While the country is undergoing an important phase of transformation, thoughts of great things are conceived not only in Budapest. One of the prime examples of this is the possibility created for distilling home-made ‘pálinka’, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated in Becsehely, Zala County.

At the event celebrating the tenth anniversary of free home pálinka distilling, the Prime Minister said this thought was conceived in the countryside in 2010 when “with a two-thirds constitutional revolution, we created an opportunity for ourselves to change everything that we thought fit or necessary to be changed”.

The announcement made in Parliament in September 2010 “featured great things,” from the bank levy to the taxation of multinational corporations, and based on the recommendation of Member of Parliament Zsolt V. Németh, the possibility for free home pálinka distilling was incorporated into this 29-point programme, the Prime Minister highlighted.

“Things that are conceived at grassroots level in life in Hungary, and then recorded, fostered and presented to decision-makers are those that prove to be enduring and important,” Mr Orbán said, encouraging attendees “not to wait to be told from above what they should do, when and how”.

“They should gather together and pass on to their representatives in Parliament everything that is important, everything that is related to the preservation of all things essential for local life, all things that are worth carrying forward with us to the future and handing down to our children,” the Prime Minister said.

He described the case of free home pálinka distilling as a prime example which is an example not only from the past, but also for the future. “A freedom fight is worthless if we only have a general, and no soldiers,” Mr Orbán stated.

(The Prime Minister / MTI)