Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that Hungarians must own up to their successes in the same way they own up to the failures to help build a better nation.
The prime minister made the remarks during his speech at the official opening ceremony of the National Basketball Academy in Pécs.
PM Orbán highlighted that in Hungarian public life and in sports leadership there is “a kind of obligatory false modesty”, and “when we succeed, we are expected to act as if we were less than what we really are”. He said that if there is something and someone to be proud of, then we truly should be proud.
Speaking about the basketball academy, the prime minister said there is nowhere quite like it anywhere else in the country. He added that it was a privilege to attend the inauguration of ambitious plans for the future.
The prime minister pointed out that Pécs has a past tradition of basketball, but the “triumphal march” truly began when László Rátgéber – the “daredevil” of Hungarian basketball – came to the city. He noted that high-quality academies can only be built around great personalities.
In this vein, the prime minister revealed that work has begun with kayaker Katalin Kovács, and there are plans of developing and agreement with swimmer Katinka Hosszú.