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Speech by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on the night of Hungary’s local government and European Parliament elections

10 June 2024, Budapest

Good evening everyone.

It would be fitting to wait another hour for the final results of the Budapest mayoral election, but our tank is running low, and if we do n’t speak to those who are still awake at home now, when that result comes in we can speak, but there will be no one listening to us. So please forgive us that discourtesy. 

First of all I would like to thank all the voters in Hungary who decided to go to the polls today in this double election: the European Parliament and municipal elections. The turnout in Hungary was 57 per cent. Democracy is well, thank you very much! This is a good record, but democracy is not only doing well here in Budapest, but also in Romania: I congratulate the RMDSZ [the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania], who, in a fierce fight, achieved the 5 per cent needed to get in. I salute Hunor Kelemen and his people. As for our own affairs, here in Budapest and in Hungary, two elections were held today – both of which we won. Moreover, we have won important victories in a difficult battle in a wartime situation. What we know is that there are twenty county assemblies in Hungary, including Budapest; and we won all of them. We lost three county-level cities and won four county-level cities. Overall, we came out of this well. As far as Budapest is concerned, we will have to wait and see, but it is safe to say that Alexandra [Szentkirályi] was right: the only chance of getting rid of the present Mayor of Budapest was the decision she made. I very much hope that luck and God will be with us in the next hour. As far as the Budapest districts are concerned, we have lost one district and we have won one district – we have won back one district: that is our balance sheet for Budapest.

The message and political content of the European Parliament election can be summed up as follows: today the people of Hungary have sent a clear message that they want peace. If they have to choose between war and peace they choose peace, and the pro-peace policy of the Government has been affirmed. As head of the Government, I can guarantee that, with this mandate behind it, the Government shall redouble its efforts in the fight to keep Hungary out of the war. To sum up the results of the European Parliament elections, we can send the following telegram to Brussels: “Migration. Stop. Gender. Stop. War. Stop. Soros. Stop. Brussels. Stop.” It is important that we never lose faith in there being a kind of moral equilibrium in the world after all, a kind of moral balance. And so let us note that God has a sense of humour, because in the year of the Paris Olympics he has written Momentum out of Hungarian history. Another important lesson from the European election is that, if you look at the scoreboard, you can see that the Hungarian people have made this clear: those who turn against their country in Brussels will be punished. They do not want those who work against their country; all those have been voted down.

And finally, I would like to thank the Fidesz and KDNP activists for the fantastic work they have done over the past sixty days – and especially in the last few days. Saturday’s Day of One Million Meetings will remain a Hungarian, and perhaps European, record for a long time – but perhaps no longer than two years. They have done a fantastic job, so I must say a few words to them. As the President of the winning party, the message to our supporters, our volunteers, our activists, our supporters, our “street fighters”, is that today we have defeated the old opposition, and today we have defeated the new opposition. And no matter what the opposition of the day is called, we will always defeat them, again and again.

God above us all, Hungary before all else! Go Hungary, go Hungarians!