Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has inaugurated the city of Szabadka’s newly renovated synagogue.
Joined by President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić, the prime minister said that it is “our moral duty to stand up for a Hungary and a Europe in which Jews and Christians can live and practice their religions without fear."
PM Orbán added that today we are living in times when “the past opens a gate towards a common future”, and this future must mean that Hungarians, Serbs and Jews can live together in peace and safety.
The prime minister also expressed gratitude to President Vučić, to Serbia and to Vajdaság. This future has already begun, he said, and “Hungarians and Serbs are writing it together”.
The prime minister also emphasized the importance of Christianity and preserving traditions and cultures.
“We must protect the accomplishments of the last eight years, as well as the greatness, the results and future of thinking as a nation and our Christian traditions in order to keep Hungary Hungarian,” he said.
PM Orbán said these were the main issues at stake in Hungary’s April 8th general election. “One issue at stake is whether Hungary will still have a nationalistic government in power, so that we don’t trade away the opportunities that our work over the past eight years has opened up for Hungarians in Vojvodina or elsewhere beyond the border,” he said.
The other issue at stake is one that concerns a deeper cultural problem, he said. PM Orbán said Europe was undergoing a major transformation, and many governments are bringing or helping migrants get to Europe. This is changing the continent’s traditional cultural image, he said.
“I think many would like to see the end of Christian Europe,” PM Orbán said. “And they think that if they replace the cultural subsoil and bring in millions belonging to groups whose roots are not in Christian culture, then they will transform Europe according to their mentality and this will make Europe better.”
“We don’t agree with this at all,” PM Orbán said. “We don’t want them to turn Europe into an immigrant continent and Hungary into an immigrant country. But if we end up with an internationalist government instead of a nationalistic one, then they will dismantle the fence protecting Hungary, approve Brussels’ diktat with which they want to settle migrants in Hungary, and Hungary’s transformation will be under way. This is a serious threat.”