In Budapest on Wednesday, at the inauguration of Ludovika University Campus of the National University of Public Service (NUPS), Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that today the Hungarian capital is one of the world’s safest cities, but “one bad decision, one misguided choice would be enough to render Budapest unrecognisable”.
The Prime Minister said that “It is good to live here [in Budapest], to raise children here, and to know that our families are safe. This is no longer the case in the cities of immigrant countries. On 8 April [in the parliamentary election] the people of Budapest will decide on this.”
He declared that those who vote for opposition candidates on Sunday will be voting for “the path leading to everyday life in an immigrant country”, while “those who vote for our candidates will be voting for security”.
“We will preserve Budapest as a beautiful, exciting and safe city”, he stressed, quoting one visitor’s praise for the capital: “There is nothing like this anywhere else in the world. Its beauty astonished me, as did the fact that here in Budapest the Hungarian people can live in such safety”.
According to Mr. Orbán, in Hungary migration primarily threatens Budapest and the people of Budapest. He added that there must be no recurrence of the events that took place in the city three years ago at Keleti Railway Station and in Pope John Paul II Square.
The fence on Hungary’s southern border primarily protects Budapest, the Prime Minister stated. He stated that “We Hungarians have only one homeland […] One bad decision, one step in the wrong direction, and our downhill course will be unstoppable”, adding that “once again there are those who want to take our country from us, who want us, too, to become an immigrant country”. He pointed out that what has been seen of migration so far has only been the first waves of the approaching “flood”.
Mr. Orbán said that the Government, however, regards the security of the Hungarian people as its highest priority, because where there is no security there are no investments, no new jobs, no incomes or pensions which hold their value, and there is no growth.
In order to protect Hungary and its achievements, he continued, there is a need for a combat-ready army, border defence, a strong police force and a well-functioning public administration system. The Prime Minister sees NUPS as a guarantor of this.
The Prime Minister also highlighted that eight years ago the Government embarked upon the “restoration” of Budapest. He cited the completed renovation of the National Riding School, the Music Academy, Erkel Theatre and the Castle Garden Bazaar, and work underway on the Opera House, Buda Castle and the City Park (Városliget). Today Budapest is Central Europe’s fastest growing and most exciting city, he stated.
Speaking of NUPS, he pointed out that in the course of six years a university had been established, one of Central Europe’s most beautiful classicist buildings had been renovated, a student hall of residence had been built, the neighbouring Orczy Park had been upgraded, green areas had been increased and new sports facilities created.
Mr. Orbán said that NUPS is inducting ever more generations of Hungarians into the service of the nation. The Ludovika Academy has always taught its students to preserve Hungary as an independent, free and Hungarian country, he highlighted. He observed that this is what those who established it worked for, and this is why it was opposed by those who besieged it in 1919 and those who closed it down after World War II.
At the end of his speech, the Prime Minister said that the election on Sunday will also have an impact on the future of NUPS, because for the institution and its students values such as homeland, service, duty, integrity and order constitute the guiding moral principles which “our opponents have always looked upon with disdain, and which they look upon with disdain today”. He stated that “We stand on opposite sides of the fence: we want to keep it, while they want to dismantle it”.
Therefore, he said, what is truly at stake in the election is the future of Hungary: “Our opponents have no interest in Hungary having a strong and fully functioning government. They want a weak state and a weak government, which executes the instructions that are sent here. But for us Hungary comes first. We want to write our own future, and we want to write it in Hungarian.”
(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)
