Regarding the refurbishment of the Citadella, Mr Orbán said they left out what was “bad, fallible and impure,” and rescued that which was fit for use. Never before had the Hungarians had the chance to build anything for themselves on the hill named after Bishop Gellért [Gerard].
“Here, always others erected things, and mostly, against us. The building itself was erected to oppress us, in order to keep the rebellious city of Pest under cannon fire. This was the city’s most hated building; today, it is a bastion of Hungarian freedom,” he said, adding that [the hill] Gellért-hegy is situated between two tectonic plates, and Hungary itself lies on the borders of great civilisations. Orthodoxy, Muslim world, Western Christianity, something constantly happens on the fault line, mostly, dangerous things, and the Hungarians are therefore perhaps champions of survival, he observed.
Empires come and go, but we stay, he stressed, adding that over the centuries many hundreds of thousands have died on the battlefields, but not in vain because we have not become a German province, a Turkish vilayet, or a Soviet member republic. What has happened to this hill in the past millennium is precisely what has happened to the nation. We are the hill. Gellért-hegy is Hungary. There stood here a Turkish cult site for their heroes complete with a mosque, a Habsburg battle station, and then there was also a red-star Monument of Liberty here “for the Soviets temporarily stationed here,” he recalled.
He highlighted that the Citadella offered the best view of the city, the country and the whole Carpathian Basin. Those who stand here understand that this is a historic viewpoint, and the nation’s pilgrimage site. It is therefore befitting that they built here, of all places, the exhibition which leads the visitor through the Hungarian people’s stormy centuries, he pointed out.
Mr Orbán said thank you to the designers, engineers, construction workers involved in the project and the authors of the exhibition, adding that today they can give the people back Budapest’s most spectacular site.
The Prime Minister stressed at the same time: such dark clouds have never before approached Hungary as today, and additionally, all at once from the East, West and South. From the East the war in Ukraine, from the South the chaos in the Middle East, while from the West the failure of Brussels’ policies, he listed.
He said in the past twenty years, Hungary has grown into “a black belt crisis management country.” He mentioned that they had already seen a financial crisis, a migration crisis and an energy crisis, and they had warded off each, one after the other. At the same time, he warned that what was coming now “is going to be difficult to ward off, even for us.”
He said an energy crisis, and in its wake, a financial crisis will hit Europe soon. Today, the world, and Europe in first place in it, is facing the threat of a devastating shortage of energy, oil and fuel. If there is no energy, the economy comes to a halt, and then everything is in danger; not only the usual order and standard of the Hungarian people’s lives, but also the results we have achieved and our carefully thought-out plans, he pointed out.
Today, we need energy from anywhere, from any direction, from any country, and immediately, the Prime Minister laid down. Therefore, he described the “sin” that the Ukrainians are committing against Hungary and Slovakia when they are shutting down the Druzhba oil pipeline as “nothing short of outrageous.” The Prime Minister said it is therefore a fatal error that Brussels continues to pursue a delirious pro-war sanctions policy, and it is absurd that they demand that Hungary should detach itself from Russian energy.
“It’s irresponsible and absurd to promise international energy companies and the Brussels bureaucrats energy changeover plans,” he stressed. He pointed out: without energy coming from the East, even simple subsistence could absorb all the resources of Hungarian families. He highlighted that since the outbreak of the war in Iran, the price of natural gas had increased by 70 percent, while the price of crude oil by 60 per cent in Europe. Everyone knows that in this situation only one thing matters, namely that there should be eneergy, he observed.
Hungary can only have a single goal, to stay out of the war and to stay out of the “mad” Brussels energy policy, he laid down.
He recalled: four years ago, they forged wide national unity against the war, and they have protected Hungary’s sovereignty, independence and freedom. He added that this alliance must now be renewed and broadened. If the danger we are facing is greater, Hungary needs even wider unity and cooperation, he pointed out.
Referring to the 12 April parliamentary elections, the Prime Minister said the Citadella as the nation’s refurbished lookout point, “observation point,” “a watch post we again took control of” should help the Hungarians “notice and understand the clouds gathering on the horizon” and “make a joint and good decision that is necessary for averting the threats we’re facing” next Sunday.
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