Viktor Orbán: We Can Learn From the Mistakes of Western Europe

On Sunday Hungarians go to the polls to vote in a general election. The choice is between the Christian Democrat coalition — which includes Fidesz, the party of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — and various leftist parties either funded by or in alliance with George Soros and his Open Society Foundations.

The following video is the second excerpt from a recent TV program hosted by Zsolt Bayer (part 1). It features a discussion between the host and the prime minister about the significance of the coming election, which is a make-or-break moment for Hungary.

Many thanks to CrossWare for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript (times from the original program):

26:00		In every campaign, there is a sentence to be said
26:04		with a magical phrase: that this a “fate-deciding election”.
26:08		So this either means something or it doesn’t.
26:12		This brings us back to your first question, because there is something in our campaign
26:16		that you can see. Because we fought against such things — and the viewers and
26:20		the voters can decide if we succeeded — to avoid stiffening,
26:24		becoming ossified into the roles of the
26:28		“great politicians taking care of grand tasks of the state”. So the humor, self-irony,
26:32		our sense of the absurd, has stayed with us.
26:36		So our campaigns, even the “adult”
26:40		ones in our present age, could carry
26:44		from that humor and irony. While campaigns have a lot of things that are off-putting,
26:48		but all in all, for us the campaign is a wonderful thing,
26:52		an opportunity, partly to keep our good mood, and
26:56		partly to connect with the electorate,
27:00		as we did since 1988. We kept in touch, and
27:04		these live connections have prevented us
27:08		from becoming these big-headed, gray-suited boss men.
27:12		So let’s return to this phrase, that we
27:16		face a “fate-deciding election”. This is a mandatory
27:20		campaign sentence. But now —
27:24		ten or so days before the April 8th election —
27:28		now it really is… this really is about destiny. We have
27:32		in front of us an historic election. And if we start to untangle
27:36		why, then let’s start from this point:
27:40		if we are the political formation that in the last thirty years
27:44		was permanently the Hungarian and European — we can say that now —
27:48		was able to stay in the leading edge of politics,
27:52		then now, just before a crucial election
27:56		we could state properly what and who we are facing off with in this election.
28:00		The phrase “fate-deciding” is such a heavy expression;
28:04		it almost presses one down into this table.
28:08		But there is a truth in it, if we analyze the phrase a little bit:
28:12		“fate-deciding” is when the decision about our fate arrives,
28:16		about our future. The last time Hungary
28:20		had it was in 1990, a fate-deciding election.
28:24		After that came elections that even when they produced a clumsy government,
28:28		the succeeding governments had some chance
28:32		to fix the problems created by the previous governments.
28:36		There was a Bokros package [Lajos Bokros, finance minister, famous for stifling the economy],
28:39		between 1994 and1998. So in 1998 we won the election, and were able to fix most of
28:44		the damage caused by the Bokros package, and heal its wounds.
28:48		The Gurcsány government ruined the country, left it close to default
28:52		by 2010, but in 2010 we started and we were
28:56		able to put the country back on its feet.
29:00		Now we look like a stand-up, honest, decent country.
29:04		Up until now we have had elections where the Hungarian
29:08		people could make any kind of decision; we could trust
29:12		that we could fix it, at least in four years. But now
29:16		there are such questions at the center of the election, that if we screw it up, we cannot
29:20		correct it, there is no second examination, there is no way to fix it, because
29:24		now the immigration is at the center of the election, and if
29:28		Hungary takes just one step in that direction,
29:32		similar to the Western nations, to convert
29:36		itself into a migrant-accepting country, then there is no return
29:40		from there. So if a mixed population is created,
29:44		it’s not possible to separate them.
29:48		As they flood in, as a result of colonization politics,
29:52		they break the dam; we will not be able to remove them from Hungary.
29:56		Many hoped for what we saw in 2015,
30:00		when they came in — that was not good — but they went out on the other side of the country.
30:04		But this is over, because the Austrians and
30:08		the Germans have restored border controls. Whoever
30:12		comes in will not be able to leave. So our future will be
30:16		decided in this election: do we remain Hungarians, as a country
30:20		that we know and love? Or will others come here?
30:24		So that a mixed-population country is created, with different cultures
30:28		and parallel societies, with all those consequences that we can
30:32		see in Western Europe. It’s very rare, what we can say in this situation:
30:36		we can learn from the mistakes of others. That the errors in judgment
30:40		committed by Western nations — who are richer and more developed than we are —
30:44		we could avoid. It’s a huge opportunity. To learn from the mistakes
30:48		of others. —The opposition is constantly saying
30:52		concerning that, that this is not an issue,
30:56		this issue is a fake problem, this is only brought up
31:00		to help the government cover up the real problems.
31:04		To draw the attention away from those real issues,
31:08		and they [the opposition] are the ones who are talking about the real issues.
31:12		And the government is conducting a witch hunt against George Soros, and
31:16		that has no meaning. —That is poppycock, because if we go back to the beginning
31:20		of the migration crisis, when this issue
31:24		became spectacularly visible all over Europe, they still
31:28		said, there is no such danger, there is no migration issue,
31:32		there are no migrants. Even when at the Keleti [Eastern] train-station
31:36		we could see what it all meant,
31:40		they still stated that this is only a temporary issue;
31:44		then they said there is no correlation between
31:48		terrorism and migration, no correlation between
31:52		migration and the erosion of public safety; then
31:56		they asserted that it is not the migrants causing danger to girls and women in Western nations.
32:00		So for them, they do not make a connection between the
32:04		change in the situation, the deprived conditions, and people flooding in with the migration.
32:08		Right up until this day they actually state this. They are the part of a network that works towards
32:12		censoring the information and news about the migration.
32:16		I would have never thought — referring back to thirty years ago,
32:20		when Fidesz got established — there would come a moment,
32:24		and I have to say it from Budapest: People, there is
32:28		censorship in Europe. The news and information about the migration
32:32		is regularly suppressed, faked and manipulated. Even in the
32:36		social media, at the official level,
32:40		they frequently suppress such news, disable advertisements,
32:44		Censor such information, and the Hungarian opposition parties
32:48		are part of this Western European operation. George Soros is not
32:52		Fiction; you personally contributed — if I heard it correctly —
32:56		and wrote about, how this network unveiled itself.
33:00		We listened as they told with their own voices [in audio recordings],
33:04		how they work against the Hungarian government, how they want to overthrow it. They said
33:08		at least 2,000 people paid by George Soros are working in Hungary to accomplish this goal.
33:12		So I think they should not be so outraged, when they themselves revealed all this information
33:16		and unveiled themselves…
33:20		You described it, that three years ago, when
33:24		you realized what it the migration pressure means and the opposition was still saying that
33:28		this is a non-existent fake problem,
33:32		I would expand the three years, because the favorite writer of both of ours,
33:36		Douglas Murray’s book
33:40		“The Strange Death of Europe” — I could offer it with a good heart to anybody
33:44		to read — even as an intellectual dainty it is not a bad thing.
33:48		Reading is good; reading a good book is even better!
33:52		Even if we talk about the first chapters of the book,
33:56		written in black and white, what
34:00		astonished me the most was all these events since
34:04		the ’50s in Western Europe. This did not start in 2015,
34:08		but four, five decades ago.
34:12		Moreover, even
34:16		more stunning, that if any politician or anybody,
34:20		— even in the sixties — raised his voice against this,
34:24		the reaction was the same even then. They called him fascist,
34:28		exclusionist, xenophobic, Nazi, etc… The stigmas
34:32		have not changed a bit, for four or five decades a process
34:36		has been going on in Western Europe, and the people of Western Europe
34:40		are still tolerating it without any resistance?
34:44		How could this happen? — Sometimes they tried;
34:48		sometimes the people would raise their heads and give their opinions,
34:52		but until the final larger rush, this process was so slow,
34:56		so invisible. “Still waters run deep,” as the saying goes.
35:00		And those politicians were not able to grasp it, who
35:04		otherwise wanted to defend the French, German or Italian national culture,
35:08		Christian Europe, the national identity. Or they found themselves standing
35:12		against forces that could defeat them. It is worth thinking about,
35:16		who are we standing against… —Of course without the frame of the show,
35:20		we would be redirected into historical philosophy… — Yeah, let’s do it, no problem.
35:24		The first thing is that we must say openly that the Left is
35:28		“internationalist” in its character. So the Left is internationalist.
35:32		So because of this, it continuously attacks all things
35:36		that could strengthen national identity. For example, with steps against
35:40		migration, we must ask that question: why do we not want
35:44		migrants here? That’s because we have our own lives,
35:48		what we Hungarians created in Hungary.
35:52		In Germany the Germans… we have a culture, what we built,
35:56		in this national identity, where in the “identity”, who we are
36:00		plays a very important role. The Left does not see this as a positive,
36:04		has always looked at it as something negative, and it believed in
36:08		a progressive internationalism above all nations.
36:12		We conservatives or Christian Democrats, we believe that there are nations
36:16		that must cooperate in the interest of peace and safety.
36:20		But the goal of the cooperation is not to eliminate national characteristics
36:24		and our own national interests, and we believe in international cooperation.
36:28		The Left is international, and everything that makes nations stronger is
36:32		attacked by them, and they support what makes a nation weaker — either admittedly or
36:36		as a hidden agenda. This is what is at the root of things.
36:40		There is also a calculated expectation — I do not want to accuse anybody,
36:44		but I know Western European parties that calculate the fact
36:48		that the allowed, imported and transported migrants
36:52		sooner or later will receive citizenship, and
36:56		they will never vote for the Christian Democrats, because they are not from Christian cultures,
37:00		and they will never vote for parties trying to defend a strong national identity,
37:04		because they are not member of that national community, at least not yet,
37:08		so they will become voters of the Left.
37:12		Many Leftists, based on their short-term calculations,
37:16		will sacrifice their own long-term national goals. We should never allow that
37:20		to happen in Hungary! That is why I say that in the upcoming election,
37:24		there are only two choices. There are our own candidates, who want Hungary
37:28		to remain Hungary, to maintain our Christian culture,
37:32		whatever that means — we can have meaningful discussions about that —
37:36		but we want that for certain. And there are on the other side the candidates of George Soros,
37:40		who want to overstep the Christian and national tradition;
37:44		they want to leave it behind, take it off like a backpack;
37:48		they want to dissolve Hungary in an immense internationalism, and for that
37:52		migration is an excellent tool. And that is why I am sure, if they could,
37:56		they would tear down the fence and would let in the migrants. Unfortunately, I would have to say
38:00		that Jobbik [once a radical right-wing party] has also made its pact with Gyurcsány [Leftists],
38:04		I think that that at the moment when Jobbik
38:08		did not vote for the modification of the Basic Law
38:12		[the Hungarian Constitution], which was necessary to stop and act against the migrants,
38:16		it [Jobbik] got into that pen that is held together by George Soros.
38:20		And he finances them. — For a moment,
38:24		let’s jump into internal politics and into
38:28		the swamp-like world of the
38:32		election campaign. For the first look,
38:36		the political community on this side can see,
38:40		that there is a very fragmented Left,
38:44		a Liberal opposition, complete with a
38:48		a once national-radical, now — in my opinion —
38:52		a party without any identity, Jobbik.
38:56		For the first look, for months now
39:00		everything is about their solving of mathematical problems,
39:04		who needs to be allied with what to have any chance at all,
39:08		against the single [fair] game-playing Fidesz-KDNP party alliance.
39:12		Sometimes I start
39:16		to worry that in reality this opposition is
39:20		not as weak as it seems, and we must face something else too. —The situation is the following:
39:24		if someone wants to judge
39:28		by the first look,
39:32		one can see many troubled minds. With the second look
39:36		one can see these clumsy figures.
39:40		And from their whole campaign we do not know anything else except that they hate me,
39:44		They hate the concept of a Christian and national identity,
39:48		[they hate] Hungary. With me they hate you, because
39:52		you were a founding member of Fidesz. So they hate everything that
39:56		ties into the Christian and national traditions. Beyond that, the only thing they can only talk
40:00		about with each other is when and how
40:04		they will ally themselves or not join forces, and from that
40:08		one could gain an impression of their clumsiness. They look a bit shiftless.
40:12		But the truth is, this should not bewilder us, because
40:16		very strong powers, serious forces are standing behind them.
40:20		We do not take them seriously necessarily by name,
40:24		but the forces behind them we must take bloody seriously, those who are standing behind them
40:28		and pushing them forward, if we let them, and will push them into Parliament
40:32		and afterwards into governmental positions. This force behind them is what
40:36		is really dangerous for us. It’s hard to make a decision whether to laugh or cry,
40:40		and I say we should not laugh in any case, so we do not have to cry later.
40:44		We should be mindful and be there for the election,
40:48		to prevent these people, this power behind them, this background force [deep state]
40:52		from pushing into positions of decision. — Prime Minister,
40:56		at the end a very simple question:
41:00		One week until the election, what more can we do,
41:04		how can we help? — I think the situation really is
41:08		SIMPLE, has become simple.
41:12		If someone has followed the events of the campaign even a little bit, one can see clearly now,
41:16		on one side our candidates; we speak clearly
41:20		and openly: for us, “Hungary comes first.”
41:24		On the other side, there are the candidates of George Soros in different party colors.
41:28		I do not want to hurt any of them, but for them Hungary is not first, but
41:32		something else for sure. And this is the selection we must choose from.
41:36		We must choose. I can only say to everybody
41:40		for whom Hungary is first: please do not stay home!
41:44		If you remember during the first election in 1990,
41:48		there was a poster, it was even ours, where
41:52		the sign said: “The Communists are all voting.
41:56		We should be there, too!” Now I could say: “The Sorosists are all voting.
42:00		We should be there, too!” And to create a good mood for that, in Székesfehérvár,
42:04		on Friday afternoon [April 6th] we will have our countrywide campaign-closing celebration,
42:08		which is a Hungarian campaign closer, which is not closing but opening
42:12		the last portion, as you know well that old wisdom: the American
42:16		does not say goodbye, but leaves; the Hungarian says goodbye, but stays.
42:20		To bring the attention of the people to continue to campaign, and bring
42:24		everybody with them, all of their friends and acquaintances.
42:28		Bring everyone for whom Hungary’s future is important.
42:32		After that, all of us are in the hands of the Good Lord. —Thank you very much!

One thought on “Viktor Orbán: We Can Learn From the Mistakes of Western Europe”

Mary Houghton on April 6, 2018 at 5:45 am said:

Fortunately for Orban, he did not need a crystal ball to see how damaging it is/was to a country to let in millions of people who have zero affinity or regard for a country that welcomed them with open arms and open wallets. He has witnessed the catastrophic results of policies that have allowed, and even encouraged, an alien culture to thrive that was so detrimental to their own.

Comments are closed.