The basis of the newly organised Hungarian state is a work-based society that is not liberal in nature. This was the topic of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s speech in Tusnádfürdő (Baile Tusnad, Romania) on Saturday, at the 25th Bálványos Summer Free University and Student Camp.

As a regular speaker at the Transylvanian Free University, Viktor Orbán told the crowd of several thousand students who had gathered in front of the main outdoor stage that since his last speech the governing civil Christian and national political powers had won the elections, adding that he views the two-thirds majority victory as the manifestation of the “moral balance”, because the forces that had voted against the re-admittance of Hungarians living beyond the country’s borders in December 2004 have “received their just reward” as a result of the fact that the Fidesz-KNDP alliance achieved its result with the help of votes from cross-border Hungarians.

The Prime Minister said he had been invited to speak at the 25th Free University as one of those who helped affect the regime change in 1989, adding that since then a generation has grown up who, lacking any personal experience, is incapable of viewing the 1989 regime change as a point of reference. Today, it is more useful to make use of this valuable historical experience to think about the changes currently occurring throughout the world, with the restructuring of the global economy and world power that became apparent in 2008 as our starting point, he explained.

According to Mr. Orbán, the 2008 western financial crisis induced changes of similar significance to those that occurred following the first and second world wars and in 1990, except that in this case it wasn’t so obvious to people that they would be waking up in a radically different world.

DownloadThe Prime Minister declared that there is a global race to invent a state that is most suited to achieving the success of the nation. Today, the world is trying to understand systems that are not western, not liberal, perhaps not even democracies, but are nevertheless successful, and the “stars” of the analysts are Singapore, China, India, Russia and Turkey, he said.

“While breaking with the dogmas and ideologies that have been adopted by the West, we are trying to find the form of community organisation, the new Hungarian state, which is capable of making our community competitive in the great global race for decades to come”, Mr. Orbán said.

We must break with the liberal principles and methods of social organisation, declared the Prime Minister, according to whom the previous liberal Hungarian state did not protect community assets, did not commit the prevailing Hungarian government to accept that Hungarians living throughout the world are part of the Hungarian state and did not prevent the country from falling into debt or protect families from “debt slavery”.

In reply to the question of what’s next following the nation state, the liberal state and the welfare state, Mr. Orbán said that the Hungarian solution is the approaching era of a work-based state.

Hungary’s citizens are expecting Hungary’s leaders to develop a new kind of state organisation which, following the era of liberal state organisation, once again makes the Hungarian community competitive while respecting Christianity, freedom and human rights, he said.

DownloadThe Hungarian nation isn’t simply a group of individuals, but a community that must be organised, reinforced and constructed, the Prime Minister declared, adding that in this sense the new state that has been constructed in Hungary is not a liberal one.

The Prime Minister also mentioned the fact that a peculiar sector of Hungarian civil society is trying to prevent this kind of construction.

According to Mr. Orbán, the Norwegian Grants affair has also highlighted the fact that in the case of certain non-governmental organisations that are often in the public gaze, we are in fact “dealing with political activists who are being paid by foreigners”, who are attempting to enforce foreign interests in Hungary. This must be made clear during the reorganisation of the Hungarian state, the Prime Minister stressed at the Bálványos Free University.

“This is why it is extremely justified that the Hungarian Parliament has formed a Committee to regularly monitor, record and make public foreign influence”, he added.

The acquisition of the MKB Bank means that the ratio of Hungarian national ownership within the country’s banking system now exceeds 50 percent, Mr. Orbán pointed out, adding that the MKB should otherwise never have been sold to foreigners.

With relation to foreign currency debtors, he said “we are living in a world in which anything can happen, even that when the various court proceedings are over, the Hungarians could receive back from the banks hundreds of billions of forints that they should never have had to pay in the first place”.

At the end of his speech, the Prime Minister also pointed out that since we are living in a world in which anything can happen, there is also reason to fear an unsure future, but that future also holds a host of chances and opportunities for the Hungarian nation.

“Instead of fear, isolation and withdrawal, I recommend courage, thinking ahead and rational but courageous action for the Hungarian community of the Carpathian Basin, and in fact for the whole Hungarian community throughout the world. Since anything can happen, it could easily be the case that our time will come”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said, in reference to the motto of last year’s Summer Free University (“Our Time”).

(MTI / Prime Minister's Office)