In his address, PM Orbán first commented on world politics, saying that the balance of power in the world has shifted, and we are feeling the consequences. There are no permanent winners and permanent losers in world politics; current trends, however, are in favor of Asia, be it in economics, technology or military power, he stressed.
“We are moving toward a collision day by day,” he warned, adding that in the last three hundred years, there have been 16 cases of one world power being joined, or taken over, by another, 12 of them ending in war and only four ending peacefully. “The good news is that war is not inevitable,” he added: It is, however, dependent on the world being able to find a new equilibrium to replace the one that has shifted.
Setting a new balance will take a whole generation, PM Orbán said, and Hungarian plans should be shaped with this in mind.
Speaking about the European Union, the prime minister said the EU is “rich but weak, and sees a rebellious world around it.” EU policymakers believe that the sanctions have disconnected the Russian economy from the EU, he said, adding that Russia cannot, however, be cut off from the rest of the world, and in the meantime, the EU is losing competitiveness and suffering from inflation.
Another European process in which we must find our place in the coming years is the struggle between federalists and sovereigntists, empires or nations, the prime minister said. The federalists are attempting to squeeze out the sovereigntists. They have said that they want a change of government in Hungary, and they have been funding the opposition in various corrupt ways, but they have failed.
Prime Minister Orbán expressed hope that after the EP elections in June 2024, there will be a more favorable and balanced situation than we have now.
Europe has created its own political class, which is not accountable, it has no democratic or Christian convictions. “Because of this, we have no choice; we love Europe, we own it, but we have to fight,” PM Orbán said, adding that “We don't want everyone to have the same faith, the same family life, but we insist that we have a common culture, and we will defend it at all costs.”
Turning to domestic issues, he said that we entered a new era with both economic and intellectual foundations in 2010 and we must not lose sight of that. The government has been building a new economic system for 13 years, and “our plan was to have it serving Hungary by 2030,” he said, adding that “we are on track to meet our targets in this timeframe.”
The overall performance of the Hungarian economy has tripled in 13 years, PM Orbán stressed, and by 2030, the goal is to have a gross national product of HUF 160 trillion. The government also set the goal of achieving a reproduction rate of 2.1, he said, emphasizing that all public money should be pushed toward family policy.
Finally, PM Orbán mentioned the need to create an effective army, which is well on track and will soon reach the desired level.
Concluding his speech, the prime minister said the government is fighting to get the Hungarian economy back on a growth path in the wake of the two “meteoric crises” in recent years, COVID and the Ukraine war. It is also focused on building connections in the world economy, engaging in EU debates, persevering in intellectual matters, and remaining steadfast in national unification.