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The Prime Minister said earlier whenever there were difficulties in Hungary, the communists and later the liberals always claimed that they spiralled into the country from outside, that they were the reflections of world economic trends. They used this as an excuse, saying that if the situation is so difficult, Hungary cannot do well either. However, this is nothing other than the shifting of responsibility, he added, indicating at the same time that external impacts are important nonetheless.
In continuation, he said this year we placed our bet on peace. We believed that in the United States the Democratic government would fall, and along would come a Republican administration led by Donald Trump that would restore peace, while peace would bring about a boost in the economy. Had this not proved to be the case, we would have been in grave trouble because if you place all your bets on a single outcome and that outcome does not come about, you find yourself in serious trouble, he said.
Mr Orbán said they predicted the processes correctly; they expect the Hungarian economy to find itself in an environment of powerful positive external impacts, and that the Hungarian economy will receive a big boost from outside as well.
So far, Hungary has lost EUR 6.5 to 7 billion a year on the war, he observed. The Prime Minister said the government also has its own plans, and it is to be hoped that the twenty-one-point economic programme, the philosophy of economic neutrality and peace combined “will give the Hungarian economy a big draught, a big boost.” “I expect a great year,” he added.
He said negative external impacts are coming from Europe; over there, the situation is rather hopeless, and he cannot see how things could change there. Perhaps, peace will have a positive impact on the whole European economy as well. He added at the same time that he did not expect decisions – either from Brussels, Paris or Berlin – which could have a positive impact on the Hungarian economy. In explanation, he said “our big common pledge” made last November in Budapest to reduce energy prices in Europe has not materialised. Hungary continues to keep energy prices low, but “people in the West are unable to take this step,” in the West we must continue to expect high energy prices which, however, kill the economy, he pointed out.
Mr Orbán said we are Hungarians, “cautious people,” and security and predictability determine the household finances of families. This is why woman are in charge of families, whose life instincts fundamentally point in the direction of security, he observed.
He indicated that the Hungarian was not the spending kind, “we are not as thrifty as the Germans,” but we think twice before we spend money on anything. And “I think this is a good thing,” he stated, adding that economists, however, prefer people spending their money because in that case money circulates, people buy goods and consume; however, the world is more than just sheer economics.
The Prime Minister described caution as a good advisor, but drew attention to the fact that extreme caution indeed slows the economy down. Therefore, it is best to leave the decision on such issues to the people, he pointed out.
The government has intentions, plans, offers and programmes, and asks the people to take part in them. It is for them to decide whether they take part in them, and it is this decision that determines the nature and outcome of our economic policy. Common sense is the best source of advice, he said.
Mr Orbán took the view that last year everyone was very cautious, but this year there is a little let-up, the people are braver now. More than ten thousand persons have applied for the worker loan, the funds available within the Demján Sándor Programme will be drawn within seconds, and elements of the housing programme have also started. All these developments indicated that “the machinery will swing into action this year.”
The Prime Minister envisages a dynamic Hungarian economy gaining momentum in 2025. Mr Orbán said a lot of money has gone to the people, “there is an interest shower.” Only the other day, the state paid HUF 480 billion in interest on government securities held by members of the public. Something will happen to this money: either it is re-invested in another savings scheme, or is spent, or is given to members of the family, he pointed out, highlighting that it is important that this money will be channelled into the economy. If such a large amount of money is transferred from the state coffers to the people, it is sure to have a beneficial impact on the functioning of the economy, the Prime Minister stressed.
The Prime Minister observed that in March they would pay another HUF 300 billion in interest. These funds will go to 800,000 account holders in total, to 800,000 families, representing a considerable part of the total Hungarian population of ten million. Not even mentioning the minimum wage increase and the pay rises in excess of the rate of inflation, Mr Orbán added.
The most important task of the spring political season is to uncover how the American Democrats tried to influence Hungarian public opinion from American money and to develop a defence mechanism against this, The Prime Minister stated.
Mr Orbán recalled that the new US government published a list of facts containing many thousands of items of data about who was financed, how and with what means in recent years from the federal budget of the United States in order to influence other countries. He added that “we, too, received our fair share,” money kept pouring into Hungary as well, “to organisations describing themselves as non-governmental, to media outlets, to journalists, to politicians.” He stressed that one of the most important tasks of the upcoming spring political season was to uncover the functioning of this system, how they had sought to influence governmental or even parliamentary decisions as well as public opinion and public life in general.
“Once we have a precise understanding of all that, we must urgently create and put into operation adequate defence mechanisms,” Mr Orbán added in the radio interview, indicating that he expects no resistance of any kind because it only depends on the government and the parliamentary majority how determined they are.
The Prime Minister said they must do precisely what the Americans are doing not only as regards the enquiry, but also as regards defence; in America, there is a well-developed mechanism for this. “There is no need to reinvent hot water,” he said, adding that we have a line to follow, about how a truly patriotic country that is proud of its independence and refuses to expose itself to others should defend itself against the interventions of the outside world. We must adopt it and transpose it to Hungary.
He observed that in his Saturday state-of-the-nation address, he would mention a few shocking and at the same time ridiculous examples of attempts to influence public opinion. He said Hollywood movie stars and celebrities of the entertainment industry were paid many millions of euros or in some cases as much as 10 million euros in order to go to Kiev and to promote the Russo-Ukrainian war, and to stand up for the continuation of the war, rather than for peace. He indicated that the Hungarians, too, received their fair share of influence and manipulation; this vast machinery “extending from Peru all the way to Kyrgyzstan” deployed its manipulation techniques all over the world.
He also spoke about the fact that, in his opinion, in the past 10 to 15 years, the government has fought four major battles with Brussels: on the issues of migration, child protection, the protection of pensions and the protection of the reduction of household energy bills. He took the view that today’s big global financial system that works in a coordinated fashion in different parts of the world was controlled from two places, from Washington and from Brussels, and now “the Washington leg has fallen,” or there was a turnaround in Washington.
Mr Orbán highlighted that if organisations and actors of public life are paid from the budget of a country in order to thereby gain influence, that is political corruption, pure and simple. He added that if a Member of the European Parliament or a member of the parliament of any country receives grants via all sorts of hidden channels – foundations, scholarships, and so on – in order to stand for what their masters expect them to stand for – say, to support migration, say, to support gender culture or say, to support a country which is at war – that is political corruption, pure and simple.
He recalled that the Americans had “thrown skeletons out of the cupboard,” and so we are now shocked by the scale of the mysterious, coordinated manipulation carried out against our national interests. Rather than apologising, those who were involved, namely 63 international organisations, including Hungarians among them, wrote a letter to Brussels, “saying that while it’s true that we pursued shameless practices in recent years from American money, now that money is no longer forthcoming from there, Brussels should make up for it. There were rolling dollars, now come the rolling euros,” he said.
He added, however, that we paid the money into the Brussels budget. Brussels has no money of its own, Brussels collects the money from countries against which these organisations now want to take action. Meaning that the fair citizens of Hungary and Europe are deceived twice: they are not aware that persons, organisations that want to be seen as independent in public life and as standing for their own opinions are, in actual fact, manipulated, financed mercenaries, caught and bought; and neither are they aware that these people and organisations are financed from their money in order to manipulate them, he warned.
He pointed out that unless we fought against this “as hard as we can,” the rolling dollars would be replaced by rolling euros. However, we must and we will prevent this. If the funding of these organisations continued from Brussels, “that would not benefit the love affair of varying degrees of intensity that exists between the Brussels bureaucrats and Hungary. We would feel cheated,” Mr Orbán said.
He drew attention to the fact that we must expect the intensification of disputes between Bussels and truly sovereign, patriotic nation states. He added that we must not underestimate the Brusselites. “It’s true that the Washington leg of this large international machinery has now been kicked out, but it’s hopping quite well even on one leg,” he stated.
Brussels has much money, much power and much influence, meaning that we will have to use the defence mechanisms which we will adopt from the Americans in the spring also against Brussels, he observed. He pointed out at the same time that the European people’s opinion, including the Hungarian people’s, could not be ignored in Brussels either, and so we would defeat them. We will have to conduct fact-finding enquiries in Brussels the same as in Washington.
This work has begun, except so far we have made less progress than the Americans, he said. Outlining the findings of an Italian study, Mr Orbán said Brussels gives very large sums of money to organisations which depict themselves as non-governmental and independent, but argue in favour of taking even more powers away from the nation states and handing them over to Brussels. According to the Italian fact-finding document, the organisation of Guy Verhofstadt who frequently attacks Hungary in the European Parliament received a sum of approximately HUF 6 billion from the European Commission in order “to slander us,” he said.
He also mentioned the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme as part of which Brussels intends to allocate one and a half billion euros, the equivalent of HUF 600 billion specifically for sponsoring organisations that support federalism and the relocation of powers from the nation states to Brussels. If all this comes to the surface, the Brussels leadership will have no choice but to accept responsibility, to apologise and to abandon this practice. “I’m not saying that this will happen of its own accord, we will have to fight for this, but we will achieve it in the next year or two,” the Prime Minister said in summary.
