Good afternoon,
I respectfully greet everyone. Thank you for coming, overcoming the natural obstacles. I am just a bit-part player. The plan is for Alexandra [Szentkirályi] to give the main speech today. My task is simply to try to outline a context in which it is worth thinking about the future of the capital. At first I thought I would give a speech or a presentation based on the idea of imagining Budapest, and then I would list everything we have done together for the capital over the past fifteen years. I started writing this speech and got a quarter of the way through the list when I realised that I had already filled more than ten minutes. That is not a good solution, so let’s choose a different structure!
Then I thought that it would be best to talk about – or perhaps you would get the most out of me if I talked about – how the capital city, which is home to the people of Budapest, is also the capital of the nation. And since we are Europe’s largest and most successful political community, and this is our homeland and the capital of our nation, in the future we can only remain strong if we remain strong in Budapest. So this is a review of the troops – and not just anywhere, but in the nation’s capital. Even our opponents recognise that we are strong, that we have many followers, volunteers and determined supporters in numerous provincial communities; but somehow Fidesz and the people of Budapest tend to talk about the relationship between Fidesz and Budapest as if our weight and significance here lag behind Fidesz’s support in provincial areas. I would like to remind everyone that this is not true! The situation is that you – Fidesz in Budapest – are the strongest force in the large Fidesz–KDNP community. You are the largest community within Fidesz, with the most Fidesz members: many hundreds. And if we look at our challenger, we see that it is a party with twenty-six members – write it down and say it: twenty-six! That is what we are up against. The difference could not be greater. So the situation is that without a strong Fidesz in Budapest there is no Fidesz government, no Fidesz–KDNP parliamentary majority, and certainly no two-thirds majority.
We know this city. We know that it is difficult to earn the trust of its residents and win their votes, because Budapest is a city inhabited by independent, free and self-confident citizens – it is their city. It is particularly difficult to gain and maintain trust in such an environment, but let’s face the facts: Fidesz would never have achieved a single two-thirds majority in our lifetime – let alone four times – if we had not been able to obtain the fantastic support that the people of Budapest have given us in every parliamentary election. If we had not been able to communicate with the people of Budapest, we would not have won the mayoral election twice, as we did, and we would not have won countless – or perhaps we should more modestly say numerous – district mayoral elections; and our mayors would not have earned the trust of the people living in their districts time and time again. This is a fantastic achievement! We should not underestimate or undervalue it. We should not view Budapest as a city which we can give up on, or where we can be satisfied with modest results. We must view Budapest as a city where we must always strive for victory. Of course the mood of this city often changes, but I am convinced that even in this city, despite its colourful composition, the majority of people are patriotic and not only consider Budapest their home, but are also proud that it is the capital of their nation. I believe that they are in the majority, and they are all our potential voters.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We have won many elections, including the most recent European Parliament elections, as the largest party in Budapest. We are grateful to the people of Budapest for their support so far; but this also means that we – and you – must live up to this achievement again in the upcoming election.
When we say that Budapest is the capital of the nation, we are acknowledging the city’s status. But such a title is not only a status – it is also a responsibility. Responsibility is, in fact, a kind of status that one must grow into. In Budapest, so far only the national side has managed to grow into this responsibility. Over the past fifteen years we have been working to make the city worthy of its outstanding historical and contemporary role. We have worked hard to ensure that Budapest can take its rightful place among the capitals of Europe. I will also give you some boring figures. Over the past fifteen years the Government has invested 3 trillion forints in the development of Budapest – 3 trillion forints! As an aside, I would just like to add that the renovation of the airport and the road network leading to it will begin soon, which means another trillion forints of development for Budapest. It is now common knowledge that the whole world marvels at what a fantastic city the Hungarians have – perhaps it is even boring, but it feels good to say it. Meanwhile, of course, the people of Budapest have not fared badly either. Home ownership, the ownership of residences in Budapest, represents higher value than ever before. Thanks to the work of the Hungarian government, parks, sports halls, schools, clinics and hospitals have all been renovated. We have hosted several world championships in water sports, we have hosted the World Athletics Championships, we have hosted the Champions League quarter-finals, and soon we will host the final. The City Park and Kossuth Square have been renovated – do you remember what they were like? We have transformed the “nation’s parking lot” into the “nation’s main square”, and the Buda Castle District is currently under reconstruction. I do not know if you have ever thought about it, but it was bombed eighty years ago. We have been living with the ruins of Buda Castle for eighty years, while we are the only country in Europe whose centre of government, power and national strength has remained in the same place for around eight hundred years. And we have tolerated, accepted and lived with the fact that for eighty years this fantastic and uniquely historic site in Europe has been in ruins. We have been living among ruins! Now that is over! After Kossuth Square, we are also rebuilding Buda Castle. I would like to remind you that, after all the left-wing back-room dealing, we – the Government, not the City of Budapest – completed Metro Line 4; and we participated in the renovation of Metro Line 3. The truth is that in Budapest we have created one of Europe’s best public transport systems. What a pity that the current city administration is unable to seize this opportunity! The situation is that over the past fifteen years we have been building, while our opponents have been obstructing us. We have been creating, while they have been protesting. Just think of the City Park, the fantastic city district that you can all see today – the beauty of that district shines through, even in the snow. They did everything they could to prevent it from being built, from ever coming into being. So the situation is that we created, while they protested. But the results are clearly on our side.
The reason that a party has representatives in the European Parliament is so that we can place local issues – such as those concerning Budapest – in a European context. When I was preparing to come here, Tamás Deutsch and I looked at the most important figures enabling us to determine the position of the nation’s capital in a European context. And I can tell you that in Budapest, so-called nominal GDP, gross domestic product, was 29,020 dollars per capita in 2010. By 2024 this had grown to 53,734 dollars: from 29,000 to 53,000. This is an impressive figure in itself, but if we put it in a different context, as Tamás did for me, we can say that in 2024 gross domestic product per capita in Budapest was 102 per cent of the EU average. Meanwhile in France it was only 100, in Italy 95, and in Spain 92. This means that the performance of this capital city exceeds the average per capita performance of France, Italy and Spain. Of course we would like the whole country to be at this high level, but there is nothing enviable about it – or, rather, it is the natural order of things that the capital city, the nation’s capital, leads the way and is the first to reach the destination that the rest of the country will eventually arrive at. In light of all this, we can safely say that Budapest is the best example of how even those who do not vote for us – for the Fidesz government – benefit from us. Of course they are not prohibited from voting for us after a while, and if they are only looking out for their own interests, they will find them in that way too.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We also need to mention that two-thirds of Budapest’s population lives outside the Ring Boulevard. This may come as a surprise to many. Those who get their information solely from digital media and political news may have the opposite impression – as if life in Budapest only existed within the Ring Boulevard. But this is not the case! Two-thirds of Budapest’s residents live outside the Ring Boulevard. In my opinion, they are the forgotten residents of Budapest. The district mayors are fighting, but the city’s central administration, the capital’s leadership, tends to serve those living within the Ring Boulevard, if even them. Beyond our own vision, there is no indication – and we do not really know anything – about the vision of the Budapest city administration for the areas outside the Ring Boulevard, the people who live there and their families. They cannot really count on anyone else but the district mayors. We have many district mayors outside the Ring Boulevard who are doing a fantastic job, who are dedicated and persistent, who have been pulling their weight for many years, and who have achieved significant progress. It is no coincidence that they repeatedly raise the issue of the relationship between the capital and the districts, which I also consider to be a topical issue – especially for a party like ours, which in recent years has primarily been able to count on the support of those living outside the Ring Boulevard. So I suggest, dear Alexandra, that this debate be continued by Fidesz in the capital, and that we return to it after the elections to see whether the relationship between the capital and the districts, the distribution of resources, and property issues are well organised and regulated, and whether we need to revisit them.
After the economic figures, dear Fidesz and KDNP members in the capital, we must also talk about the fact that Budapest is one of the safest cities in Europe. Here there is no need to fear the unfortunate circumstances caused by migration. Women, men, children, everyone can feel safe, because there is no Islamic radicalism here, and as long as we are in government there will be none. I suggest that you be proud of the fact that your city, our capital city, is the safest in all of Europe for Jewish families and Jewish communities. There is no other European country where Jewish communities living in the capital city can feel anywhere near as safe as they do here in Budapest. We should be very proud of this. We are the only country in Europe where this is the case. We are the only capital city – you are the only capital city – that is able to offer this to the Jewish community living among us. The Government also supports this, of course, with its zero-tolerance policy. Be proud that we do not allow bands that incite hatred against Israel to perform in Hungary. There is no such thing here, and there are no violent migrants – nor will there be any on the streets of Budapest. We believe that this is how the capital of a nation should act, this is how a modern European capital should look.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
After all this – after such an approach by the Government, after mobilising so many human and financial resources, which the Government has presented in the interests of Budapest – it is a great disappointment to see what is happening today in Budapest under this city administration. Despite all the government support and development, Budapest has become a capital city – a capital of the nation – plagued by problems, stumbling from one crisis to another. Hungarians do not deserve this. The unfortunate situation we find ourselves in today in Budapest is causing a great deal of damage. A lot of damage. But there is one benefit – and only one. The current leadership of the capital reminds us of what it is like when the Left governs Hungary. One of the biggest political challenges for our community is that we have been in power for fifteen or sixteen years. We have built a completely new economy and a completely new social order – a work-based economy, a family-based society. And today many people simply do not remember what it was like fifteen years ago. Young people cannot even imagine what it would be like if things were not as they are now, or what life in Budapest would be like without a national government. Many people think that the country or the capital city is like an airplane that flies on autopilot, meaning that it will not operate below a certain level of performance and will always perform at a certain level. This is not true! I must say that the situation in Budapest is good for us, it is suitable for us to demonstrate the huge contrast that can be seen between the performance of the country’s government and the performance of Budapest’s city administration. This, dear young people, dear residents of Budapest, is what the whole country would be like if there were a left-wing government instead of our national government.
The current city administration can boast an unprecedented achievement – they have managed to bankrupt even the wealthiest Hungarian municipality. Let there be no doubt: they would bankrupt the country too, if they were allowed to. Yet, as I have mentioned, considerable economic power has accumulated here. There is a debate going on. I am sure you are also following the discussion about business tax. I can tell you that, as a result of government economic support measures, in recent years revenue from business tax has basically doubled. More than 40 per cent of local business tax revenues are generated in the capital, while 16.7 per cent of the country’s population lives here. So while the city is home to roughly 17 per cent of the country’s population, it generates 40 per cent of the country’s total business tax revenue – which is then available to the city. If there is anywhere it would be possible to govern from a position of advantage, or even superiority, it is here in Budapest – yet this is not happening.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
But instead of political successes and economic performance, the city is embroiled in ideological warfare. We may not have mentioned this fact anywhere yet, but the reality is as follows. Thanks to investigative work, it has been confirmed that the capital city has been working with exactly twenty NGOs, non-governmental civil organisations, which have been exposed by the Trump administration in the US; it has been revealed that they have accepted money from USAID – a left-wing liberal organisation that distributes US funds. So, in your city, in our city, money was coming in through at least twenty international NGOs for left-wing propaganda supporting the work of the political camp opposed to us. Reading the budget, I have to say that while the city was obviously bankrupted, the richest city in the country was bankrupted, somehow – and I don’t think they hide this, the City Assembly might have passed a resolution in this regard – there has always been money available for irregularly distributed bonuses at municipal companies undergoing liquidation. Then comes the begging: “Without support and assistance, public transport will stop”; “The garbage won’t be collected”; “There won’t be any public lighting”. Whining, helplessness, and finally begging. This is unworthy of the richest city in the country; the people of Budapest deserve more than this, and from us they will get more.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have also noticed that while the city is facing one problem after another, at City Hall there is always room for a Ukrainian flag and a Pride flag. No crisis or problem can be so great that they forget about that. The other lesson we can learn from what we see in the capital today is what it is like when the Tisza Party is part of a left-wing government. Because that is the situation in Budapest. Over the past year and a half, this party has also contributed to what has led the city to bankruptcy. Remember: they recently voted for the 2026 budget, which is known to have a 100-billion-forint hole in it. The same thing happened with the budget for the second half of 2025, where the forces opposing us – including Tisza – managed to ensure that the Mayor of Budapest would not have to account for a 50-billion-forint deficit. And in the meantime, of course, Brussels voted to accelerate the Migration Pact. Let’s be blunt: under a left-wing government, Tisza’s participation in such a government would mean that migrants would reappear on the streets of Budapest. There would be a return of the unfortunate conditions from which we managed to rid Budapest.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends,
Meanwhile, in Brussels, the political parties opposed to us have voted in favour of the European Union budget proposal, which stipulates that the war must continue and financial support for Ukraine must be increased. Let me remind you that so far Europe has sent 180 billion euros to Ukraine – 180 billion euros! And now they have decided to grant a new war loan of 90 billion euros on top of that. Together with the Slovaks and the Czechs, we have managed to keep Hungary out of this. And now, yesterday, the Ukrainian government officially submitted a further financial request for 800 billion euros – which they say does not include security and military expenditure, which must be understood to be in addition to all this. Typical leftists: Hungarians elect them, they go to Brussels, but there they do not stand up for Hungarians. Our position on this, dear Fidesz and KDNP members, is clear: the nation’s capital must not be thrown to the wolves, Hungary must not get involved in the war.
In the previous election, here in Budapest in 2022, 390,000 people voted for us. This put us in first place. And, if I remember correctly, we were also the strongest party in the most recent European Parliament elections. What is more, in recent years Fidesz’s organisation in the capital has been revitalised. Perhaps I can say on behalf of all of us that Alexandra Szentkirályi has done a great job as assembly group leader – Alexandra, congratulations on your work! She has put things in order and set the direction for our politics. In the post-István Tarlós era, we once again have a policy for Budapest. What we want and how we want to achieve it is clear to people here in Budapest. And based on the work that has been done, I can say that we have a chance to win not only in the countryside but also in Budapest. And if we have a chance, my dear friends, then we shall not yield a single street, a single square, a single apartment building. We shall talk to anyone and everyone, we shall reach everyone during the campaign, and we shall convince everyone that we can. Our candidates are strong, capable, and know their stuff. We may not agree with everyone in Budapest on everything, but it is an indisputable fact that the people of Budapest can count on us and trust us. We shall not betray them. We shall represent them on the international stage. We do what we promise, and we deliver on our commitments. We promise that there shall be no tax increases, we shall not send Hungarian money to Ukraine, and we shall not send our children to foreign countries to be soldiers. We promise that there will be peace, prosperity and security in Budapest and throughout Hungary. We are asking for a mandate for this, we are asking for authorisation for this. There is no political community in Hungary more suited to this task than ours is.
I ask you to go out and win back the hearts of the people of Budapest, and then earn their votes and win here in Budapest too! Good luck! Go Hungary, go Budapest!
