According to the Prime Minister, it is a frequent mistake that western political processes are regarded as patterns valid for the whole world, while in most parts of the world, we are witnessing processes of the very opposite nature, there is an era of “the combination of forces.” He said in a number of fast developing countries, new economic and social power centres are emerging which are creating growth, organisation and stability. By contrast, in his view, the main reason for polarisation in the western world is the lack of political and economic success and the inoperability of the modern democratic form of government in the present global environment.
The Prime Minister stressed that in the United States and Western Europe living standards were decreasing, while families were compelled to work more and more to maintain their present standard of living. The western governmental model is not making the societies in which it was conceived successful, he asserted, adding that when a system is unsuccessful, the political struggle is necessarily based on finding scapegoats, rather than on providing solutions, which further intensifies divisions.
The Prime Minister took the view that European democracies were unable to give answers to the three most important, key questions of our time: the war, migration and the deterioration of economic competitiveness. He observed that in the areas of research and development, technological development and patents, Europe had significantly fallen behind, while countries like China “beat everyone to a pulp” in competitiveness.
According to the Prime Minister, this is not an isolated phenomenon, but all this indicates systemic problems. We have a general democracy and democratic governmental systemic problem which – as it is unsuccessful – can necessarily only find political support in finding those responsible, but not in offering solutions, he said.
In his view, the solution lies not in political rhetoric, but in finding governmental forms and measures which provide answers to the determining challenges of the era.
Mr Orbán stated that since 2010 Hungary had built a political and economic system which, in his view, offered effective answers to the issues of the war, migration and competitiveness. He said we are lucky because Hungary is a successful country, even if there are some both here at home and abroad who want us to believe the very opposite. According to the Prime Minister, the foundation of the Hungarian model is a stable, strong government and a wide social majority behind it which “can be converted into political will” and is capable of “creating success.”
According to Mr Orbán’s summary, Hungary has successfully stayed out of the “polarisation stemming from a lack of success” which in his opinion characterises western countries, and the polarisation of Hungarian politics, too, is lower than in other Western European countries.
In answer to a question related to the future of Hungarian space research, he said the Hunor Programme and Tibor Kapu’s successful mission are important because they helped us to look upon ourselves not as losers, but as winners. The essence of the Hungarian political mission that every Hungarian government should ponder is how to turn a historically losing situation into a winning nation, he said.
The Hungarians traditionally measure success in the number of Nobel Prizes and Academy Awards or the number of Olympic gold medals as well as in the performance of the Hungarian football team of the day; now, the area of space research has joined this field. That after 40 years there is a Hungarian astronaut again shows that we are present with a serious weight in a field which is playing a major role in shaping the future of humanity. Therefore, it is the Hungarian government’s constitutional duty and historical mission to support space research, he underlined.
In the past few years, the government has adopted multiple decisions to increase the number of science graduates, while recent analyses concerned with artificial intelligence warn decision-makers that a number of present professions could be phased out or radically transformed, and so we must prepare for this new era now.
The Prime Minister stressed that on the labour market of the future, we might need different types of skills. Therefore, the number one question of the period ahead is what new forms of technical and technological training should be created in order for Hungary to remain competitive.
In answer to the question of why there are so few science and technology graduates in Hungarian politics, Mr Orbán said there are very few engineers who seek the answer not only to the question of ‘how it happened,’ but also to ‘why it happened.’
