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“A new president in America, a large patriotic party group in Brussels, much enthusiasm, tried and tested patriots who love their countries, so the big push can finally start: I hereby launch phase two of the campaign aimed at occupying Brussels,” Mr Orbán said regarding the fact that later today the new President of the United States Donald Trump will take office.
At the conference organised by the 21st Century Institute and the Mathias Corvinus Collegium entitled ‘Successful Hungarian Presidency 2024 – A Chance for the European Union,’ the Prime Minister said Brussels is under occupation by an oligarchy organised by the left-liberal and transatlantic elite. In his view, this is a power system which is not European, but global; it is not a democracy, but an oligarchy; and it is not based on the sovereignty of nation states, but is federal.
“There is up against us a progressive liberal united front, funded by George Soros. They’re attacking us because we’re pro-sovereignty; in fact, we’re patriots. They’re attacking us because we demand that the rule of law should also apply to Brussels. They’re attacking us because we demand that the fight against corruption should also apply to Brussels,” Mr Orbán said. He mentioned as an example the case of former European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders who accused Hungary for years of violating the rule of law and corruption, and who is now under criminal investigation due to charges of corruption and money laundering.
“And they want to lecture us, they who don’t perceive the wooden beam in their own eyes,” he observed. He said they know their “style of warfare,” they resort to all means necessary. If needs be, “they offer you jobs, scholarships, recognition, limelight, power and money;” if needs be, they threaten you with money, fines, financial sanctions, the withdrawal of your voting right. He warned that there will always be those who get scared and believe that there is a lesser evil, but if they fail to put an end to this blackmail spiral now, things will only get worse and worse.
Mentioning the example of Poland, the Prime Minister said “along come the favourites of the day who are in their pay, and they impose them on the Member States.” He took the view that the conservative Polish government was, in actual fact, replaced with the incumbent liberal Polish government by the Brussels bureaucrats. He stressed that by contrast, the power or strength of the Right stemmed not from Brussels or the approval of the left-liberal elite, but from the mandate received from the European people.
At the European elections, the coming into being of a new right-wing majority which could finally replace the Brussels elite became a realistic option, while the Hungarian presidency proved both the need for and the opportunity of change. Mr Orbán said today the situation is much more favourable than it was in 2024 because not only have right-wing forces gained in strength, but meanwhile the “flagship” of western liberal politics has also sunk.
The Prime Minister spoke about the six months of Hungary’s EU presidency as the beginning of a new era. He said in history books this period of half a year will go down “as a period during which Donald Trump and the European patriots started transforming the western world” as today it is already a widely accepted view that we are experiencing a “global system change,” the years of the rise of the East, of Asia, while “the world order that was created and dominated by the English-speaking countries of the world has come to an end.”
The world’s dominant power centres are currently in the process of creating the new economic, political and cultural framework within which we will live – presumably – for many long decades, he said, adding that Brussels is the only geopolitical centre which is not dealing with the ongoing world political changes and their consequences. The EU has not even started preparing for the race, and so “the European Union must sober up.”
The Prime Minister thanked the more than one thousand persons who contributed to the success of the Hungarian EU presidency, making specific mention of János Bóka, the minister in charge. As for those who worked against the presidency upon Brussels’ instruction, he said, “to hell with them,” “may the devil hide [them] in the deepest recesses of hell.”
The Prime Minister took the view that today the European Union was Europe’s sick man. He added that the symptoms were widely known: the EU is unable to guarantee the peace and security of Europe and its immediate neighbourhood; the EU is likewise unable to guarantee Europe’s welfare; the EU is unable to stop illegal migration; and fails to offer European agriculture genuine prospects, while Ukraine’s EU membership would destroy European farmers.
At the same time, he stressed, “debates, ideas, conferences will no longer be enough in the future” because one cannot build policies on the hope that the Brussels bureaucrats – who cannot be convinced – will come to their senses as while the EU is stumbling from failure to failure, the Brussels institutions are continually gaining in strength and would take ever further powers away from the Member States. “Brussels is not of the opinion at all that the EU is sick,” they believe that the EU is functioning as it should, despite the fact that “today, the purpose of European integration is integration for its own sake,” the development of a transnational bureaucracy, said the Prime Minister.
Mr Orbán highlighted that in order to cure the European Union, we need change which “can be achieved with political means, from outside, and through conflicts taken on with Brussels.” Naturally, it is also worth deploying means that are available within the EU, he added, stating that “in actual fact, we Hungarians are the opposition of the Brussels system.”
The big boys are moving forward at full throttle, and are preparing for the new era with much vigour, he said, mentioning as an example the development of new geopolitical frameworks, “they want to make sure that things are in order in their immediate neighbourhoods, that there are no surprises or dangers to threaten them; they want to make sure that their rights over the zones of influence that are necessary for their own security are recognised.”
This is why Ukraine’s NATO membership is at the centre of the Russo-Ukrainian war; something which the Russians want to and will prevent at any cost. This is why Greenland, Canada and Panama pop up on the agenda of international politics. This is why the fate of the South China Sea and Taiwan keeps emerging in the news daily, Mr Orbán pointed out.
As the second area of the preparations of great powers for the new world order, he mentioned the economy, with special regard to new industries and innovative technologies, stating that “after a period of mass production and in addition to mass production, China is now changing over to focusing on innovative high-tech sectors with a high added value” such as electromobility, space research, telecommunications and artificial intelligence. He added that this was also the essence of Donald Trump’s economic policy.
In the past few decades, western liberals invented and have also built up woke capitalism. Liberal politicians in the West have replaced the criteria of competitiveness and performance with the propaganda of diversity. They have relegated competition and a healthy return on investment in favour of standing on the right side of history: they are the ones who work for the right order of the world, he said. The Prime Minister added that by doing so, they have eliminated economic growth, have sent inflation sky-high, their factories are closing down one after the other, and the value of wages is decreasing alarmingly, but all that does not matter. “What’s important is that they’re good people who stand above the whole world with their moral criteria,” he said, mentioning the plan of green transition and the green economy “which is currently destroying European industry.”
Mr Orbán stressed that people in the United States had finally woken up and realised that if things continued like this, the whole world, but at least China would most certainly “march past them,” and at best they would find themselves in the position of a market that merely absorbed super modern products made elsewhere. Meaning that “they will no longer write history, but will at best be allowed to read its new passages.” Therefore, people in the United States decided to wean themselves off the drug, Mr Orbán said, summarising the situation. Hence Donald Trump’s victory and the new US president’s economic policy.
He mentioned state organisation as the third main area of the global race as “the western liberal state organisation model which they call liberal democracy has failed; it fell apart under its own weight, or to be more precise, the weight of its own mistakes.” It crumbled in its own birthplace, in the United States: an overly bureaucratic system, an over-regulated economy, a state without any scope for manoeuvre or action. A state which no longer works for, but against its citizens. This is what the Americans rebelled against, the Prime Minister stated, adding that this “legitimises the competition among different modes of state organisation.”
As the fourth area, he mentioned identity and cohesion, the policies that serve national self-identity, stating that “a power centre can only be successful if a shared, collective identity constitutes the basis of public life; history, language, religion are all things which liberal democracy wrote off, perhaps even looked down upon and discarded as something passé.” For six months we had first-hand experience – from close up – of what is going on in Brussels, we dug down to the very core, the Prime Minister observed, adding that “what we found was not nice” as this is the only geopolitical centre where world political changes and their consequences for us are not dealt with. The European Union has not even started preparing for the race. If things continue to like this, the EU will be left out of the race, its economy will collapse, and the conditions of a safe and secure life will disappear. Therefore, the European Union must sober up. However, instead of doing so, it is still in the phase of ordering another round, Mr Orbán said, summarising the situation.
“The Hungarian presidency raised the flag of peace, opened the door to a ceasefire and peace talks, began a dialogue with the warring parties, and put European leaders under pressure so that they, too, resume diplomacy and communication,” Mr Orbán said, stressing that Hungary could only do so on a national basis due to the majority of Member States opposed to peace. He added that despite this they had persevered, and today they were proudly handing over the baton of peace to the new US president. “Good intentions, courage, diplomatic skills and a Christian sense of duty are all well and good, but you eventually need strength for peace,” he explained.
Mr Orbán took the view that the Hungarian EU presidency stated – even at the expense of major disputes – that the war was only weakening Europe, and that “we have already been defeated.” He warned that not only Ukraine – which had already been consumed by the war – but all European national economies stood to lose due to the conflict. He added that the EU must sober up, but instead “it is still in the phase of ordering another round.” Rather than wanting peace, it pushes for war. Rather than protecting its borders, it wants migrants. Rather protecting families, it protects ‘gender.’ And rather than wanting affordable energy, it pushes for a green policy. He warned that “this is not a football match, the question is not who is on whose side, who roots for whom, this is not a game, this is a war, and the fighting is at our expense.”
Listing the achievements of the Hungarian EU presidency, the Prime Minister highlighted that, in accordance with its own geopolitical interests, Hungary had taken care of Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to the borderless European area, had launched Albania’s accession talks, and had brought all Balkans countries a little closer to the European Union. He also recalled that they had adopted a joint plan for simpler economic regulations, the strengthening of agriculture and the reduction of energy prices.
Mr Orbán also said together with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, they launched a “rebellion” against the Brussels migration policy and held a demographic conference perhaps for the first time in the history of the EU. They further secured the adoption of documents recognising the values of Jewish life amidst “the revival of waves of anti-Semitism” in Western Europe. The Prime Minister further mentioned that they had established the European party of Patriots, a group which stood for a national, pro-sovereignty line in Brussels.
He said Hungary, too, is working hard in order to become a winner in the new world order that is currently taking shape. He recalled that they had modernised the underlying structure of the Hungarian economy already at the beginning of the 2010s, had shifted the focus of taxation from work to consumption, and had created a million new jobs and full employment, against the background of ongoing wage increases. He added that they had placed families at the centre of the economy and society, had created new foundations for research and innovation, and had started the development of the most advanced new industries.
Instead of a liberal democracy, already from 2010 onward, we wrote a new sovereigntist constitution protecting families and the national community, based on the foundations of Christian traditions, and introduced a new state organisation method in Hungary, the Prime Minister said in continuation, observing that in America people say about Hungary that “we were already Trump before Trump.”
He took the view that we were doing well in the economy, the organisation of the state and self-identity. We are in the vanguard of the world, we are no longer mere followers – as we were for centuries before – but pioneers, trendsetters, brave experimenters. This is why we are icons for western conservatives, and this is why western liberals hate us from the bottom of their hearts, he said.
The Prime Minister highlighted that the battles that we had fought in the past 15 years now gave Hungary a chance for a new economic policy whose political foundations rested on the latest national consultation on economic neutrality in which 1,350,000 people had taken part. Mr Orbán said liberals regard economic neutrality as a mere political stunt, but in actual fact, it is this political direction that designates Hungary’s place and path, its independent policy on the international scene; a path which is different, or even contrary to the Brussels expectations.
He said “its incumbent leaders have isolated the European Union,” there is no other continent that has found itself quite so isolated from all important players of the new world. That they call us isolated should not deceive anyone, it is an old communist trick, “they always accuse their opponent of that which they are doing themselves,” the Prime Minister added. He said Europe has isolated itself from the new US leadership: the European liberals depicted Donald Trump as a demon, and painful as it is, also the incoming US administration remembers this. The EU has isolated itself from China by having branded one of the world’s economic superpowers as a systemic rival, and started a tariffs war against it, he said, adding in continuation that the EU has also isolated itself from Russia. European leaders refer to the Russo-Ukrainian war as a war of their own, and eliminated the winning combination and economic structure of cheap Russian energy and advanced European technology without replacing it with anything else. And the EU has likewise isolated itself from the continent of the future, from Africa. “Instead of common sense, they set LGBTQ and gender policy – something that could not be further from the people of Africa – as a condition of cooperation,” thereby frustrating the development of a trust-based system of relations.
The Prime Minister indicated that meanwhile, during the Hungarian presidency, Hungary continuously built its future cooperation with the Republican president “who has since scored a shining victory,” maintained communication guaranteeing reasonable energy supply with Russia, almost half of Chinese high-tech investments in Europe comes to Hungary, and Hungarian water industry and agricultural expertise is welcomed everywhere in Africa. “If things continue like this, the EU will be the absolute loser of the new world order. Thank you, but no, thank you, we don’t want to be losers,” he said, pointing out that Hungary wants friends, cooperation, economic relations, business profits and advantages in international politics.
We Hungarians – in contrast to Brussels – have a carefully elaborated strategy for the new global era. Its results are evident, and they are only disputed even by our opponents with some embarrassment, he said. In Hungary, everyone has jobs, families pay the lowest energy prices in the whole of Europe, we have cut inflation, so much so that last year we were even able to implement a real pension increase: over and above a rise equal to inflation, we were able to provide an extra 150 billion forints for pensioners. Wages have started increasing, the government has doubled the family tax benefit, and in addition to student loans, they are now also offering worker loans. The deficit of the budget is decreasing, while the sovereign debt is not increasing, the Prime Minister listed.
He said no one disputes that in 2025 the growth of the Hungarian economy will be at least double the economic growth of the European Union, adding that state projects worth 450 billion forints will be launched, while Hungarian small and medium-sized businesses will have access to 1,400 billion forints in 2025. At the same time, the savings of Hungarian families are minimum one and a half times the EU average.
He stressed that “the Hungarian people – rather than the EU presidency itself – constituted the focus of the Hungarian presidency,” and Brussels-Budapest relations, too, will be shaped in accordance with the best interests of the Hungarian people. “What will happen will follow not from the best interests of the European Union, but from Hungary’s overarching strategy.” Mr Orbán also observed that the attitude that “we don’t want to shape Europe” would no longer be tenable from this year as the content and quality of the EU’s economic rules also had an impact on the performance of Hungarian actors.
