Everyone knows that the Russians will come to an agreement with the Americans, Orban said. At the same time, the Europeans' problem is that they have declared the Russian president a war criminal, and therefore it is difficult for them to meet him, he added.

The US president has never done this so he can meet the Russian president any time, Orban said.

The Europeans are suffering from the fact that even though everyone feels that a direct European-Russian summit would be needed, "but how can this happen after what the Europeans have said and done," he asked.

He went on to say that since Donald Trump has been president of the United States, great things have been happening in a matter of two days.

The decision on the Middle East peace summit - and the situation in the Middle East is a more complicated and historically more fraught than the war in Ukraine - was made at midday on Saturday, and by Monday afternoon there were signings, and half the world was there. So meetings can be held in a matter of two or three days, Orban said.

He said that the financing of the war in Ukraine by the EU was becoming increasingly reluctant.

He added that the Europeans would rather be free from this burden by now, but they have become involved in the war to such an extent that it is now very difficult to "come back" from this atmosphere of war psychosis.

In politics, once you are on a track, it is impossible to get off it without people questioning you, Orban said. Losing a war or admitting the possibility of losing a war and therefore changing course is extremely complicated, he said.

The Americans could not do it either, Biden knew very well that they had got it wrong, but they still could not change course, Orban said.

America was able to change its stance on Ukraine because a new president came, who was able to say that what had happened was done by someone else, I am the new president and we will do something different now, and they accept it from a new president, he added.

But things are different in Europe, here, those who made the mistakes would have to review the policy followed so far, he said.

On the message of the Peace March to Brussels, Orban said every event of such convincing power and overwhelming size carries the message that what he represents in Brussels is not the position of the prime minister of the Hungarian government, but it is a position backed by the people.

He said it was obvious that it was pointless to put him under pressure and corner him. Hungarians do not want what the EU leaders in Brussels want, and if they do not want it, they will resist.

"If they have enough courage and strength, and the commemoration of the 1956 uprising is about the fact that Hungarians have enough courage and strength, we cannot be treated as a slave nation," Orban said.

He said the October 23 national holiday was beautiful and uplifting. Everyone is approaching the October 23 rallies from a political perspective, but this is a national holiday, when the heroes of 1956 are commemorated, he added.

October 23 - Orban: 'We will not go to war and die for Ukraine, but live for Hungary'

"We will not go to war and die for Ukraine, but live for Hungary," Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a commemoration of the 1956 anti-communist uprising and revolution in Budapest on Thursday, calling the pro-government Peace March "Europe’s most important political movement".

Declaring that the crowd assembled in front of Parliament "can be seen even from outer space", the prime minister told participants of the Peace that they were "perhaps the largest national patriotic movement in Europe capable of defending the country against the liberal zeitgeist and the oppressors in Brussels".

"You have been able to keep Europe's only Christian conservative and nationally minded government in power for sixteen years, and who knows how much longer,"  Orban told the mass gathering organised by the pro-government COF-COKA organisation. "You have successfully defended Hungary's borders and are keeping our country the only migrant-free country in Europe."

"You were the only ones who were able to defend your families against the entire Brussels snake pit, to drive LGBTQ activists out of schools and protect your children from ideas and teachings that go against nature and the order of creation," Orban said.

He said "millions of Europeans today from Portugal to Germany and Lithuania" wanted such a political force and movement for themselves, and would "give an arm" to have a country free of migrants. The would "give years of their lives to … drive the crazy gender activists out of schools."

"They would give everything they have just to have a free, Christian and patriotic country again," Orban said.

"We didn't have to give an arm of years of our lives, neither did we have to offer everything we have for a normal country, because you all woke up in time, you were sensible and brave, and you stood up and persevered," he said, thanking the crowd.

He said the participants of the march had again taken to the streets of Budapest, dressing the city up in a dignified ceremonial procession. "You have brought flags, faith and hope with you, just as you did on October 23, 1956," he added.

But unlike then, he said, "today there are no guns firing, only songs being sung; no blood is being shed, only flags being waved." "Hungarian hearts are beating as one, and we remember the young men and women, the workers and mothers of Pest who did not want to be heroes, but were just defending their wounded homeland."

"Today we show the world that Hungary doesn’t forget, it doesn't let go of the hands of its heroes, and is always ready to create new ones and send them into battle," Orban said.

"We Hungarians have always made more history than we needed. There was plenty for others, too," he said. "When Hungarian hearts start to beat, the whole world can hear that. It heard it in 1956 and trembled."

"World communism was shaken, Budapest set an example to captive nations and signalled hope for those under oppression. It loosened the chains of fear on souls, and showed the world that freedom was not a gift or grace but an acquired right," he said.

Communism would never have fallen without Hungarians, Orban said. "Without the Hungarian 1956, there would have been no 1968 [revolution] in Prague or Polish Solidarity, the Berlin Wall would not have fallen, and the ceiling of the Socialist world order would not have caved in in 1990," he said.

He said the world had changed drastically over the last 69 years, but the one thing that had not and could not change was principles. "Principles can't change, because the spirit of the revolution lives on not in battle, but in the self-respect of Hungarians," the prime minister said.

He said 1956 was the celebration of human dignity, and a universal humane message, and all peoples had earned the right to live in freedom and dignity. 

"We are proud that we fought for the entire free world in 1956. Yet we were abandoned and left to fend for ourselves -- as always -- when things got serious," he said. "1956 is proof that we Hungarians gave more to the world than what the world gave us."

"Since 1956, everyone knows that there is a nation on Earth for whom freedom is written into their soul: that nation is us," he said. "Those who failed to learn this in 1956 could learn it based on the last 16 years."

The prime minister greeted the heroes of 1956, whom he called "the persistent wanderers of freedom", and the last generation that had shed its blood for Hungarian liberty.

Orban said that 69 years ago Hungarians were threatened by a level of oppression they had never faced before. Back then, he said, a foreign power "wanted to conquer the souls of the Hungarians, destroy their national identity, lie about their past, and force its distorted ideals on them."

That was why Hungarians had to take up arms and why they had to "rise up again and again when foreigners want to force us to live a certain way".

Hungarians, Orban said, did not ask for much from life, but were satisfied with freedom. "If there's freedom, there is everything; and anything is possible. We'll take care of the rest," he said, adding that Hungarians were indifferent to "praise, rewards, prizes or certificates".

They did not want to conquer, build empires, or tell others how to live, he said. Neither did they pursue worldly glory, "but they will take on a mission for the sake of a just cause", Orban said.

"Anyone can make iron rings out of wood or bacon out of dogs if they want -- it's their business; we'll have nothing to do with it. We only ask for one thing, and insist: leave us in peace," the prime minister said.

"We recognise only one freedom: the freedom of Hungarians. This is ours, we cling to it, and we have the means to defend it, no matter how global powers or pathetic Brussels -- which fancies itself a global power -- threaten us," he said.

"We do not kneel, and we always have a few masterstrokes up our sleeve," he remarked, adding: "The Governor’s Council has already slunk away from here, the Soviets left, the IMF was sent packing, and the pro-migration Brussels crowd has slunk off. None of them could swallow us. We stuck in their throats, and they should be grateful they got off so lightly."

Orban said Brussels had decided to go to war, and the pro-war countries had already formed a war alliance. "This war alliance is referred to -- with unparalleled elegance -- as a coalition of the willing," he said. "They're willing to send others to die," the prime minister said.

"They are ready to send even more weapons and even more money to Ukraine. They have declared the Ukraine-Russia war their own war, and by doing so, they have entered the conflict, and are up to their necks in it."

Orban said that if Brussels "wasn't hindering the US president's peace mission, the war would already be over".

"Everyone knows that if Donald Trump had been president [at the time], the war would not have broken out. And if they weren't hindering him, there would already be peace," the prime minister said.

"Hungary has taken its position on the side of peace," the prime minister said. The war in Ukraine "is not our war", he declared.

Orban said Transcarpathian Hungarians should not be involved in the war either. 

"We'd like to send you a message from here: we haven't forgotten you; we are with you, we count you among us and we are helping your families," he said. "Only the country has borders, not the nation, and no Hungarian is alone," he added.

Orban said tens of thousands were falling on the battlefield. The number of widows, orphans and parents who had lost their children was already "in the starry sky", he said.

"Although this war is not ours, our lives, too, are weighed with suffering. The war is blocking European and Hungarian economic growth. They have already ploughed 185 billion euros into this hopeless war, and now they are trying to pull further tens of billions from the pockets of Europeans, including Hungarians," Orban said.

"European people's money is flowing into Ukraine without accountability, and in return, we get high energy prices, wartime inflation, economies on the brink of collapse, and padlocks on the gates of once world-famous European factories," Orban said.

"As long as the war continues, there will be no economic growth in Europe," he added, calling it a miracle that Hungary was capable of running Europe's largest home-creation programme and its largest tax-cutting revolution in parallel.

Meanwhile, he said: "Brussels has run out of money, which is why they want to raise taxes, tax pensions, and eliminate the regulated utilities price scheme," adding that "they want us to pay reparations."

The prime minister insisted that this was also the reason why Brussels "wants to squeeze Ukraine into the European Union at all cost". "They want to bring the war to Europe and hand the money over to Ukraine."

He said this was an example of "old colonial logic" which was about "dividing weakened countries so as not to miss out on the spoils". "They talk about supporting Ukraine, but the partition of Ukraine is already on the agenda," he said.

Orban said Brussels saw the billions in aid given to Ukraine as an investment. 

"War is an opportunity for them: taking over a country and dividing it up is cheapest in wartime," he said, adding that "Ukraine has long since ceased to be a sovereign, independent or autonomous country" and its fate was now in the hands of others.

The prime minister declared: "Ukrainians treat Hungarians poorly", adding that this included those in Transcarpathia and Hungary itself. "Even so, Hungary is helping them to make peace, because Christian morality and common sense demand it."

"We're the only country in Europe where peace can be struck and brought under a roof, and we are ready for it!"

Orban recalled that Hungary had once lacked the strength to avoid war, noting that in the first world war Hungary lost 660,000 lives, and 850,000 in the second world war. 

"That's 1.5 million people -- had they not perished, and had their children and grandchildren been born, we would not have to worry about population decline today. This must never happen again. We could not stay out of the first and second world wars, but we will stay out of this one."

"We are now a strong and sovereign nation with dignity, preserving itself and its future, no matter how the traitors scream 'Slava Ukraini!'," he said.

"All our response will be is: Glory to Hungary!" he said.

"Those saying 'no' to the war are with us. Hungarians want peace. Hungarians want to live. We will not give our money or our weapons; we will not go to war or die for Ukraine, but we will live for Hungary," Orban declared.

The prime minister told the commemoration of the 1956 anti-communist uprising that the five months before the general election should be spent "talking to misguided Hungarians". Hungary, he said, would "decide its fate" in the next five months.

"And since we can't let go of a single soul, and since every Hungarian is responsible for every single Hungarian, we must speak to those who are misguided."

Many think they are on the good side when supporting "Brussels and the puppet government sent from Brussels", he said.

"We must tell them that Brussels today is no help but the threat itself. The European People's Party is not our friend but our ill-wishers. Brussels and their Hungarian agents are bringing war to Hungary rather than progress," he said.

Those who were "deceived" and backed a change in government in fact supported "Brussels bureaucrats who want to force the migration pact on the country and turn Hungary into an immigration country."

"They think they support a change of government, but in fact they're backing the war, the migration pact, tax hikes, taxes on pensions, abolishing utility price caps and family support," he said.

Addressing the young people in the crowd, the prime minister said: "The Brussels empire wants you to be rootless Europeans."

He said the world had changed, with digital and virtual spaces "replacing reality", and it was hard to tell what was manipulation and what was real.

Is there even a reality anymore? We believe that real things exist."

"Hungary and your homeland are real, as is the freedom our grandparents fought and died for, which is under attack," he said.

Orban declared that "our peace, freedom, and security are at stake; this is the real world."

"Everyone, including you, is needed to defend Hungary," he said.

"Defending the homeland is a just cause: it's not manipulation, not a sham, not deception."

"If you want your actions to be weighty and serious, stand by the just cause and get started. Live and act, take the risk. Defend what is most noble," he urged.

Orban said the "Brussels empire" wanted young people to remain in the virtual world and "stay asleep hooked up to a machine".

"It's time to rise up," he declared, adding that young Hungarians could also be patriots.

"You can be free and proud Hungarians, but first you must disconnect from the machine and toss the Brussels IV line," he said.

"Wake up and rebel, your country is waiting for you."

Meanwhile, Orban said Hungarians were "once again left with two choices". While in 1956 the nation had to "choose between freedom and servitude, today we have to decide between war and peace", he declared, adding that "Hungary stands in the way of Brussels' warmongers."

"In 1956, they came with tanks; today, they are coming at us with financial sanctions," Orban said.

Just as they found their puffed-up collaborators back then, today they have their slim-fit supporters of the Brussels master plan."

Orban said: "The good news is that Hungarians now have a choice."

Referring to Italy, Slovakia, Czechia and Poland, Orban said there were more and more people who advocated for peace.

"The president of the United States is with us; the ground is shaking under the feet of the European liberal elite," he added.

"And we are here, too," he said, emphasising that while in 1956 Budapest had been the capital of European freedom, in 2025 it was the capital of European peace.

Orban said that though cooperation among the European nations was "the greatest idea of the past centuries", it had led to "oppression by Brussels".

"It's impossible to reach an agreement with them," he said.

"Those who deal with Brussels have submitted. They've submitted to migration and the war plans. There's no middle ground. 'Yes' to the European Union, 'no' to Brussels."

He said that next year they would have to show the world that "there's a nation in the heart of Europe that isn't afraid to walk its own path, doesn't give in to blackmail and doesn't back down in the turbulence of history."

"That nation is us, Hungarians, the wanderers of freedom," the prime minister said.

"And as long as we're here on this square, and as long as there's a single Hungarian left on Earth, there will be someone to say that there will be peace here because we want peace, and there will be freedom because we were born for freedom."

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.

Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.

XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com

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