Orbán said the revolution had shown that “we must only ever fight for Hungary and Hungarians’ freedom.” He said Hungary was again faced with “an old choice” of whether to “bow to the will of foreigners, the will of Brussels” or to resist it. “This grave decision awaits Hungary right now,” he added. “Our response must be as clear and unambiguous as it was in 1956,” he declared.
Orbán said Hungary would not take part in struggles between empires. “We want one thing only, to live in peace here in the Carpathian Basin … according to our rules while seeking our own happiness.” Hungarians, he said, had proven “a hundred times” that they would not give in “if the current empire blackmails them.” Referring to the opposition Tisza Party and its leader Peter Magyar, the prime minister added that Brussels had already chosen their puppet government, “and they have just the man … an ideal candidate” to head it. Noting the recent debate in the European Parliament concerning Hungary’s EU presidency, Orbán said it was clear to the entire country that the government had defended Hungarian interests and freedom “against the imperial policy of the European Union,” while the Hungarian opposition had “offered its services to the empire.”
Orbán Takes Dig at Weber
He said protecting family and country was “a right-wing national tradition,” while “betraying family and country” was in “the internationalist tradition,” adding that “the new opposition is doing the same as the old one: inviting foreigners” into the country to run it. Orbán then noted that in the story of David and Goliath, many sided with Goliath but in the end “David wins.” He said Béla Kun, the Hungarian communist revolutionary who governed the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, went to Vienna, while Mátyás Rákosi, who led Hungary from 1947 to 1956, went to Moscow; “and the current ones have gone to Brussels.” The prime minister accused Tisza Party leader Péter Magyar of “sitting at their table beside” European People’s Party leader Manfred Weber, which he called “a real conspiracy taking place before the country and the world … a new 21st century love story.”
He said opposition figures who cut a symbolic hole in the middle of the Hungarian flag “won’t make you a patriot in 2024.” “Throwing a Molotov cocktail doesn’t make you a hero of fifty-six. It’s not the clothes that make a freedom fighter … only actions matter, and actions speak for themselves.” Orbán said the 1956 revolution had created unity and a common will but had lacked the strength necessary to take sovereign action. “Today, the right-wing government has the backing of strong national unity, a common will and strength,” he said. “Today, there’s an opportunity to take sovereign action, and I promise you that we shall use it.”
“We shan’t allow Hungary to be turned into a puppet state, a vassal of Brussels,” Orbán declared. Orbán said the 1956 revolution had created unity and a common will but had lacked the strength necessary to take sovereign action. “To be Hungarian means to fight; this is the message and the demand of the heroes of fifty-six.” “We Hungarians can and will do it. We will do it again,” Orbán said.
At the beginning of his speech, the prime minister thanked special guests invited to the event who helped to protect the country during the recent floods, adding that disaster managers, soldiers, police, and volunteers had been “superhuman.”
In 1956, Hungarians were no longer willing to suffer Soviet oppression, and “history left its course,” Orbán said. “Hungarians are a freedom-loving and freedom-fighting people,” Orbán said, declaring that no occupier had succeeded in taming Hungarians. The Soviet Union’s imperialistic oppression had “shackled and immiserated Hungarians, who suffered under a puppet government,” one that comprised “Hungarian collaborators tasked with passing Hungarians’ goods into foreign hands and putting Hungarians’ work and life force into the service of imperial interests.”
He said that empires preferred to be invited in and “will do everything to guarantee there’s a Hungarian who calls them in.” The Soviet Union wanted a Hungarian Communist puppet government to beg Soviet troops to stay in the country, he said. Non-communists were imprisoned on trumped-up charges, and Hungarians cornered by fear-mongering, blackmail, and violence, he said. “They imprisoned those they didn’t like, took what they did, and put their comrades in power using election fraud.” But Hungarians, he added, did not “tolerate humiliation,” and Soviet forces ultimately left the country, he added.
“All puppet governments and empires should understand and never forget that we waged the brightest freedom fight of world revolutions. We taught them forever: never hurt Hungarians,” he said. Today, “the writing is on the wall again, we can all see the signs, and we will have to keep history … on its proper course in this coming year,” Orbán said. The war in Hungary’s neighborhood, he said, had been raging for three years, “bloodier and more desperate” than ever, “and no one knows how long it will last.” Hundreds of thousands, he added, had perished on the frontline, while Europe’s economy “has taken a fatal blow” as “uncounted money” was poured into Ukraine.
“Developments have stalled, prices are sky-high, and European companies are suffering.” Meanwhile, EU sanctions harmed Europe more than Russia, with investors fleeing to the US, he said. “The world is closer to a world war than ever in the past 70 years,” Orbán said. “Everyone pretends not to see that the emperor has no clothes.” He said Europe’s leaders, “the Brussels bureaucrats,” had led the West into a “hopeless war.” “Their heads are addled by the hope of victory and they see this as the West’s war against Russia that they have to win, bring the enemy to its knees and squeeze them for everything they’ve got.”
Orbán said attempts were being made to push the entire EU into the war. “They have published the new victory plan which amounts to expanding the war,” he added. Orbán said the victory plan involved an immediate NATO invitation for Ukraine and to move the war onto Russian territory, he said. Also, after the “victory on the eastern front,” Ukraine would take over America’s role in ensuring European security with its own, reinforced army, he said. “We Hungarians could wake up one day to having Eastern, Slavic troops on our soil again. We don’t want that,” Orbán said.
Pressure Growing, Orbán Says
Pressure from Brussels was growing on Hungary and its government, Orbán said. “We Hungarians also have to decide whether we want to go to war against Russia.” “Our political opponents think that we should: they say the moral of 1956 was that we should fight for Ukraine; indeed in Ukraine.” “For us, 1956 has shown that we should only ever fight for Hungary and Hungarian freedom.” The best way to do that now “is to stay out of others’ wars and not allow Hungary to become the marching ground,” and to preserve the country’s peace, freedom, and security, Orbán said.
“Let’s not put our heads in the sand! Let’s face the reality! Europe’s entire economy will be broken by this war, and millions of families will be ruined if we allow this to continue. Let’s not allow this, my friends!” “Glory to the Hungarian heroes of fifty-six, God above us, Hungary before all else, go Hungary, go Hungarians,” Orbán concluded.