Ladies and Gentlemen, Celebrating Hungarians,
My respect and greetings to you all. We are gathered here to salute and pay tribute to the heroes of the October Revolution of 1956. Today’s celebration is a special one, because we are joined by those who one month ago protected Hungary from the Danube floods. We are with those who kept within its banks a huge body of water which threatened flooding and destruction. Imagine a six-metre wall of water suddenly appearing out of nowhere – and not as a single tsunami-like wave, but a 400-kilometre-long water serpent. The work of the water management authority personnel, disaster management staff, soldiers, police officers and volunteers was superhuman. In other countries the disaster claimed twenty-four lives and caused more than 10 billion euros in damage. We did not lose a single human life, and we minimised the damage. We thank you, we thank you, we thank you!
Fellow Celebrants,
When danger approaches, when our country is in trouble, we must stand together. This is the law. We are a proud people – even a stubborn people. We will not tolerate any higher authority interfering in our life. But we obey the law of unity, because without unity we have neither security nor freedom. Without unity, the forces of nature would sweep us off our feet. Without unity, we would be ruled by foreigners, sooner or later we would be stripped of everything we have, and we would be consigned to debt slavery.
Fellow Commemorators,
The 1956 Revolution was preceded by a series of calamities. In January 1956 an earthquake shook the country, and in March icy waters flooded areas alongside the Danube. Adults and children died, hundreds of families were made homeless, and thousands of people were displaced. This signalled the urgent need to prepare for epic times that required unity. And after the Danube had broken its banks, in October 1956 history also broke its banks. Like a river in flood, when history is in flood it does not retreat for the afternoon, nor does it withdraw to a burrow for the night. It follows its own course, according to its own laws. This is when heroes are born. Shoemaker’s apprentices, factory workers and farmers become heroes; bookkeepers, kindergarten teachers and university students become martyrs. October 1956 saw the names of brave Hungarians inscribed in gold in the great history book of the nation.
Fellow Commemorators,
In the autumn of 1956 history broke its banks because Hungary could no longer tolerate the oppression of the Soviet empire. The Hungarians are a freedom-loving and freedom-fighting people. They resist the bridle, and it will only be a matter of time before they kick over the traces. The Hungarians have never been broken or tamed by any occupier. Soviet imperial oppression shackled and crippled us. It robbed and immiserated Hungarian families, and deprived them of the meaning of generations of work. It sought to put the resources of our country and the work of our people at the service of the empire, instead of the national interest. After a devastating world war, we were saddled with a puppet government – puppet government in which Hungarian collaborators sat. Their mandate was to transfer the wealth of Hungarians into foreign hands, and to put Hungarians’ work and vitality at the service of imperial interests.
My Friends,
Empires like to hide their brutal lineaments. Empires project an air of fastidiousness, and like to be invited in. And they will go to any lengths to have a Hungarian who will finally invite them in. So it was with the Soviet Union. They wanted their comrades, the Hungarian communists, to provide the puppet government, which would then ask the occupying Soviet troops to stay; and if the situation called for more occupying troops, they would call in reinforcements. They threw our non-communist leaders in jail on trumped up charges. They immobilised the Hungarians through intimidation, blackmail and violence. What displeased them, they closed down. What pleased them, they took over. And when the Hungarians defied them, they used electoral fraud to put their comrades in power. This is how they managed to foist Moscow cadres on the Hungarians. We know the rest: house-to-house expropriation of farm produce, internment camps, fear of late-night visits from the authorities, crippled lives, a forfeited Hungarian future.
They thought they had nicely arranged everything, when suddenly the writing appeared on the wall. A children’s saying, made threatening by its simplicity: “Don’t smile, Ilyich, it won’t last forever – in 150 years we didn’t become Turks.” The Hungarians will not tolerate humiliation – despite all the weapons of power ranged against them, despite the dominance of their opponent, despite the pressure of the world political situation. We embarked on the most dazzling fight for freedom in world history, so that every puppet government and every empire would understand once and for all, and never forget it. “Harm not the Hungarians” is a lesson we taught them for life. The Soviets and their communist lieutenants understood the lesson. For the next thirty-four years they kept the dogs on a short leash, and eventually they simply went home. That is why we can stand here today, that is why we can be free today, and that is why today everyone around the world knows that Hungarians must be treated with respect. Gloria victis! Glory to the heroes!
Fellow Celebrants,
Today history is once more about to break its banks. Once more the writing is on the wall. We see the signs. In the year ahead we must keep history, not the water, within its banks. This is because war is raging in a country neighbouring us. This is the war’s third year, and it is getting bloodier and more bitter. No one knows how long it will last. Hundreds of thousands have already died on the battlefronts. The European economy has also been shot in the lungs, untold amounts of money are being sent to Ukraine, development has stopped, prices are skyrocketing, and European businesses are suffering. Sanctions are bleeding us dry and investors are migrating from Europe to America, while European leaders are beguiled by the illusion of victory in war. The belligerents have been in deadlock for three years, the bloodshed continues, and the chances of the war spreading are increasing. And if it spreads, who knows where it will stop. This is the closest we have been to a world war in the past seventy years.
Everyone sees it, but everyone pretends not to see it. The Emperor has no clothes. The time has come to say it: the European leaders, the Brussels bureaucrats, have led the West into a hopeless war. In their heads, dizzy with the hope of victory, this war is the West’s war against Russia, which they must win, bring the enemy to its knees, and wring from it whatever they can. This is their grand collective goal. Now they want to openly drag the entire European Union into the war in Ukraine. The new victory plan has been made public. The victory plan is to extend the war. The plan is to invite Ukraine into NATO immediately. The theatre of war will be moved to Russian soil. Part of the plan is that, having won on the Eastern Front, Ukraine will undertake to replace the Americans and guarantee the security of the whole of Europe with its own reinforced army. In other words, we Hungarians would wake up one morning to once again find Slavic soldiers from the East stationed on Hungarian territory. We do not want that! But every day the pressure from Brussels is getting stronger, both on the country and on the government. We Hungarians must also decide whether we want to go to war against Russia.
According to our political opponents, we must go to war. For them, the lesson of 1956 is that we must fight for Ukraine – and indeed in Ukraine. For us, the lesson of 1956 is that there is only one thing we can fight for: Hungary and Hungarian freedom. The most we can now do for Hungary and Hungarian freedom is to not take part in other people’s wars. The most we can do is to not allow our country to be turned into a military staging area, and to preserve Hungary’s freedom, peace and security. Let us not bury our heads in the sand. Let us face reality. If we allow it to continue, this war will cripple the entire European economy and ruin millions of families. Let us not allow it, My Friends!
Fellow Commemorators,
To Brussels, independent Hungarian policy is unacceptable. Let us face that fact. Therefore Brussels has announced that it will get rid of Hungary’s national government. They have also announced that they want to impose a Brusselite puppet government on the country. Here again is the old question: Shall we bow to the will of a foreign power, this time the will of Brussels, or shall we resist it? This is the weighty decision that now faces Hungary. I recommend that our voice should be as clear and unequivocal now as it was in ‘56.
We shall not take part in any imperial contest, and we do not want to take part in the feuds of others. We do not believe in ideologies based on projects for global happiness – whether those ideologies come from the East or the West. We want only one thing: to live in peace here in the Carpathian Basin, according to our own rules, and in pursuit of our own prosperity. A hundred times over we have proven that we are not afraid of being blackmailed by the empire of the day. We know that they want to force us into war. We know that they want to force their migrants on us. We know they want to put our children in the hands of gender activists. We know that they have chosen their puppet government. They have the party they want to force upon us. They have their man for it, a real yes-man. The ideal candidate to head up a puppet government.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
‘56 was a freedom fight, Hungary’s freedom fight against a world empire. As it was against the Ottomans at Nándorfehérvár/Belgrade or against Vienna in 1848, so it was in 1956 against Soviet troops. David and Goliath. Those who are patriots today are still fighting for Hungarian freedom. But in 2024 cutting a hole in the middle of the Hungarian flag does not make someone a patriot. Throwing a Molotov cocktail does not make someone a ‘56-style hero. A freedom fighter is not made by their clothes, and a freedom fighter is not made by their spiel. What counts is what they do. And actions speak for themselves. The whole country has seen who did what in the European Parliament. We defended Hungarian interests and Hungarian freedom against the imperialist policies of the European Union. Meanwhile the Hungarian opposition offered its services to the empire. It is a national tradition of the Right to defend the family, to defend the homeland. It is an internationalist tradition to betray the homeland and betray the family. Old opposition, new opposition: all that changes are the labels. This new one does what the old one did. It calls on foreigners to help it against the Hungarians – in 1956 it called on Moscow’s leaders, today it calls on Brussels’ leaders. The new leader of the opposition is sitting at their table, next to Manfred Weber. This is not a conspiracy theory, it is a conspiracy in practice, in front of the country and the world. A new 21st-century love story. The Brussels master scratched the dog’s head, and the rest was there for all to see. The love was in full flow! This is their tradition, Dear Friends! In the duel between David and Goliath, they somehow always side with Goliath. But they always forget one thing: the end of the story. Because the end of this story is always the same: Goliath loses, David wins. Then they can pack up and clear off: Bela Kun and co. to Vienna; Rákosi and co. to Moscow; and the current lot to Brussels.
My Friends,
In 1956 there was unity, there was a common will, but the strength was not enough for sovereign action. Today there is strong national unity behind the government of the Right. There is a common will. And today unity and will are accompanied by strength. Today there is the opportunity for sovereign action, and I promise you that we shall take it. To be Hungarian is to fight. This is what the heroes of ‘56 taught us. This is what the heroes of ‘56 demand of us. We shall not tolerate Hungary being turned back into a puppet state, a vassal of Brussels. They shall not succeed. They shall not break through here. We will win, they will lose. We Hungarians can do it and shall do it. We shall do it again.
Glory to the Hungarian heroes of ‘56! God above us all, Hungary before all else! Go Hungary, go Hungarians!