In an interview with TV channel Echo TV on Friday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that we are living through a period of civic consolidation. He also pointed out that there is some “disorientation” on the political right.
In the Prime Minister’s view, the period between 2010 and 2014 was one of revolution, which emerged victorious last year. Following this victory, the task is implementation of a new civic structure; this process is still underway. Its focus is the ideal of the citizen, as well as work, family, home, order and national independence; and in all these areas “we take a step forward every year”, Mr. Orbán said.
He emphasised the importance of keeping “the social coalition of winners” together, but – referring to opposition victories in the by-elections in Tapolca and Veszprém – he also pointed out that “we are not always successful in this”.
He said that the governing parties sometimes forget how to talk with people, one reason being that they have been in government for five years and they do not always act as a movement. “I also more often act as the Prime Minister than party leader, yet (…) it is not only the Government that needs to be led: we also have to set the direction for our own political community”, he explained. He pointed out that government achievements do not bring political support by themselves, “we have to do the community and political work of movements as well. (…) Over the past years we have not done [this] as intensively as we should have”, the Prime Minister said.
Mr. Orbán also talked about “disorientation”, which in his opinion is a result of having lost an important supporting pillar, a section of the media, which had helped the orientation of supporters of the Right. He said the explanation of this loss was a conflict between the Government and major owners in the centre-right media. The latter are also owners of large areas of land and the Cabinet’s decision to turn the pervious system of large-scale holdings into one of small and medium-sized holdings has led to this insoluble conflict, the Prime Minister said when explaining the underlying reasons.
Mr. Orbán said that this disorientation will prevail until the centre-right has created new print and electronic media outlets to complement the few remaining ones sympathetic towards it; it will prevail until the centre-right mobilises its intellectual talents, its funds and organisational skills to establish communication channels which can again provide dependable information. He noted that this cannot be the task of the Government, therefore he urged supporters to participate in this. As an example he mentioned Gábor Liszkay, who has bought the newspaper Napi Gazdaság.
He summed up the issue by saying that an important phase in civic consolidation will be “finding out whether we have enough strength to establish” this media environment.
Referring to the words of large-scale entrepreneur Lajos Simicska, when Mr. Orbán was asked what it felt like – after thirty years of friendship – to be called a former communist agent, he said that there are better feelings and he cannot put it behind himself, but he has to separate the personal elements of such cases from the nation’s affairs.
Concerning the records of former communist agents, he reiterated his standpoint that it must be made possible for everyone to receive reports made on them without the redaction of any names; in this way the former targets of surveillance can decide for themselves what the truth is and what their own interest is.
Talking about the death penalty, the Prime Minister explained that he thought it too early to answer the question of its reintroduction, but he thought that it is important to talk about it. Elaborating on the sharp reactions from Brussels, he said that “a democratic debate was initiated”; according to Mr. Orbán “we are again in a situation”, where certain people in Brussels do not want to allow a debate. “And who said that the rules of the EU written by people today will not change later on, especially when people in Europe want to change them? Who said that the majority of other countries’ citizens do not agree with us Hungarians, in that the issue should in fact be kept on the agenda?” he asked.
Concerning immigration he pointed out that currently, as a proportion of the host population, most immigrants go to Sweden, but Hungary is in second position, which means that “Hungary is in a much worse situation than any Western European country”.
He said that Hungary has the right to represent its own interests. With regard to immigrants, he said that “as long as they can move on, they do not stay here”, but sooner or later – as a result of decisions by Austria, Germany and other countries – they will not move on, and they will stay here. In relation to the national consultation to be launched on the topic shortly he said that “we do not have to bother with legislation for now”’, legal questions will have to be dealt with in the course of law-making, following the consultation, but “right now we must be free from the constraints of know-it-all jurisprudence”.
“Our community does not want to see immigrants in Hungary”, he declared, rejecting the European vision in which the EU should receive immigrants and then “spread” them amongst the Member States.
Hungary must establish its own set of rules on the issue of immigration, which “in many ways will deviate from the current European one”, he said, noting that – although it will be a great fight in his opinion – there is a chance that the EU will approve the Hungarian legislation.
The Prime Minister also said that countries where immigrants come from must be supported, so that people can have decent lives there.
Concerning the brokerage affairs, he said that after having established fair banks and rescuing savings cooperatives, the time has come to establish new legislation for other financial investment forms, such as for example brokerage firms; “one or two more years, and the whole Hungarian financial system will become clean”.