Prime Minister Viktor Orbán summed up the debate following his speech in Parliament by stating that the Hungarian people expect more seriousness, more respect and more responsibility from the opposition parties. He added that he believes they are right to do so.
In response to an opposition comment related to corruption, he said that everyone must observe the law, and if they do there will not be no problems, asking “Isn’t that right, Honourable Jobbik?”
In answer to a statement from the socialist MSZP party made in relation to corruption, he said that a party which can lay claim to the Sukoró scandal should perhaps exercise more modesty.
Responding to the words of the socialist parliamentary group leader related to St. Ladislaus, the Prime Minister said that it was not his duty to give a secondary school history lesson, as “there are historians in the MSZP parliamentary group which are better than any of us on this side of the chamber”. He said, however, that St. Ladislaus had given his daughter in marriage to the Byzantine emperor for a reason, being intelligent enough to appreciate that there were other empires beyond the Holy Roman Empire. Mr. Orbán added that no king in Hungary suffered from “Western blindness”.
The Prime Minister said that the MSZP were in power for eight years, during which time they had not once launched a national consultation. “It’s a bit rich” he said, to give advice on what a consultation should have been about after the event. He added that more people took part in the National Consultation than had voted for the MSZP in the last election.
The Prime Minister also criticised the socialist opposition party for wanting to dismantle the fence on Hungary’s southern border, which, he said, they would never have built in the first place. He also noted that a member of a former MSZP government is defending “Ahmed H.”, who has been convicted of an act of terrorism. The MSZP, he added, accept the mandatory resettlement quotas, and are also prepared to support resettlement policies with no upper limit on numbers.
Mr. Orbán asserted that as long as there is a migrant threat, the fence must remain in place, pointing out that not even the Czech socialists want to have anything to do with the quotas. “At times like this, it is hard to resist the wish that we, too, had such socialists”, he said, adding that his government will not support any “political population replacement”, and that “we must live with what we have”.
Regarding the case of Ahmed H., the Prime Minister said that he does not deny the right of a former justice minister to take on any case he chooses to after the end of his political career. But, he remarked, it is telling that the opposition party would like to see the release of a terrorist with the assistance of a former justice minister in an MSZP government. He concluded by asking “Is this appropriate, Honourable Socialists?”
Regarding EU funds, he said that Hungary does not receive a penny from the EU as a gift, pointing out that Hungary’s gross domestic product amounts to 35,000 euros, while EU funding amounts to some 2,000.
He stressed that the EU is “structured” so that those who joined later do not have an advantage, but Westerners make money from them. “If we take the right action we, too, can make money from them, the two things can balance out, and we’ll have equilibrium”, he said.
The Prime Minister explained that in order to maintain this equilibrium the Government wants to preserve the current division of powers between Brussels and the Member States.
Speaking about the concept of a European wage union, he said that “instead of a wage union, which is a nightmare”, the Hungarian government relies on wage increases implemented from its own resources and strength.
He recalled that in 2013 the President of Jobbik had said that he would be very happy for Hungary to leave the EU as soon as possible, and forge a union with its true brothers. Mr. Orbán observed that there could be no excuse for such a statement – not even the fact that the President of Jobbik had made it in Istanbul.
The Prime Minister also criticised the general standard of debate, saying that the opposition parties are not arguing with him: there was a consultation, in which 1.7 million people took part; they may not like the opinion of 1.7 million people, but that is no reason to get angry with the Prime Minister. He continued by saying that the opposition parties must come to terms with the fact that this is the nature of this country, this is what its people think, and they should not be angry with the people because what they want does not coincide with opposition party political programmes. This, he said, is why those parties are in opposition.
In his view, often the intended audience for opposition parties’ crude messages is not the Government, but each other, with the name of the game being to see who the strongest opposition party is.
(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)
