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PM Orbán: Nation states gave Europe its strength

“We would have never thought,” Prime Minister Orbán said, that 29 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, Europe – once again – has to face a massive challenge. This time, it’s not “an external military threat, American or Russian endeavors that put Europe’s future in jeopardy,” but it’s Europe itself. This is why “we have to vote for the future of patriotism and national pride,” the PM said.

Speaking to a crowd of thousands in front of the House of Terror Museum on the 62nd anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán invoked the memory of the heroes of ’56 as he talked about the imperialistic ideas that almost led to the destruction of Europe and drew a link between that freedom fight and the European Parliamentary elections coming next May.

The freedom fighters of 1956, the prime minister said, made a rational decision to rise up against Soviet occupation. “On one side there was the despondency that came from a certain deterioration, while on the other the opportunity that may very well be the last one. They had to risk it and they did. They did it in a way only Hungarians can: with death-defying courage, leaving our bad debates behind, in complete unity and a whole heart,” the prime minister said. 

“They were the lads of Pest, who never got anything from their homeland, but sacrificed everything for it,” Orbán added.

Once we got rid of the Soviets, he continued, we thought we could take a break. But now, 29 years after the liberation of nation states, it’s not “an external military threat, American or Russian endeavors that put Europe’s future in jeopardy,” but it is Europe itself. 

With a blunt reference to the leaders of today’s EU, Prime Minister Orbán said that “currently Brussels is ruled by those who want to replace the union of nation states with a European empire,” and – as we know from history books – it was never the nation states that led Europe on a path towards self-destruction, but imperialistic ideas.

“All of those who want to transform the European Union into a European empire are supporters of migration,” the PM said, adding that these people want an EU that is governed by Brussels bureaucrats instead of the elected leaders of the member states. “Europe is the home of nation states,” he said, “not a melting pot.”

Next May’s European Parliamentary elections will decide the future of Europe. “We, Hungarians, can’t stay quiet. Let’s refuse the idea of globalism and promote the culture of patriotism,” he said to the crowd that stretched for blocks down Budapest’s spectacular Andrássy Boulevard.

“We believe that every nation is unique and each one can shine over a certain part of this world in its own manner,” Prime Minister Orbán said, adding that this is the very idea for which Hungarians rose up in 1956.

“Let’s vote for the future of patriotism and national pride,” the Hungarian premier concluded.