In his speech given at the state celebration event on the occasion of the national day marking 15 March 1848 held at the National Museum, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called the nation’s independence and freedom the “twin guiding stars”, the lineage of Hungarian history.
The Prime Minister, who when going to the podium was greeted with “Viktor, Viktor” ovation, started his speech by saying “May there be peace, freedom and accord”. Calling the stairway of the National Museum the epicentre of the revolution one hundred and sixty-seven years ago, Mr Orbán said that it was the very place, from which a magical energy emanated, “electrifying the Hungarians and forming them into a great nation”. He said that “if there is a sacred stairway in Hungarian history, this is surely it”.
According to the Prime Minister, 15 March 1848 was a sacred, phoenix-like moment in the rebirth of Hungarian spirit.
He called freedom and the nation’s independence the “twin guiding stars”, the lineage, the sense of purpose, the meaning and a touchstone of Hungarian history. This is “the eternal touchstone with which every generation of Hungarians is evaluated” – the Prime Minister said in front of the National Museum decorated with the inscription “Honour to the brave!”
In his view, we ourselves must arrange our affairs according to our needs, designed to serve them as we see fit, we must live in the language which we alone understand, in the culture which we alone can give the world. Constitution, legal codes, national assembly, government, academies, national economy: all these serve but one end – he stressed.
Mr Orbán stated that the core commandment of Hungarian history is to remain independent among those who are larger than us; to defend our land, our home; to create our own free Hungarian world.
15 March 1848 teaches us that we can be equal to those who are larger than us. Perhaps it is because we achieved victory on the very first day that after one hundred and sixty-seven years we are still “in love” with this revolution – he said. Recalling 15 March 1848, the Prime Minister said that in the morning, six people set off from the Café Pilvax, by mid-morning they were marching together in their hundreds, by noon in their thousands, and by the afternoon in their tens of thousands – “without Facebook”.
“We felt victorious, as have always done ever since”, despite of the defeated revolution, we always knew that we were right, and the whole world knew at that time as well, even our oppressors – the Prime Minister said, adding that we have also paid a high price for it: the Prime Minister, the Martyrs of Arad, the greatest Hungarian poet, an some twenty-five thousand Hungarian soldiers gave their lives for freedom and their homeland.
Mr Orbán pointed out the crushed freedom fight as a cathartic birth pang of a modern nation, a “glittering star light” in the thoughts of people with heads held high, as long as Hungarians live in this world.
According to the Prime Minister the “freedom fight brought the occupiers only shame, cholera and a sense of guilt”, and to make matters worse, less than two generations later, those who united against us became enemies: Russians attacking Austrians, and Austrians attacking Russians.
Hundred and sixty-seven years have passed – he continued – but the purpose of Hungarians’ fate has not change: Hungarians work hard for their survival, for security, for recognition and for the advancement of their families and their children. They work hard to have a place which is their own, where they may belong, and in return for their perseverance they expect the respect which is due to them.
The Prime Minister said that after the change of regime twenty years have had to pass to “learn it again”: if we do not unite, if lack strong legislation and government, if do not find our self-esteem, all our efforts will be in vain, “because the fruits of our hard work will go to speculators, corporate conglomerates and financial empires; the fruits will be enjoyed in other countries, just as when we were the Habsburg Empire’s backyard.”
Over the past twenty-five years every Hungarian has had the chance to understand that we shall either be successful together or not at all; either we advance together, or we all sink into the mud – he said while being constantly applauded by the audience. He also emphasised “together or not at all, this was the lesson learnt from the ’48 revolution as well”.
In Mr Orbán’s view, over the last years a strong Hungarian nation has started to be forged and he went on saying that freedom means the inalienable right of every nation to pursue its own path. The people of Kossuth and Petőfi merely smile when anyone wants to lecture them on freedom and democracy – he said, referring to the fact that Lajos Kossuth was acclaimed by enormous crowds in the United States – which was still at the time a country with slavery.
The Prime Minister said that Hungary is a part of Europe and “together with the continent’s other nations we wish to shape its future”. He added that today Europe is full with questions and Hungary is full of answers. He said “we know full well that the future will not be determined by how straight Europeans’ cucumbers are, but how straight their backbones are.”
At the end of his speech he drew the attention to the fact that although one hundred and sixty-seven years have passed since the revolution, the essence has not changed: the struggle for Hungarian sovereignty will never end and “in this cause have only ourselves to rely on”. The Prime Minister concluded his speech by saying that “Faith in the truth and perseverance will lead us to victory. Only the strong survive. We Hungarians are on the threshold of a great era. The name of Hungary will be great again, worthy of its old, great honour. Honour to the brave! Long live Hungarian freedom, long live our homeland!”