A hundred years after the defeat in the World War and the Trianon dictate, “we are standing on the stage of European history as champions of survival,” there is not another nation in the world that could have endured such a one hundred years, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at the inauguration of the National Cohesion Memorial held on Thursday in Budapest.
At the memorial erected at Kossuth tér, the Prime Minister stressed that the stocktaking carried out on the 100th anniversary of the Trianon dictate led us to announce “the end of one hundred years of Hungarian solitude” brought on by Trianon.
After the disintegration of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, Hungary is the Carpathian Basin’s most populous country with the largest economy, and from this stem obligations that we cannot avoid, he said.
He highlighted that we cannot shy away from the lessons of the past one hundred years.
This is why they promulgated the laws of the new era’s nation policy, and announced an interest and our intention to participate in a Central European alliance based on the foundations of sovereignty, freedom and common interests, Mr Orbán said.
The Prime Minister said on 20 August we must remind ourselves that “independent statehood that provides a home, land and a country of one’s own is an exceptional, rather than a natural state of affairs in human existence”.
A people that desires a land of its own, a people that seeks to arrange its life according to its own laws and customs – and as a thousand years demonstrate, the Hungarian people are one such people – must fight for its sovereignty and freedom every single minute, he said.
Referring to the beginnings of Hungarian statehood, he said “What times, what greatness, what glory, and what unparalleled performance”.
We must remember how much vigour, how much purpose, talent, blood, sacrifice and courage it has taken for us to stand here today, he said, adding “Glory to Stephen, to the King of the Hungarians”.
Addressing the freshly-inaugurated officers, the Prime Minister said today few of them know what an important role awaits them “in shaping the future of a Hungary that is now regaining its self-esteem, that is now breaking out of the captivity of a hundred years of Trianon, that is now rediscovering a taste for and the path of old greatness, that is now throwing off the miserable gown of defeatism and subservience”.
He said the officers are custodians of an old Hungarian wise fact of life according to which life is a duty, and against the trend of the day, this is what Hungary’s future stands or falls upon.
The Prime Minister said this simple truth will fill today’s economic growth with spirit, and will offer guidance to new generations.
Selfishness has ensnared European life, but those whose purpose is to fulfil their duty will never lose their way, he added.
He took the view that the newly-inaugurated officers embody the idol of the Hungarian military officer who fulfils his duty with arms, and if needs be at the expense of his life.
The fewer there are who fulfil that duty, the more they must do so; this is the mission that awaits members of the Hungarian Defence Forces, he highlighted.
Regarding the memorial now inaugurated, Mr Orbán said it “overlooks, and even points towards our national pride, the Parliament Building,” and befittingly makes the majestic panorama of Kossuth tér, the main square of the nation complete.
He stressed that they had fulfilled their duties undertaken on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the Trianon dictate.
We declared the one hundredth year a year of national cohesion, and held our commemorations in a dignified manner, “even if the threat of the epidemic frustrated the implementation of a full array”. Hungarian academics, representatives of Hungarian cultural life, Hungarian communities living in the detached territories, our churches, and the elite of Hungarian politics took stock of the conclusions of this century, the lesson of the loss of so much of the country, he listed.
He took the view that upon the passage of a hundred years, we must spread the news that “Hungary has not only survived, is not only here to stay, but is winning, on the verge of great times, raising the flag high again, regaining its self-esteem”.
Hungary is a safe home which welcomes back everyone who wants to be a part of the country-building that recalls the great periods of our history. After a hundred years, we finally understood that the Hungarian people can never again afford the luxury of weakness, Mr Orbán said.
According to the Prime Minister, the seven laws of Hungary’s 21st century nation policy are that there is a country only as long as there are people who love it; each and every child is a new guard station; without strength and power truth is worth little; we can only lay a claim to that which we can defend; a match is not over until we have won it; only countries have borders, not nations; and not a single Hungarian is alone.
He took the view that while Hungarians celebrate their national cohesion, “the ship of our wider home, Europe has become stranded; its world political and world trade position earned during the course of centuries has faltered”.
The unquestionable dominance of European peoples, the European spirit and technology is a thing of the past, he added.
He asked whether European leaders will be able to renew the continent’s policies and economies. Will the peoples of Europe understand this, and accept everything that follows from this with respect to their own daily lives? Will they find their way back to the realm of hard work, reasonable economic operations and a responsible way of life?
According to Mr Orbán, Western Europe has given up on the buoyancy that lay behind the greatness and success of a thousand years, the spiritual depths of life, the happiness afforded by marriage and offspring, and the spiritual energy of national culture; meaning that it has given up on a Christian Europe.
“Instead, they are experimenting with a godless cosmos, rainbow families, migration and open societies.” Meanwhile, the peoples of Central Europe are restoring to their rightful place values such as ancient life instincts, the liberating power of Christianity, the prestige of work, national pride, and responsibility for our children and parents. “Therefore, we protect our borders, and instead of migrants we leave our country to our own children.”
According to the Prime Minister, the West has lost its appeal “in our eyes,” while Central Europe is not a desirable world in theirs.
He said Europe must find its future in such a way that neither half imposes its own view of life and the world on the other; today this is the alpha and omega of European unity.
Regarding the memorial now inaugurated, Mr Orbán said, it is an appeal, an urgent call to the Central European peoples which envisage their lives in a renewed Christian world to find a path of cooperation, and they must find a form which equally guarantees national independence and the alliance of Central European peoples, whilst contributing to European unity.
He said to this end we must understand that the peoples of Central Europe must organise Central Europe.
If strangers organise the life of Central Europe, that will lead to division, animosity and subordination, and they will reap the benefits of our fantastic resources, our valuable work and our world-class intellectual performance; they will reap the benefits and will increase their own power with them, he explained.
The Prime Minister highlighted that “it is lost in the fog of centuries when such a splendid opportunity last presented itself for the nations of Central Europe – cleverly arranged around the Polish flagship, from the Baltic Sea all the way to the Balkans – to determine their own fate”.
All Hungarians can do is prepare for cooperation, and urge their friends, reminding them that “this lucky constellation won’t last forever,” he said.
According to the Prime Minister, this memorial is a symbol of the fact that we are joint heirs of the world-class performance of the Hungarian people, all that which our ancestors built in the Carpathian Basin, all that which they presented on the table of humanity in the realms of culture, science, business and sport.
This heritage belongs to every Hungarian, wherever they may live around the world. “Let us be proud of it, let us preserve it, and let us make our own contribution,” he added.
He observed that we must express our heartfelt gratitude and highest appreciation to our detached national communities for having stood their ground for a hundred years, and for their loyalty to the Hungarian nation and to their native land.
“Hungary before all, the Lord above us all. Come on, Hungary, come on, Hungarians,” Mr Orbán said in conclusion.
According to the original plan, the memorial was going to be inaugurated on 4 June, on the Day of National Cohesion; however, due to the coronavirus epidemic, the event had to be postponed.