In Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca on Wednesday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that in every European country the main issue in the European Parliament elections is migration. He said that one of the most important questions for the future is whether Europe will succeed in narrowing the divergence in opinions on immigration and restore European unity – although so far not a single such attempt has met with success.
In his address at the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, the Prime Minister stressed that European political thinking on immigration has separated into two streams: while the West ponders the challenge of coexistence, Central Europeans are considering what they should do to avoid the need to live alongside migrants.
According to Mr. Orbán, Westerners want to eliminate differences, and they “want us, too, to let in large numbers of immigrants”, in the name of the restoration of European unity. He stated, however, that “for European unity this is a price which must not be paid”.
He said that immigration causes profound changes: immigrants are not coming from territories adjacent to the EU, but from civilisations which are not Christian, and this inevitably leads to the creation of mixed populations. According to liberal doctrines, he noted, the solution to this is for everyone to abandon all their traditions: something which the European Left considers to be a desirable development. He said that “They envision a post-national and post-Christian era,” and therefore do not even want to halt immigration.
Mr. Orbán said that while Central Europeans want every joint European document on migration to state that migration must be stopped, other countries instead seek to manage immigration. He added that the Central Europeans are resisting this, as they do not want mixed populations, having seen no good examples.
The Prime Minister stated that Hungary is offering young Hungarians a safe, Christian and developing Hungarian life. “We stand on the threshold of great times and great opportunities”, he said.
He pointed out that over the next ten years Hungarians – particularly in the motherland – will remain within the Christian cultural sphere. Hungary therefore offers a safe life to young people who want to stay Hungarian, he said, and also offers full employment and economic growth.
Mr. Orbán stressed that, although their sovereignty faces continuous challenges, the Hungarian people want to survive and want to continue their history of more than a thousand years in the place where their history has unfolded. It is from this viewpoint, he added, that one must judge what kind of policy on Europe is good for the Hungarians.
He said that the Hungarians are also pursuing policy on demography – even though in the EU this has been declared an improper aim. Nevertheless, he stated, Hungarians openly declare that they are pursuing such a policy, because “they do not want to disappear”, and want to strengthen and protect their families.
The Prime Minister also referred to the Hungarians’ anti-immigration policy, underlining that help must be taken to those in trouble, rather than bringing the trouble here. He said that Hungary is “punching above its economic weight” in taking help to people in trouble.
He noted that the Hungarians are building a world nation, with compatriots in every corner of the world, and he highlighted the importance of being able to combine the scattered parts of the nation into a world nation, to grow the nation’s resources, and to sensibly distribute them among Hungarians around the world. He described part of this as being the strengthening of Budapest, because the capital also shows the wider world an exemplar of the Hungarian nation.
He stressed that there must be a counterbalance to the pressure of assimilation, and there must also be adequate strength to maintain those who are born Hungarian in ethnically mixed territories.
According to Mr. Orbán, Hungary will continue to pursue sovereignty-based policy: this includes NATO membership; he added that it is good to be in the EU, because this enables Hungary to more easily serve its national objectives. As regards state finances, he said that it is not irrelevant who Hungary’s creditors are, it is important to keep the sovereign debt in Hungarian hands, and it is better if the state is in debt to its own citizens.
The Prime Minister highlighted that for the Hungarian people the EU is not an end in itself, but a means to an end.
He also said that it is a political requirement for Hungarians to be able to give precise answers to the questions of who they are and “why we are demanding our place in the sun”.
He stated that Hungarians are “a unique species”, with very specific roots, a history and a language that cannot be confused with those of anyone else. In addition, he said, Hungarians have a right to exist because they have made a contribution to the world which would never have come into being without them, and which otherwise would not come into being in the future either.
Mr. Orbán underlined that the “eternal motif of the Hungarian character” exists to this day: the instinct to escape the fate of national enslavement, to be subjugated by no one, and for any areas of primacy or subordinacy to have clear and fair justification.
He observed that Hungary must pursue geostrategically sound foreign policy, and develop advantageous relations in every direction.
Photo by Balázs Szecsődi/Press Office of the Prime Minister