listed.
As a new phenomenon, he mentioned that Brussels also wanted to erect a massive financial structure on the foundations of the pro-war logic, given that billions of euros are required in order to send money for the continuation of the war in Ukraine.
At present, Brussels’ goal is to federalise the money of European taxpayers, and they want to create an order in which Brussels itself is free to dispose of the available funds without any say on the part of the Member States, he explained.
He added that they sought to change the institutional structure of the EU in a way which enabled them to channel the funds the Member States are entitled to at present to Ukraine, and to regroup – in accordance with their pro-war objectives – the funds of the common agricultural policy and the cohesion fund.
Mr Orbán said since the outbreak of the war, the European Commission and the European Parliament have sought to achieve an increase in their own – at present, rather minimal – fiscal resources.
The Brussels bureaucrats would impose and collect taxes directly, and this would reduce national taxes. Every year, they would seek to take minimum EUR 37 billion away from the Member States in this manner in total, Mr Orbán explained.
The Prime Minister said once in the past, Hungary agreed to a collective debt which was designed to eliminate the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, but they only succeeded in distributing one half of the recovery funds. If we take out further loans together, by doing so we would enhance federalisation, he pointed out.
The Prime Minister said the greatest achievement of the Hungarian presidency was the adoption of the competitiveness pact. However, Brussels now wants us to “relocate all available funds” to the defence industry, with a view to distributing them on the basis of quotas.
He said this is a defence industry quota economy, the products of which can then be sold to Ukraine from European money.
“Green quotas, migrant quotas, gender quotas, now we have a war quota as well,” he stated.
The Prime Minister said experts and veterans in Brussels now openly “theorise” about a wartime economy; and Ukraine is the theatre of operations of the Brussels war plan which they want to impose on the European Union with force.
Mr Orbán said the propaganda – to the effect that Ukraine’s EU integration could be implemented at a minimal cost – has already started. However, the Hungarian economy would be crippled by Ukraine’s EU accession. The full integration of the neighbouring country – distributed over multiple years – would cost some EUR 2,500 billion which is twelve times the EU’s budget for this year, he pointed out.
The Prime Minister described the cost of Ukraine’s reconstruction as enormous, amounting to USD 500 billion according to conservative estimates, but according to Ukraine’s estimates, this could cost up to EUR 1,000 billion. Additionally, the mere functioning of Ukraine is already costing USD 100 billion a year; this would be a financial burden in the magnitude of HUF 20,000 billion in total.
On top of this, Hungary would become a net contributor, and all this combined is too much for the country, he said.
In summary, he pointed out that a centralised European superstate controlled from Brussels was not in the best interests of the Hungarians and other nations living in the Carpathian Basin. He said many empires have already oppressed the Hungarians, and while the old empires have fallen, “if it’s all the same, we would rather not repeat this ordeal.”
“We have remained, they have fallen, but the imperial wounds inflicted upon the Hungarian community haven’t healed to this day,” he said, reminding his audience of the Turkish occupation, the depopulation of areas, the World Wars and the loss of country in Trianon. These are all the sins of the empires of the day, “if possible, we should avoid asking for another helping, even in a Brussels outfit,” he added.
Mr Orbán said the task in hand is to prevent the Brussels Empire which is currently being built “from sitting on our necks.”
We need a veritable hussar’s trick: while the emperor is at war, we must occupy Brussels; while Brussels is preparing for war, we must amplify anti-war initiatives in Europe, he stated.
The war is costing not only us Hungarians too much; every European feels its weight, Mr Orbán highlighted, referring to surveys, concluding that the majority of Europeans do not support Ukraine’s accelerated EU accession, or the sending of weapons or European soldiers to Ukraine.
Meaning that there is plenty of scope for political manoeuvre, and the Brussels plans can be derailed with good manoeuvring, he concluded.
He recalled that in recent years, they had built the organisational foundations, having established the Patriots party family which was now the third largest group in the European Parliament. The anti-federalist party families combined would be able to establish Europe’s largest party alliance, he indicated.
Regarding Central European cooperation, he pointed out that with the departure of the United Kingdom, the “pro-sovereignty-inclined” Central European countries had lost their only large ally in the EU.
Rather than joining the German-French axis, we must reinforce the Visegrád cooperation. A reformed Central European partnership could be key to preventing Hungarian ethnic minorities from finding themselves under imperial rule, he said, observing that the result of the presidential election in Poland is positively promising.
He added that it was an important role of Hungarian Members of Parliament from beyond the borders to establish good relations with neighbouring countries as this was beneficial both for the local Hungarians and Central European cooperation.
It would be important to teach one million people in the Carpathian Basin to speak Hungarian within the next 10 years; at the same time, it would be useful for Hungarians in the motherland to learn the languages of neighbouring countries, he observed.
He highlighted that good neighbourly relations were the best chance for the advancement of Hungarian communities beyond the borders. However, we must not make the mistake that left-liberal governments made, meaning sacrificing national interests for good relations, he warned.
He pointed out that only strength and appreciation could be the basis of good neighbourly relations. The basis of Hungarian nation policy is that Hungarians beyond the borders are the number one priority for us; at the same time, we seek to establish good relations with the leaders of neighbouring countries.
If anyone behaves in a hostile manner towards the Hungarian people, they cannot obtain the support of the Hungarian people in European politics, the Prime Minister laid down, adding that Central Europe can only be strong together with Hungary, our survival is in the best interests of all nations living here.
If we do our job well, then we will stop the federalist and pro-war Brussels policy here in Central Europe. Central Europe is not Brussels’ backyard, but the continent’s main street, and our task is to open it to traffic, Mr Orbán said, concluding his welcome speech.
