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PM Orbán: Freedom and patriotism are the two pillars of Hungary

Freedom and patriotism are the two great traditions of Hungarian politics, "the two great pillars of a thousand-year-old Hungary, and these two pillars are connected by the beam of loyalty," Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Tuesday just near the Austrian border in Sopron to commemorate the 100th Day of Loyalty.

At the time of the Treaty of Trianon, Hungary was in the grips of a political storm, the prime minister said, recalling that following the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the 1921 plebiscite, the majority of Sopron’s population decided to belong to Hungary. The city has been called “The Most Loyal Town” ever since, and the anniversary of the referendum is commemorated as the Day of Loyalty. In 1921, in a Hungary in a state of death, it was here that its heartbeat for the first time and has been beating ever since, today, faster and stronger than at any time in the last 100 years. He said that this was why people had come here to celebrate "the proud heart that has beaten uninterruptedly for a thousand years."

A hundred years ago, the situation was alarming, PM Orbán underlined, citing the lost war, the social and economic collapse, the Spanish flu epidemic, and the fact that two-thirds of the country and one-third of Hungarians were annexed to other countries. He said “we had to pay more than anyone else for the war,” adding that they even wanted to punish us because “we were Hungarians and we wanted to remain Hungarians,” trying to force millions to forget their past, their country, their language and their culture. He added that they wanted us to "become someone else, or if not, to simply become nothing and nobody." He stressed that a hundred years ago, our country was condemned to death, knocked off its feet, dismembered and then abandoned. But Sopron and the surrounding area sent a signal to the world that we will not be a part of our own funeral.

Today, as we are facing challenges yet again, we are in need of Sopron’s positive example, the prime minister pointed out. Today, war again looms in our neighborhood, millions of people are migrating from one continent to another, epidemics are taking their toll, energy crises are plaguing several countries, economies are collapsing overnight, and “the Goliaths” are once again abusing their power, “trying to tell us who we should be, who we should live with and how we should live,” he said.  They want us to forget our thousand years of history, our culture, and cut ourselves off from our Christian roots, he warned, emphasizing that the Clemenceau Plan is now called the Soros Plan, and what was once called the Paris Peace Conference has now become the United States of Europe. The Entente is now called an open society, multiculturalism and gender ideology. “What was then a physical occupation is now a spiritual one,” he said.

Furthermore, we are once again preparing for a referendum, “to say no to foreign plans that threaten Hungary’s future,” PM Orbán noted, highlighting that we want to protect our children from LGBTQ propaganda in the same way we protected Hungarian families from migrants. He said that the Constitutional Court has ruled that we have the right to say no to "the Brussels human experiments," to protect Hungary and secure the future of the country. “If we are strong and united, not only Sopron, but all of Hungary will vote together, and if we are lucky, perhaps the heart of Europe will also beat,” he said, adding that across Europe, they will see there are those who “dare to say no to the beautiful new world of Brussels.” They will see that it is worth fighting for and never giving up because “just as Sopron returned to its homeland, so can Europe return to Christian civilization," the prime minister said.

He also stated that over the past decade, the government has united the nation, given jobs to all who wanted to work, strengthened families, cut public utility prices, looked after those earning the least and protected the country from illegal migrants.

The outlook is also positive, he said: Next year, young people will be exempt from the income tax, families will get back their income tax paid this year, the minimum wage will continue to rise, and pensioners will get their 13th month pension back. He added that a modern defense force is being built, we have exportable businesses, and the entire Carpathian Basin is being connected by road and rail. “We suggest that Hungary should move forward, not backward,” PM Orbán said in conclusion.