[Grem] *****SPAM(5.5)***** V. Orbán’s “State of the Nation” address - 18 February 2023, Budapest

[Elizabeth Csordas]

Köszönöm!  már többen kérték angolul.
*Böbi     Elizabeth*


On Tue, Feb 21, 2023 at 11:47 AM Emoke Greschik <greschem at gmail.com> wrote:

> Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s “State of the Nation” address
>
> 18 February 2023, Budapest
>
>    - PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR ORBÁN
>    <https://abouthungary.hu/tags/prime-minister-viktor-orban>
>    - STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS
>    <https://abouthungary.hu/tags/state-of-the-nation-address>
>
> Good afternoon.
>
> Former Presidents Áder and Schmitt and your Dear Wives, Mister Speaker,
> Leaders of Hungarian communities from beyond our borders, Ladies and
> Gentlemen,
>
> As you are certainly aware, around two weeks ago a devastating earthquake
> shook Türkiye and Syria. The death toll is now over 44,000, and sadly this
> is not yet the end. Sorrows come suddenly, without warning, without
> knocking on the door, but simply smashing it open on us. In our sorrow, we
> find out who we can count on. We Hungarians can be counted on: 167 of our
> compatriots took part in the rescue work, and thirty-five people were
> rescued from the rubble by experts and volunteers who risked their lives in
> the process. Some of them are here with us now; let us salute our heroes,
> who have honoured us with their presence here. Ladies and Gentlemen, thank
> you for your sacrifice, a country is proud of you! Please stand up and let
> us see you!
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> So much has happened in the past year – an election, the war, an energy
> crisis, inflation – that in fact I should spend several hours talking about
> it. Please do not start making for the door: it is too late now, if you are
> here, you are here. Tomorrow, on Sunday, you can rest yourselves after a
> speech of Atatürk or Fidel Castro proportions. But I will keep it shorter
> after all, because during a long political speech people lose their zest
> for life – and we are not here to lose our zest for life, but to renew our
> zest for life. And with that I have dived headlong into what I have to say.
> Today the most important question for the future is whether the enormous
> changes taking place in European life – which are bringing us new
> intellectual, political, economic and military challenges – will enhance or
> diminish Hungarians’ zest for life. These changes are putting pressure on
> the whole of Hungarian life and are confronting us with new questions. The
> success of the year 2023 will depend on whether we are energised by them or
> deflated by them.
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> As I circulate in international politics, I often think of the old
> Hungarian song: “Mother, I Didn’t Want That Kind of Horse”. And indeed, we
> Hungarians did not want to live in such a chaotic world. But, as my mother
> would say, “Son, life is not a request show.” And she is right.
>
> Everything had been so well thought out: we had cut our way through the
> piles of rubble left behind by the socialist governments ousted in 2010,
> through the ruins of Wild-East socialism, through unemployment, through an
> economy gasping for breath, through foreign currency loans, through
> disaffected envy, through prostration to the West, through sky-high utility
> bills, through illicit gratuities in the healthcare system, through
> cheating the system while living on welfare benefits, and through resigned
> acceptance of the second-rate. We were just beginning to believe that there
> would be a place in the sun for every Hungarian, and that such a place
> would be here. It turned out that it is possible to live better from one’s
> work than from benefits, that having children is not a burden but a joy –
> or, to be more precise, a burden that is a joy. We were beginning to
> believe that life here would be fruitful, that there would be enough for
> everyone. We came to think that in order to get ahead we do not need to
> take from one another or take that which belongs to others, because the
> cake we can bake will be much bigger than any we have seen so far. One
> million people have been given work, and never before in Hungary have so
> many people been in work. The Hungarian economy has tripled in size and the
> minimum wage is now higher than the average wage was under our Socialist
> predecessors. We have brought forth a national Christian constitution that
> is worthy of us. We have reorganised the Hungarian state with courage that
> if not death-defying is at least Brussels-defying. And, brushing off the
> naysayers, we have built a new Hungarian economy in which everyone has
> received the chance to find their own destiny. True, it has been an arduous
> ten years, we have sweated a lot, our knees and elbows have been grazed and
> bruised, and we have collected our fair share of blisters; but we feel that
> it has been worthwhile. We have learned how to make headway in the renewed
> Hungary, we have seen that the effort has not been in vain, and it has
> dawned on us Magyars that “once more our name and story shall match our
> ancestors’ in glory”. This is why, after our first historic two-thirds
> majority in 2010, we won a two-thirds majority in each of the three
> subsequent parliamentary elections. We still gained such a majority now,
> even though the entire Left in Hungary combined their forces against us,
> even though Brussels tried to starve our treasury, and even though Uncle
> George [Soros] rolled 4 billion forints here from America to provide his
> comrades with ammunition – to shoot at us. They came a cropper, they shot
> wide: not a little, a lot. They fell flat on their faces, and I think they
> will pay the price.
>
> Do you remember the film “Once Upon a Time in the West?” The dialogue at
> the beginning of the film? The Charles Bronson character, “Harmonica”,
> questions the three bandits waiting for him:
>
> “And Frank?”
>
> “Frank sent us”, they reply.
>
> “Did you bring a horse for me?”
>
> “No.”
>
> Seeing their three horses, Harmonica says, “You brought two too many.”
>
> This is what happened in Hungary in 2022. And as far as I can see, right
> now the Hungarian Frank, our “Feri” [Ferenc Gyurcsány], is trying to round
> up the horses that are left without owners. The lesson is that when you
> look at your opponent you should judge them not by their numbers but by
> their ability. It seems that God loves us.
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> Election victories – especially two-thirds majorities – are not something
> that people just hand you on a plate. There is work behind them, and the
> result of that work is appreciated by the people. Otherwise there will be
> no victory – and certainly no two-thirds majority. Of course, there are
> always malcontents, who think that we were just lucky. Fine, call it luck –
> once. But four times? If you are always lucky, it is also possible that you
> have something to offer; for example, you love your country and you are
> prepared to fight for it – at home, if need be, or in the world at large,
> if need be. The Left should understand that for victory millions of dollars
> and influential patrons are not enough. For victory, Dear Friends, luck is
> not enough: you need heart.
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> Just when we thought we were finally standing up straight, COVID hit us,
> in the spring of 2020 – three years ago now. It brought us pain and
> irretrievable losses. But we were right to hope that we would pull through
> it, get back on our feet and pick up where we had left off. I thought that
> we would arrive at where we always wanted to be. We would occupy the level
> in the world entitled to us by our talent, hard work and history. We would
> be among the best, somewhere in the vanguard. Once again, there would be
> many children, many millions of hearts who awaited the good news of an
> orderly, attractive and safe country, a green Carpathian Basin that can
> withstand climate change. And even though the lion and the lamb would not
> lie down together, we hoped that the Left would finally understand that
> this is a common homeland, and that we have no other.
>
> And then war struck – or broke out. It is now one year old, and by every
> reckoning it could last for a long time – even several years, it seems.
> Everything has changed – including in politics and in the economy. The West
> has moved firmly in the direction of the Wild West. From the years of COVID
> the world has not got back on track, but we have moved into the years of
> war. In fact, since March 2020 – for almost three years – we have been
> living our lives under constant pressure. And this could easily turn into
> four or even five years. Of the thirty-two years since the fall of
> communism, 2022 was the most difficult. It was the most difficult year.
>
> When the West entered the war with sanctions, we had to rethink
> everything. That occupied the months following the April election. We had
> to rethink economic policy, defence policy, military policy, and all of our
> foreign policy. In the glare of war, we had to re-examine all the major
> goals we had set ourselves in 2010, after our first two-thirds victory. We
> are nearing the end of this work. As I see it, there is no need to abandon
> or give up the goals, only to change the means by which they will be
> achieved. Our foreign policy remains: we want to continue to make friends,
> not enemies; we want everyone – East and West, North and South – to have a
> stake in the success of the Hungarians. The creation of connections instead
> of the formation of blocs. National unification will continue, and
> Hungarians beyond our borders can continue to count on us, because we are
> of the same blood. Our family policy will remain, our work-based economy
> will remain, our agreement with pensioners and the thirteenth month’s
> pension will remain, and so will the protection of reductions in household
> utility bills. We will continue the linking of universities to the economy.
> We can keep the strategic sectors – the banking sector, the energy sector
> and the media industry – in Hungarian hands, and we will even revive
> Hungarian ownership in the telecommunications and infocommunications
> sector. And we will not stop there, the windsock is already blowing in the
> wind. Sorry! And the promise made to the provinces remains: we are
> launching unprecedented developments and providing more resources than the
> Hungarian provinces have ever seen – even under the Austro-Hungarian
> Empire. Alongside agricultural production, we are building up agricultural
> processing. We will revive the Hungarian food industry, which has been
> devastated by privatisation, and we will have national champions in the
> food industry who will also be able to compete in the world market. We
> shall not tolerate Hungarians having to buy food that is dumped on us from
> abroad. And we are retaining our plan for the eastern part of our country
> to catch up with the rest. It is time to finally unite Hunnia and Pannonia
> – both economically and in terms of living standards. This is why we are
> building bridges on the Danube, why the one at Paks will be completed, and
> why the one at Mohács will soon be started. We are placing the
> Debrecen-Nyíregyháza-Miskolc triangle alongside the
> Győr-Szombathely-Veszprém industrial zone. This will require energy, a lot
> of energy – more than ever before in Hungary. This is why we will build
> power stations and pipeline systems, even if Brussels is unwilling to play
> a role. Later there will be more. And we will not give up our most daring
> plan: to ensure that families with children are better off financially than
> those who do not have children. So, war or no war, we will have new family
> support decisions every year. The same is true this year, with women
> committing to having children paying no personal income tax until the age
> of 30. This is how it will be. But I know that for us Hungarians this is
> not enough. We know the joke we inherited from socialism: “We know what
> will happen, but the question is this: what will happen until then?”
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> If 2022 was the hardest year, 2023 will be the most dangerous year since
> the fall of communism. Alongside migration, which is gradually becoming a
> permanent feature, two new enemies and two new dangers are lurking: one is
> war, and the other is inflation. If we want to return to the upward
> trajectory from which the COVID pandemic pushed us, we must fend off these
> two threats: we must overcome them, we must fight our way through them. But
> how? Today this is what I will talk about.
>
> How do we overcome the danger of war? We want to simply put an end to it,
> but we do not have the power to do so – we are not in that league.
> Therefore, if we want to protect Hungary, if we want a peaceful life for
> ourselves, we have only one choice: we must stay out of the Russo-Ukrainian
> war. So far this has not been easy, and it will not be easy in the future,
> because we are part of the Western world, we are members of NATO and the
> European Union, and everyone there is on the side of war – or at least acts
> as if they are. Can Hungary afford to remain on the side of peace in such
> circumstances, in a way that is directly opposed to that of our allies? Of
> course we can, because Hungary is an independent, free and sovereign state,
> and we recognise no one but God above us. But is it right – morally right –
> for us to stay out of the war? I am convinced that it is the right thing –
> and indeed the only right thing. Russia has attacked Ukraine, so we must
> let Ukrainian refugees into our country, and we have done well in
> supporting them with the largest humanitarian aid operation in our
> country’s history. This is the imperative of basic humanity, and we are
> complying with it. But we also see that the war in Ukraine is not a war
> between the armies of good and evil, but a war between the troops of two
> Slavic countries: a war limited in time and – for the time being – in
> space. It is their war, not ours. Hungary recognises Ukraine’s right to
> self defence, to fight against external aggression; but it would not be
> right from any point of view – including any moral point of view – to put
> the interests of Ukraine before those of Hungary. The Left in Hungary is
> also on the side of war: it would supply arms, take on the financial burden
> of war and sever relations with Russia. We are not doing this. We are not
> supplying arms. We are also being careful with money, because in the end
> the money due to us will be given by Brussels to Ukraine. For us,
> humanitarian support for Ukraine does not mean severing our ties with
> Russia, because that would run counter to our national interests, which we
> have the right to define for ourselves. Therefore we shall not agree to
> gas, oil or nuclear sanctions that would ruin Hungary. From the national
> consultation we know that there is national unity on this. This is why we
> are maintaining our economic relations with Russia; and indeed we are
> advising the whole Western world to do the same, because without relations
> there will be neither a ceasefire nor peace negotiations. This is why we do
> not agree with priests and church leaders being placed on sanctions lists;
> it is bad enough that this could happen to artists and athletes. And it is
> also important not to narrow our vision, and not to be provincial. Let us
> look beyond Brussels. Every country outside Europe is aware of the limited
> significance of the war in Ukraine and the primacy of its own national
> interest. Let us not isolate ourselves from the level-headed part of the
> world. The Hungarian viewpoint is an exception only in Europe – across the
> world it is the norm. The Hungarian government does not consider it
> realistic to assume that Russia is a threat to the security of Hungary or
> of Europe. Such an assumption is valid at most in relation to nuclear
> weapons; but the war in Ukraine is increasing the risk of their use, rather
> than reducing it. As far as conventional warfare is concerned, the Ukraine
> war has shown that Russia would not stand a chance against NATO. We
> understand that the Ukrainians are trying to convince Europe that the
> Russians will not stop until they reach the Atlantic, but the Hungarians
> are not buying that threat. The whole world has seen that Russian forces
> are not in a position to attack NATO, and will not be in such a position
> for a long time. I recall that a decade ago Hungary proposed the creation
> of a joint European force, and today we can see how unfortunate it was that
> this proposal fell on deaf ears.
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> While our pro-peace position and the pro-war position of others accentuate
> differences between us, they also obscure the fact that we are in full
> agreement on strategic objectives. We want Russia not to be a threat to
> Europe, and we want there to be a sufficiently broad and deep area between
> Russia and Hungary: a sovereign Ukraine. The difference between us is in
> our view of the means to achieve this: those who support the war think that
> this can be achieved by defeating Russia; and we think that it can be
> achieved by an immediate ceasefire and negotiations. There is another
> strong argument in favour of our proposal: the only thing that can save
> lives is a ceasefire. Loss of life is already being expressed in the
> hundreds of thousands. The pain, widowhood, growing numbers of orphans and
> oceanic waves of suffering can only be calmed by a ceasefire.
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> The war has also revealed some instructive and weighty truths. Let us not
> pass them by without speaking of them. First of all, there is the question
> of our membership of NATO. Let us make it clear that for Hungary NATO
> membership is vital. We are too far to the east – on the eastern edge of
> the western world – to renounce it. It would of course be easier if we were
> further in: following the example of Austria and Switzerland, we too could
> play with the idea of neutrality. But history has not given us that luxury.
> NATO is a defence alliance. It is a military defence alliance which was
> formed so that we can defend one another. This is why we joined, and this
> is why – thinking back to 45 years of Soviet occupation – I experienced the
> historic satisfaction of signing the Treaty of Accession. It is at least as
> important to clearly understand what NATO is not. NATO is not a war
> alliance. NATO is not a war coalition. Membership of NATO does not imply
> any obligation beyond joint defence, nor can member countries expect any
> other member to jointly attack a third country for some joint military
> objective. If some NATO members, or a group of them, want to carry out acts
> of war outside the territory of the member countries, they must do so
> outside the framework of NATO: those who want to will participate; those
> who do not want to will not.
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> No matter how strong and powerful, anyone who thinks they can supervise,
> manage and gradually calibrate the conduct of war is overestimating their
> own power and underestimating the risky nature of war. Those who make such
> mistakes are usually far removed from the devastating realities of
> frontline warfare. But we live here, and the war is on the soil of a
> neighbouring country. Brusselites have not yet sacrificed their lives in
> this war, but Hungarians have. While Hungarian symbols are being taken down
> in Munkács/Mukachevo, while Hungarian principals are being dismissed from
> our schools, many are dying heroes’ deaths on the front. The Hungarian
> minority in Transcarpathia does not deserve this. More respect for
> Hungarians from Munkács/Mukachevo, Kyiv/Kiev, Brussels and Washington!
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> Europe is drifting towards war. It is balancing on a narrow plank. Indeed
> its countries are already indirectly at war with Russia. If you supply
> weapons, if you provide the satellite information for military action, if
> you train the soldiers of one of the belligerents, if you finance the
> entire state apparatus of one of the belligerents and impose sanctions on
> the other, then, no matter what you say, you are at war – indirectly for
> the time being. The risk of being drawn in is now chronic. It started with
> helmets, it has continued with the delivery of non-lethal equipment, we are
> now seeing tanks being sent, fighter planes are on the agenda, and soon we
> will hear about so-called “peacekeeping troops”. It reminds one of
> sleepwalkers on a roof. We also need to understand how the pro-war people
> succumbed to somnambulism and how they ended up on the rooftops. Despite
> all our differences of opinion, we understand our Polish and Baltic
> friends: their history explains a great deal. But the others?
>
> It did not have to happen this way – or rather it could have happened
> differently. We could have given a guarantee that we would not admit
> Ukraine to NATO; but we did the opposite, and confirmed our earlier
> decision in 2008 that we would admit them. We could also have followed the
> solution that we adopted in 2008 when the Russo-Georgian war broke out, and
> Russia occupied 20 per cent of Georgia’s territory. Back then we decided to
> prevent the fire spreading, and under the leadership of President Sarkozy –
> who negotiated brilliantly – the conflict was localised and a ceasefire was
> achieved. We could have done what we did in 2014 under Angela Merkel, when
> Russia attacked Ukraine and annexed Crimea. Then we could have opted for
> war, like the present one, but we – the West – chose a different option:
> negotiation instead of combat, peace instead of war. I remember that there
> were pro-war people then, but there was also strong German and French
> leadership, which was brave and took timely action. That is how war was
> avoided and the Minsk agreement was reached. A year ago the West decided
> otherwise. When Russia launched an attack, the West did not isolate the
> conflict, but elevated it to a pan-European level. It could have classified
> it as a local, regional war or as a military conflict between two Slavic
> states, as Hungary proposed. What happened is yet another argument against
> the Brussels superstate and in favour of strong nation states. When the
> Member States decided, there was peace; when the imperial centre decided,
> there was war.
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> Looking to the future, it is also instructive to note how we lost our
> pro-peace allies. A year ago we were not alone in the peace camp. There
> were, for example, the Germans, who supplied no weapons, only helmets. By
> comparison, in a few weeks’ time Leopard tanks will be rolling eastwards
> across Ukrainian soil, down towards the Russian border. Perhaps even the
> old maps are still around. The Germans turned together with the others, or
> the others turned together with the Germans. That is how the peace camp
> faded away. It is hard to believe that the Germans took this turn of their
> own accord. Today they act as if they were always on board. The modern
> German school: they do not simply change sides, but openly announce that
> they are jumping right to the front. They are thorough people, and when
> they do something, they do it seriously. And the other countries thought
> that if the Germans could not resist that kind of external pressure then
> they, too, would be unlikely to. And so they seeped from the peace camp
> into the war camp. That left two of us: Hungary and the Vatican. We cannot
> complain about the company, but we need to address some serious
> consequences.
>
> We need to honestly face the fact that the war is getting wilder and more
> brutal, and so we had better be prepared for the tone used against us to
> get harsher and more abusive: provocations, insults, threats and blackmail.
> I cannot promise that it will be easy, but I can promise that we shall
> stand our ground. Long gone are the days when we were subject to diplomatic
> pressure which still respected sovereignty. Where are the good old days,
> when in 2014 Hillary Clinton sent just one “good friend” to persuade the
> Hungarians of the error of their ways with anti-government protests and a
> few travel bans? We manoeuvred well then, our calculations worked, and in
> the form of Donald Trump friendly relief troops arrived – fortunately not
> here, but in Washington. Since then a lot of water has flowed down the
> Potomac. Fortunately the White House has retained its sense of humour, and
> instead of a “good friend”, President Biden has sent us a “press man”, an
> ambassador to ratchet up the pressure on us and do whatever it takes to
> press the Hungarians into the camp of war: to press a statement out of us
> in which we commit ourselves to joining in. This is fine, humour can help
> friendship survive hard times. But we should avoid the possibility that
> next time they send someone called Puccini!
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> We see that in 2024 America will have another election, and our Republican
> friends are flexing their muscles in preparation for their return. I also
> expect that democracy will show its strength in Europe, that public opinion
> will become increasingly pro-peace, demanding a ceasefire, peace talks,
> more sanity and – if necessary – new governments. It will not be a walk in
> the park, but then the smoother and more leisurely roads all lead to war.
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> We have no illusions, we are not naive, and neither are we the flower
> children of ‘68 or dreaming pacifists. We know that the negotiations will
> not be between the Ukrainians and the Russians: peace will come when the
> Americans and the Russians negotiate with each other. That will inevitably
> happen, but the later it happens, the higher the price we will all pay. War
> enthusiasts believe that time is on the side of the Ukrainians and the
> West, so the fight must go on: it will change the balance of power, there
> will be victory over Russia, and victory will bring peace. The Hungarian
> government, however, believes that continued fighting will not bring
> victory and will not bring peace, but the deaths of hundreds of thousands
> more people, a widening conflict, countries engaged in open warfare, years
> of war, destruction, suffering and the threat of world war. So let us
> Hungarians stand by peace, but let the Defence Minister keep his powder
> dry. That is all I have to say about the war.
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> If we want to fight inflation, we must start with understanding. Why is
> there inflation all over Europe? Brussels has unleashed this affliction on
> us, with its sanctions on energy. The disease is called sanction inflation
> and the virus is the Brussels sanctions. Sanctions are the weapons in
> Brussels’ war policy. They target Russia, but they hit Europe. It was not
> so long ago that Brussels promised that these sanctions would bring an end
> to the war. A year has passed, and the end of the war is not getting
> closer, but ever more distant. They also promised that they would not
> extend the sanctions to energy. But then they did. The price of natural gas
> multiplied, reaching 350 euros at the end of August. That is a record,
> something not seen in living memory. The situation has improved, but the
> price of natural gas is still several times higher than the 20-euro level
> of two years ago. Moreover, and few people know this, in Brussels the price
> of gas was linked to the price of electricity. Together with the Poles we
> protested, but to no avail. The rise in gas prices has therefore been
> immediately accompanied by a rise in electricity prices – even when that
> electricity is not produced by gas turbines, but by solar, wind, hydro,
> coal or nuclear power. It is economics 101 that energy price hikes drive up
> the price of all products. This is especially true if you import most of
> your energy from abroad, as Hungary does. Moreover, it has turned out that
> we have not deprived Russia of revenue, but have given them more money. In
> 2022 the profits of the world oil and gas industry increased by 70 per
> cent, without the mammoth corporations concerned renewing anything or
> producing more: they just pocketed the extra profit from sanctions, which
> they made Europeans pay for. In 2022 the sanctions took four thousand
> billion forints out of the pockets of Hungarians. Four thousand billion
> forints! This is how much more money Hungarian companies, the state and
> families in Hungary have spent on energy alone, because of the sanctions.
> This amount could have been spent by companies on wage increases, by the
> state on tax cuts or family support, and by families on buying a home or on
> their children.
>
> One just stands amidst the glass palaces of Brussels, not wanting to
> believe what is going on there. We have to face reality: instead of help,
> Brussels is giving us more sanctions. The Brussels bureaucracy, with
> well-considered bad intentions, has not given Hungary or Poland their share
> of the European Recovery Programme. In 2022, in the most difficult year, we
> did not receive money that the Member States took out as a joint loan,
> according to which we Hungarians will have to pay back our share. They are
> looking for nits to pick out of Hungary’s rule of law, while a police van
> is on permanent standby at the European Parliament building. In reality it
> is the Member States that should be monitoring Brussels, not Brussels
> monitoring the Member States. I hope this will be the case after the
> European elections in 2024. If Brussels wants to go to war under any
> circumstances, then it should go to war against inflation. It is not doing
> so. But we are continuously fighting our own war on inflation. We have
> already enacted two dozen or so measures to protect families and businesses.
>
> The most important thing now, my friends, is not to see inflation as an
> inescapable scourge. And even though inflation is peaking and placing a
> heavy burden on families, it should not frighten us, it should not chill
> us, and we should not be resigned to it. Action must be taken, and it will
> yield results. I learned from Sándor Demján that in times of crisis there
> is no such thing as normativity. You must intervene in the economy with
> courage. This is what we are doing, which is why the average family today
> is saving 181,000 forints a month in reduced utility bills. This is unique
> in the whole of Europe. The Left is calling for the food price freeze to be
> withdrawn, but it will remain until we can bring inflation down. The Left –
> together with the banks, unsurprisingly – is also calling for the lifting
> of the retail interest rate freeze. But the interest rate freeze is
> protecting 350,000 families from interest rate rises, and until interest
> rates start to fall, the freeze should stay in place. Instead of
> withdrawing it, we have extended it to student loans. So today we are
> protecting 200,000 students from inflation. Student loans are
> interest-free, and the interest rate on a free-use student loan is half the
> market rate. And now we are introducing a reduced-rate county travel pass.
> From 1 May, we will offer monthly nationwide and county passes valid for
> both bus and rail travel. The monthly pass will cost 9,450 forints, and the
> monthly nationwide pass will cost 18,900 forints. Those who travel to work
> by public transport can save a considerable amount.
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> Forging a good shield – one that can absorb heavy blows – is expensive.
> Therefore windfall profits must be taken from where they occur. We have
> taxed banks, energy companies and multinational retail chains. And the
> windfall profits taken are put into the fund to preserve cuts in household
> utility bills.
>
> In summary, 2022 was a year that could have broken the backbone of the
> Hungarian economy. The official doomsayers, respected former central bank
> governors and former right-wing economists were also expecting this, and
> were already administering the last rites to us. Bankruptcies,
> unemployment, currency collapse, insolvency, Armageddon: that was what the
> Left predicted. Now, in February, employment is higher than ever, foreign
> exchange reserves are at record levels, and the forint has stabilised. The
> truth is that, alongside and in spite of painfully high inflation, in 2022
> the Hungarian economy broke three records. A hat-trick. I hope coach
> [Marco] Rossi is listening. Never have so many people been in work in
> Hungary. Our exports have broken records, and never before has there been
> so much investment in Hungary as there was in 2022. This is why we are
> still on our feet despite high prices, and this is why the economy will not
> stall in 2023. Inflation is like a tiger, and you only have one bullet. If
> you miss, it will eat you up. Please trust us, we will hit it. You can bet
> on it: by the end of the year we will have inflation in single digits.
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> As we can see, the situation is serious, but not hopeless – in fact it is
> encouraging. Hungarians’ survival instincts are operating, they can see
> things clearly, and – as the national consultation has shown – there is
> broad agreement on the main objectives. Here today I thank all those who
> took part in the national consultation. We will stay out of war, Hungary
> will remain an island of peace and security, and we will conquer inflation
> – this is always the Government’s job, and there will be no mistakes. But
> there is something else that a government, however confident it may be,
> will not be able to do on its own. You know, everyone has heard, what a
> despicable thing happened in one of our schools. One cannot understand why
> the sky does not fall, why the earth does not open up to swallow up those
> whose place is under it.
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> Let us say it how it is: paedophilia cannot be forgiven. Children are
> sacred to us, and it falls to adults to protect children at all costs. We
> do not care that the world has gone mad. We do not care what repellent
> aberrations some people indulge in. We do not care how Brussels excuses and
> explains the inexplicable. This is Hungary! And this is where the strictest
> child protection system in Europe should be! The legislation is there, and
> the missing pieces will be found, but even the most determined government
> cannot succeed in this matter on its own. It will require everyone:
> parents, grandparents, mothers and fathers, teachers and educators. Because
> gender propaganda is not just an entertaining caper, not just rainbow
> chatter, but the greatest threat stalking our children. We want our
> children to be left alone, because enough is enough! This kind of thing has
> no place in Hungary, and especially not in our schools. I am counting on
> you, we are counting on all Hungarian people of goodwill, so that we can do
> this job together, once and for all, in 2023.
>
> God above us all, Hungary before all else! Go, Hungary, go Hungarians!
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>
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