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Zsolt Németh: Thank you very much, Prime Minister. I told you that it would be impossible to decide whether the sermon would come from the pastor or the politician, didn’t I? Thank you for the appreciative smiles. And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s move on to the questions. I’d like to ask our speakers to grab a pen, and I’ll quickly read out the questions, after which they can decide which ones they’d like to answer. Questions relating to issues beyond the borders: “How can young people be better involved in the life of the national community? What do you consider to be the greatest achievement in the cause of Hungarians beyond the border? How can young people in Transylvania and the mother country help each other?” This is related to the first question: “What message do you have for young people who would rather move to the West?” Sport – inexplicably, this has been left out so far: “What’s your prediction for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers from a Hungarian perspective?” The European Union: “How can young people in Hungary today start a family in a socially secure environment, when public services are often underfunded? Will the strictness on migration policy be maintained? If you were in Ursula von der Leyen’s position for a year, what would be the first three measures you’d enact in order to save the European Union? Can we statutorily regulate freedom of speech and extreme, insulting styles of expression in a democratic environment? For you what is meant by a sovereign Hungary within the European Union? And finally, a few more personal questions came up: “Do you think Tusványos is more of a festival or a political event? Who’s your role model – personally or politically? What was your kindergarten ‘avatar’? What was your favourite childhood game?” Bishop Püspök can answer this one too: “What’s your favourite ice cream flavour?” And that’s it. A teacher from Transylvania: “I hope that we can welcome you to Tusványos as Prime Minister of Hungary in 2026. You can count on us!”
László Tőkés: I’ll begin with a personal confession. I’ve always sought to speak in front of as large an audience as possible. Very often, when I meet people in Hungary or Transylvania and we strike up a conversation, they ask me what is like living in Hungary, in Budapest. This misconception is quite widespread, and I find it downright offensive. This brings me to one of the questions asked, because it’s my religious conviction that you have to live and die here. And on this issue, I won’t accept the arguments of those who like to downplay the question of whether to leave or stay. I’m not talking about extreme cases, such as having to leave due to illness or something similar, but I’d hold a referendum on whether we stay or go; because part of our vision for the future is that we need to know who we can count on, like in the slogan for today, the current slogan. The questions are who we can count on, whether we’ll have sufficient reserves of strength, or – to use a fashionable phrase – human resources, and so on. Unfortunately the Hungarian community in Transylvania has mixed feelings about this issue. I remember when we were preparing for the European Parliament elections, there was a question for adults asking whether they’d like to leave Transylvania, their homeland. I can’t quote the question exactly, but that was the gist of it. About 75 per cent of people said they didn’t want to leave Transylvania. The other parallel question was this: “Where do you see your children having a future?” Half that many people said that they see their children’s future here. We’re in a state of cognitive dissonance here. I understand those who leave, but if we want to survive, we have to say that you must live here and die here, and we have to shape our thinking, our political views, our attitudes, and our future accordingly. You don’t have to agree with what I say, but if we don’t show conviction in raising our children to love their country, to be loyal, and to be attached to their homeland, then they won’t take it seriously. Let’s face it, they don’t take it seriously even now; but if we don’t give this issue the attention it deserves, they certainly won’t take it seriously. So I’m publicly stating that we’ve never moved to Budapest. The confusion probably stems from the fact that at one point I was elected to the European Parliament on the Fidesz list, and this was assumed to be my “repatriation”. I’m a staunch supporter of staying at home, in the noble sense of the word, and in this regard, I ask everyone not to desert this place. If you can find a way, stay here. And what’s more, I now have logical arguments for this: who wants to go to a turbulent, chaotic, faithless Western world that’s undergoing momentary changes? Today I no longer recognise the America that awarded me honours ten, fifteen or twenty years ago. Back then Barack Obama, horribile dictu, even welcomed the revolution in Temesvár/Timișoara. Well, we’re long past that now, and we thank Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for improving our standing in America.
Zsolt Németh: You must live here and die here. Thank you very much, Bishop Tőkés, for saying that. Prime Minister.
First, I’ll back up what Bishop Tőkés has said with a personal experience. I won’t recount every detail of the length of the night and the atmosphere, but we were singing loudly, and I learned that the song the Bishop sings at such times is “Why Did You turn to a Stranger?” And that’s exactly what it’s about. My questions.
Tusványos: politics or festival? The good thing about Tusványos is that it’s still like it was before the modern world, when life wasn’t fragmented. It’s whole, complete, just as it is. At Tusványos you don’t have to be clever, you just have to live in the moment. That’s what I think, and that’s why I come every year.
Can today’s Hungarian youth connect with the national community? Good question! There are two types of young person: one who thinks about this, and one who doesn’t. It’s hard for us to think like those who think about it, because we don’t see it as a question, but as a given: God decreed it, we were born Hungarian, we belong to this community, and things flow from that. There are tasks, duties and callings that must be fulfilled. We weren’t born Hungarian by accident, but God decreed it in some mysterious way, and it’s not appropriate or permissible to run away from this: we must stand firm and face whatever it is that fate brings us. So as young people they don’t ask themselves how they can connect to the national community, because they themselves are the national community. But there are those for whom it is a question. And why shouldn’t a young person be able to ask any question? From the deepest questions of faith to the deepest questions of the nation. Let’s not deny that youth has the privilege of questioning everything – even if all the answers have already been given, there will always be new questions. Anyone who has children knows this well, and we accept it as natural. I think that no matter how far you run, my friend, you will come back in the end. You may not know this at 18 or 19, but that’s always how it will be. What’s more, those of us who stay at home or are at home have one task: to make sure that when you run off but change your mind, you’ll have somewhere to come back to. That’s our task. And we have that somewhere. So, in plain language, the question is whether young people have somewhere to come back to: whether they have somewhere to come back to after a few years of wandering – and I think seeing the world is an understandable desire for all young people. That’s the question. And we’re working on it. We’re working to ensure that there are Hungarians in Transylvania, that Transylvanian Hungarians have somewhere to come back to, and that there are Hungarians in Budapest. To avoid any major problems, I won’t continue with this generalised discussion, but will instead recount a conversation. I was listening to a speech by a great philosopher in a closed circle, not in public. He was a great man, always involved in civic and national resistance, but he was a man of peace. Perhaps you remember Karátson? Gábor Karátson. Gábor Karátson said that perhaps in the 1960s he was given the opportunity to come to Transylvania for an extended period of time. He went home by train. Nyugati Railway Station: he sat down on the steps of the station and he looked around. And he said, “Well I just thought to myself, where have all the Hungarians gone?” So we have to work to ensure that there are Hungarians in Hungary, and we have to work to ensure that Hungary is the best place for young people to pursue their personal aspirations and search for happiness – meaning that they have to be given a chance. We shouldn’t just give them something, because young people don’t like being given things – or at least that’s how we were. They like being given a chance. They don’t like gifts, and they don’t like fakery: they want real opportunities, in which they can show what they can do, and in which they can achieve things. I repeat, this is why I consider it a breakthrough in terms of building the country that an 18-year-old in Hungary can decide – if not now, then later – to own their own home. This has never been the case in any Western European country, but from now on it will be the case here. When we talk about a family-friendly Hungary, we’re actually talking about an entire life path, starting with worker’s loans, student loans, homeowning independence, income tax exemption until the age of 25 if you’re a younger or older woman and have given birth, and no income tax up until the age of 30. And then the family support system kicks in. In addition to the 3 per cent home creation subsidy, the Home Start programme also includes the infant care benefit, followed by tax breaks for those with children which will last until the end of their lives. So when we talk about a family-friendly Hungary, government policy has been thought through. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but it’s been thought through based on the logic of how the life of a person living in a family develops and where the state – as the organising force of the national community – can provide some kind of help.
The greatest achievement here, across the border, is in relation to kindergartens, which is the area closest to my heart: the more kindergartens there are in which children are taught in Hungarian, the better.
The football World Cup. My principle is that you should never settle for less than what you’ve already achieved. We’ve played in two World Cup finals. I’m not saying that this will happen in 2026 – I’m not that impatient; but I think it has to happen in my lifetime – and I firmly believe that it will.
If I were von der Leyen, which would obviously not be an easy thing, what would my first three measures be? One: I would immediately make the decision to resign. There’s no point in forcing something that doesn’t work. But taking the question seriously, I’d settle for two measures. The first measure would simply be to restore the balance between the powers of the Member States and the EU. The rights that have been taken away from the nations must be given back. And the second measure, which would be a diabolically complicated diplomatic operation, would be to start building a Europe of concentric circles – because it cannot remain as it is. It’s disintegrating, declining, falling apart, and the seams are straining. Expansion policy is unfit for purpose: we’re not accepting in those that we should – such as the Serbs and the other South Slavs ; we’re accepting in those we shouldn’t – such as the Ukrainians; and we’ve let the English go, whom we shouldn’t have let go. Somehow we have to bind all this together. So this definitely isn’t good as it stands. This is because we’re unable to create a European structure in which every nation feels comfortable, well, and happy in the same way. We’re unable to do that. Therefore we must create concentric circles, and every nation must decide which circle of the European structure it wishes to join. The first circle is that of security. Even the Turks can fit in there – and even the Ukrainians can fit in. This includes energy security. Then the second circle is the circle of free movement: a single internal market, or economic Schengen Area. The third is the circle of the collective purse – for those who have the euro. And the fourth is the circle of constitutional institutions. This should be the destination of those who want a mini “United States of Europe”, a constitutional union, ever closer union. But we don’t want that, we don’t want to belong to that circle. So building this Europe of concentric circles is the only chance we have of saving the European Union. Otherwise it will fall apart, disintegrate, and become tied to external reference points – such as the British connection. It will not collapse as we imagine it will, in a moment; instead we’ll make decisions, then some Member States won’t implement them, and then more and more won’t implement them. This is what’s happening now with migration: we were the first to kick up a fuss, but the Germans aren’t complying with the migration pact, and nor are the Poles. This is how it goes: ever more decisions, ever less implementation, and the whole thing becomes paralysed. If we want to avoid this and make the whole construction work, we need a circular European structure.
What is a sovereign Hungary? A sovereign Hungary means that we live the way we want to, the way we like to live, in the Hungarian way. This means that no one else can tell us how to live. No one else can tell us who to live with. There can be no question of migrants being forced upon us. If migrants are forced upon us, we’re not a sovereign country. We shall decide how to raise our children. If gender is forced upon us, we’re not a sovereign country. And we shall decide whether we want to go to war, if at all – and if so, with whom and when: no one from outside will tell us who we should go to war with. If this is the case, and indeed this pressure exists today, then Hungary will not be sovereign. Today we decide how to raise our children, we don’t let migrants in, we decide who we live with, and we’re not going to war, because we don’t want to. Today Hungary is still a sovereign country – but we have to fight for this every day.
I don’t know about the kindergarten avatar, but according to malicious individuals, it was obviously bacon. And anyone who knows me will see this is only a slight exaggeration.
As for ice cream, it has to be the flavour of punch cake, of course – because I’m at that age when people become romantic and long for the flavours of the past.
And finally, the role model. All I can say is that I’m still at the beginning, and I haven’t chosen one yet.
Thank you for your kind attention!
Zsolt Németh: Thank you very much. That was good, my friend. Ladies and Gentlemen, this was the 34th Tusványos main stage event. We heard quite a lot about grand strategy from the Prime Minister. It certainly sounds like a strategy. I’d like to repeat and emphasise one element. For our future, perhaps the most important question is to find the right answer to the relationship between the nation and Christianity – both individually and collectively, as well as at the national level. Thank you very much for those thoughts, Prime Minister. And, dear friends, we’ll see you from 21 to 26 July 2026! Everyone, mark your calendars, and then, as the Prime Minister has predicted, we hope to hear a train of thought from the Prime Minister that will launch a governmental term. Thank you very much for your attention, and enjoy your time here. We’ll see you here tonight on the main stage, with Magdi Ruzsa as our guest performer.
