At an event held on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that “we reject the forced resettlement scheme, and we shall tolerate neither blackmail, nor threats”.
He said that “The time has come to ring the warning bell. The time has come for opposition and resistance. The time has come to gather allies to us. […] The time has come to prevent the destruction of Europe […] regardless of party affiliation, we call on every citizen of Hungary to unite, and we call on every European nation to unite”. The Prime Minister declared that we must restore the unity of Europe.
Mr. Orbán stated that the leaders and citizens of Europe must no longer live in two separate worlds, and that, if they unite their forces, they shall succeed in restoring unity, but “if we pull in different directions, we shall fail. Together we are strength, disunited we are weakness. Either together, or not at all – today this is the law”.
Mass migration is like a slow and steady current of water which washes away the shore
The Prime Minister said that “Mass migration is like a slow and steady current of water which washes away the shore. It appears in the guise of humanitarian action, but its true nature is the occupation of territory; and their gain in territory is our loss of territory”. At first, he continued, only about a few hundred, a thousand or two thousand relocated people are under discussion, but “not a single responsible European leader would dare to swear under oath that this couple of thousand will not eventually increase to tens or hundreds of thousands”.
Mr. Orbán described how “Hordes of implacable human rights warriors feel an unquenchable desire to lecture and accuse us”. Yet the history of the Hungarian nation, he said, is also one of inclusion and the intertwining of cultures: “Those who have sought to come here as new family members, as allies or as displaced persons fearing for their lives have been let in to make a new home for themselves”. On the other hand, however, “those who have come here with the intention of changing our country and […] against our will, have always been met with resistance”.
If we want to stop this mass migration, we must first of all curb Brussels
Mr. Orbán highlighted that “If we want to stop this mass migration, we must first of all curb Brussels”. He added that “We cannot allow Brussels to place itself above the law. We shall not allow it to force upon us the bitter fruit of its cosmopolitan immigration policy”.
“We shall not import to Hungary crime, terrorism, homophobia and synagogue-burning anti-Semitism. There shall be no urban districts beyond the reach of the law, there shall be no mass disorder or immigrant riots here, and there shall be no gangs hunting down our women and daughters.”
Mr. Orbán made it clear that Hungarians shall not allow others to tell them whom they can let into their home and country, whom they will live alongside, and whom they will share their country with. He described the process as follows: “First we allow them to tell us whom we must take in, then they force us to serve foreigners in our country. In the end we find ourselves being told to pack up and leave our own land”.
Europe is not free
The Prime Minister reiterated that “we reject the forced resettlement scheme, and we shall tolerate neither blackmail, nor threats”. He said that today, one hundred and sixty-eight years after the great freedom fights of its peoples, “Europe – our common home – is not free”. He described Europe as being “as fragile, weak and sickly as a flower being eaten away by a hidden worm”.
In his analysis, Europe today is not free, because freedom begins with speaking the truth, and “In Europe today it is forbidden to speak the truth. A muzzle is a muzzle – even if it is made of silk”. He said that “It is forbidden to say that today we are not witnessing the arrival of refugees, but a Europe being threatened by mass migration”. It is also forbidden to say that “immigration brings crime and terrorism to our countries”, and that “this is not accidental, […] but a planned, orchestrated campaign, a mass of people directed towards us”. He continued by saying that “It is forbidden to say that in Brussels they are constructing schemes to transport foreigners here as quickly as possible and to settle them here among us”.
It is forbidden to say, he added, “that the purpose of settling these people here is to redraw the religious and cultural map of Europe and to reconfigure its ethnic foundations, thereby eliminating nation states, which are the last obstacle to the international movement”.
It is forbidden to say that “Brussels is stealthily devouring ever more slices of our national sovereignty, and that in Brussels today many are working on a plan for a United States of Europe, for which no one has ever given authorisation”. He believes, however, that “Europe’s beams laid on the suppression of truth are creaking and cracking”, and that the peoples of Europe, “who have been slumbering in abundance and prosperity”, are slowly awakening, and may have finally understood that their future is at stake.
We Hungarians have two revolutionary traditions
The Prime Minister also said that life in Hungary today is a creation of the spiritual heirs and offspring of the ’48 and ’56 revolutions: “the heartbeat of this revolutionary tradition moves and guides the nation’s political, economic and spiritual life”. He believes that Hungarians have two revolutionary traditions: one leads from 1848, through 1956 and the fall of communism, all the way to the Fundamental Law and the current constitutional order; the “bloodline” of the other tradition leads from Jacobin European ancestors, through 1919, to communism after World War II and the Soviet era in Hungary.
He said that the record of the 1918–19 revolution can be found “in the volume devoted to Bolshevik anti-Hungarian subversions launched in the service of foreign interests and foreign ambitions”. He also said that “Not even the uplifting mood of a celebration day can let us forget that the tradition of 1919, too, is still with us – though fortunately its pulse is just a faint flicker”. He added that “without a host animal, its days are numbered. It is in need of another delivery of aid from abroad in the form of a major intellectual and political infusion; unless it receives this, then after its leaves and branches have withered, its roots will also dry up in the Hungarian motherland’s soil, which is hostile to internationalism”.
He described the 1848 Revolution as “Hungarian to the core”, having been “exhilarating, but sober; ecstatic but practical; glorious, but temperate”. He praised the “citizens, military officers, lawyers, writers, doctors, engineers, honest tradespeople, farmers and workers with a sense of national duty” who led the revolution.
Mr. Orbán also welcomed “the sons of the Polish nation” to Budapest, “the spirited successors of General Bem”, saying that “As always throughout our shared thousand-year history, now, too, we are standing by you in the battle you are fighting for your country’s freedom and independence. We are with you, and we send this message to Brussels: more respect to the Polish people, more respect to Poland”.
Towards the end of his speech, the Prime Minister said that “Today it is written in the book of fate that hidden, faceless world powers will eliminate everything that is unique, autonomous, age-old and national. […] if we resign ourselves to this outcome […] we will be swallowed up in the enormous belly of the United States of Europe”. Therefore, the task awaiting Hungary and Europe is “to defeat, rewrite and transform the fate intended for us”. He closed his speech with these words: “Go for it Hungary, go for it Hungarians!”
The transcript of the Prime Minister’s speech in English is available here.