“We wanted to believe that the old woes could not return,” Orbán said. “We wanted to believe that the communists’ dream to turn us into Homo Sovieticus could never re-emerge. But now we are stunned to see the forces of globalisation prying at the door working to mould us Hungarians into Homo Brusselicus,” Orbán added.

“We also wanted to believe that we would never again have to deal with political, economic or ideological powers that seek to cut our national roots,” he said. Hungarians also wanted to believe that terror and violence “could never rear its head again in Europe”, Orbán added. But this was not the case, he said.

“Europe has been blinded by its past achievements and has fallen behind on the global stage without even noticing,” the prime minister insisted. “It dreamed of a global role but can barely maintain order on its own territory,” he said. But instead of acknowledging these problems, Europe has launched “revenge campaigns” against those who have pointed out the dangers of nihilism and giving up one’s ideology, Orbán insisted.

Those who said Europe’s external borders needed to be physically protected were labelled “pedants”, he said. “Those who said migration poses a threat to our culture were called racists. Those who spoke up in defence of Christianity were labelled discriminatory,” he said.

“Those who defended the notion of family were called homophobic, those who said Europe was an alliance of nations were called Nazis and those who departed from the swampy road of Brussels’ economic policy were called fantasists,” Orbán said.

The prime minister said that Europe had derailed to find itself heading towards a dead end, adding that the EU and many of the bloc’s member states “are being held hostage by a financial speculator empire”.

In the 20th century, trouble came in the form of “militant empires”, he said. Today, empires are rising in the shadow of globalisation, Orbán added.

“They have no borders, but have a global media network, as they also have tens of thousands of people paid to serve them. They act fast, they are strong and brutal,” the prime minister said. “What we want is a secure, fair, bourgeois, Christian, and free Europe,” the prime minister said.

On the subject of migration, Orbán said that the “financial speculator empire” had brought the “invasion of new immigrants” onto Europe. It was they who had put together the plan to transform Europe into a “mixed continent”, he insisted.

Orbán said central Europe would be at the focus of the struggle for the future of Europe, arguing that this was a “migrant-free zone” within the continent. “Until Brussels wins back its sovereignty, Europe’s steering wheel cannot be turned in the right direction,” he said.

Orbán said that all elections in Europe were now of “crucial” importance, and insisted that now was the time for Europe’s peoples to decide “if they take political control back over their national causes from European bureaucrats closely linked to business elites”.

“Many may still think that it is impossible,” he said, but added that in 1956, in 1988 and before 2010 people had not believed in the possibility of change, either.

Orbán insisted that “migration can be stopped, globalisation can be kept under control, Brussels could be reined in and the plans of a financial speculator could be thwarted”, but added that central Europe’s “Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Romanians, and Hungarians needed to join together”.

“The stakes are high; we cannot take anything lightly,” Orbán said. “We must never underestimate the power of the dark side,” he added.

Concerning Hungary’s general election next spring, Orbán voiced confidence that his Fidesz party
stood a good chance of winning the vote. He said, however, that “every voter will be needed” for an election victory.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Kovács Tamás