Delivering his 22nd State of the Nation address this afternoon, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán talked about Hungarians’ need to finally think of themselves as a successful nation, the country’s recent economic growth, the 100-year anniversary of the Treaty of Trianon, family and climate policy, and the upcoming two years of “building up the country.”
Here are some highlights from the prime minister’s speech:
“It’s fortunate that I did not have to deliver a State of the Nation speech 100 years ago because this year the Trianon peace treaty will be 100 years old,” PM Orbán said at the outset of his remarks. While the “judgment was clearly a death sentence,” he added, “history has not recorded a nation that has survived such a loss of blood.” Asking how we have been capable of enduring these 100 years, the PM said that the answer is a short sentence, one that has helped us over the last ten years as well: “I believe in one homeland.”
According to Prime Minister Orbán, every success begins with the strengthening of self-respect. While in 2010 Hungary was at a crossroads, now, ten years later, we can safely say that “we did it”: We brought about a national constitution, sent the IMF packing and repaid its loans early, created 850,000 jobs, tackled freeloading, put our finances in order and recognized families appropriately.
“The last ten years have been the most successful in the last 100 years of Hungarian history,” PM Orbán said, citing an average 2.8 percent annual GDP growth rate since 2010 (and an average of 3.4 percent since 2013), tax reductions and a record-high foreign investment influx last year that foresees investments valued at 1.7 trillion forints. “The debate has been going on for ten years as to how they should evaluate our economic and social model,” PM Orbán said, adding that “one cannot even say in the liberal, Brussels euroblabla language what is happening in Hungary.”
Ironically, it was a government of former communists that made Hungary go bust with their liberal politics. “The liberal is nothing other than a communist with a diploma,” the PM noted.
Speaking about George Soros’s three attempts to plunder Hungary over the course of the last 30 years, Prime Minister Orbán said that the first time was in the early 1990s when Soros wanted to buy up all of Hungary’s state debt. “Gratitude and recognition to József Antall, who prevented that,” PM Orbán said.
Soros tried to rob Hungary yet again in 1994 when he tried to acquire the National Savings Bank, or OTP, which would have meant that essentially every Hungarian’s money would have been in one hand – but thanks and recognition go to Gyula Horn, who did not allow this.
“In 2015,” Orbán continued, “human trafficking groups disguised as human rights organizations allowed waves of migrants into Europe.” They were, of course, financed by George Soros.
Touching upon climate policy, a topic that has recently become “fashionable,” PM Orbán said that if we are “really concerned for the Earth, then it’s time we replace words with action.” Hungary, for example, will eradicate illegal dumping of waste beginning in July, prohibit the use of single-use plastics and protect our rivers from plastics flowing in from other countries. Also, PM Orbán announced that “with every new birth, we will plant ten trees.”
On the outcome of Hungary’s family protection action plan, PM Orbán said that according to Google Analytics, loans for families expecting babies (“babaváró hitel” in Hungarian) became the tenth most popular search term in Hungary. More than 100,000 have taken advantage of the loan. Meanwhile, the subsidized purchase of large, seven-seater family cars is up, ten new preschool places are created every working day and personal income tax exemptions for mothers with four children have already eased the burden on 40,000 families.
“The number of marriages is at a peak; the number of divorces has never been so low,” the prime minister stated, adding that the number of abortions is falling, too.
In conclusion, Prime Minister Orbán looked to the future saying that the next two years will be about “continuing to build up the country.” The achievements belong to the nation, he said, while the responsibility must be assumed by the government. “If the nation achieves, then the glory goes to the nation. If the nation achieves poorly, then we governed poorly.”
“Hungary before everything. The good Lord above everything. Go Hungary! Go Hungarians!” Prime Minister Orbán said in closing.