Europe must be protected from those who – for financial or power reasons – want to change it, and in this Central Europe’s experience of many centuries will gain in significance, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office stressed on Monday in Budapest.

At the forum organised by the 21st Century Institute, Gergely Gulyás said the countries of the region “have been vaccinated” against totalitarian ideas.

At the event which was also attended by Polish Member of the European Parliament Ryszard Antoni Legutko, the Minister said recalling the history of Hungarian-Polish relations that Hungarian and Polish history was especially hard; the two nations could rely on one another in 1920, 1939, 1956 and also in 1989.

Poland is one of the few states whose support and solidarity Hungary can count on even within the boundaries of the European Union, Mr Gulyás said, taking the view that at present Central European cooperation is undergoing something of a rennaissance.

Praising Mr Legutko, he said the philosophy professor of the Krakow Jagiellonian University “belongs to the part of the Western world which has experienced the raging of the terror regimes of existing socialism, and fully appreciates the worth of freedom”.

Outlining the work of the former Vice President of the Polish Senate, Mr Gulyás also highlighted that “even at a time of captivity, [Mr Legutko] believed in freedom, during dictatorship in democracy, and at the time of Soviet law in the rule of law”. A leader of the EP’s conservative group, a true representative of genuine Christian democratic-conservative values,” he said praising his fellow politician.

The Minister stressed that in the EP, Mr Legutko has the courage to state the truths which the majority drowning in political correctness do not dare to utter, much less hear.

Mr Gulyás pointed out that in the past decade Hungary has been compelled to fight for having its own opinion recognised as a legitimate European opinion.

He took the view that therefore today Europe must be protected from those who – for financial or power reasons – want to occupy it, change its culture, and destroy its communities, families and nations.

Mr Gulyás stated that Europe can only survive if its national diversity survives, and does not turn into a United States of Europe.

In his address entitled ‘Remembrance of communism and new fault lines in Europe’, Mr Legutko argued that after the fall of the Central European regimes, communists joined the political mainstream, became enthusiastic pro-Europeans, and found allies in the liberals. “On the whole, the political mainstem has moved towards the left,” he stated.

He mentioned as an example that political forces such as the Polish Law and Justice party (PiS) are not regarded as legitimate, regardless of the mandate they have received from the electorate, he indicated.

In his address seeking to explore the underlying reasons, Mr Legutko described communism as the most brutal regime in human history, arguing that the concept of the enemy played a central part in the communist way of thinking due to the class struggle terminology of Marxism, while the language of public discourse was dominated by terms borrowed from the military dictionary. The latter, he continued, had an intimidating effect on people’s thinking, and resulted in censorship and self-censorship.

He took the view that the impact that Marxism had during communism can now be traced in neo-Marxism which has found a strong ally in liberalism. The latter, he added, “is no longer the most fertile soil for freedom” as liberalism, too, has a strong “need for an enemy”.

Also with reference to former president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker who defended Marx’s philosophy, he said that “right from the beginning, the EU has been in the hands of the (political) mainstream”.

In his opinion, those who think differently are harassed, condemned and even subjected to legal sanctions, and we are witnessing a practice forcing people into humiliation that was typical of communism.

As an example, he mentioned that, in the context of climate change, European institutions do not tolerate those who share different views; “the acceptance of the Green New Deal is almost a religious requirement,” the Polish politician said.

Mr Legutko also highlighted that liberalism, similar to communism, tends to seek “to redesign society,” and when that happens, it is always the conservative side that loses some of its freedom.

(MTI)