He said that despite the "thunders" that preceded last year's European Parliament elections, they had remained calm because they knew that "what matters is time, and the one thing that's constant in politics is change".

"We lost our president and our top MEP candidate, and the war was also looking increasingly worse," Orban said.

"But we also faced betrayal. It turned out that the road from the front row of this event to Mr. Weber's coffers in Brussels isn't that long," he said, referring to Peter Magyar, the leader of the opposition Tisza Party.

"One who betrays his friends also betrays his party," he said. "This kind of person will betray everyone right away. Why wouldn't he betray his country?"

The prime minister said 2024 had been a "nightmare". He noted that the former US ambassador to Hungary had "assumed leadership of the opposition", and Hungary had endured "shots from both Washington and Brussels" while "the agents of George Soros in Hungary were setting fire to haystacks and poisoning wells".

But, he added, Fidesz’s strength was in the loyalty of its community. "Those who don’t understand or feel the beauty of this are free to leave. In the end everyone will get what they deserve," he said.

Orban said that in politics there was no victory without suffering. "Pain is our friend, and then victory will compensate us for everything, it’s the best medicine," he said.

"We only have to wait 14 months for the next one," he said, referring to the 2026 general election.

Orban said that last year Fidesz had gone from the resignation of the president in February to the second biggest margin of victory in the European Parliament elections in June.

"The word patriot rings louder than ever in Brussels today, even though it takes death-defying courage to talk about patriotism there," he said.

Assessing the period between 2010 and 2025, Orban said "a handful of Hungarians have been fighting an empire on their own" for the last 15 years.

Orban said Hungarians had played their part in changing the world, far beyond what is warranted by the country's size, economic weight or population.

"We were the pioneers, vanguard and initiators of the uprising," he said.

"It was at times brutally difficult and sometimes seemed hopeless ... I am not talking about Fidesz or the government but Hungarians. The Hungarian nation was there behind us, one and all, all the way through," he said.

He praised Hungarians' "perseverance and determination". "They didn't give up, they didn't back down, they never said we should give in to Soros ... or surrender to Brussels," he said.

He thanked "all revolutionary Hungarians protecting their country against the empire with their diligence, work and obstinacy.

"I am grateful to serve such a nation," Orban said.

"We have given the country a new Christian national constitution, protected ourselves from migration, protected our children from gender activists, stood up for peace and stayed out of the war," Orban said.

"We have protected Hungary from Soros and his affiliates, protected forex debtors from banks and families from skyrocketing utility prices," he said, adding that the number of jobholders in Hungary was at a record 4.7 million.

"This year the struggle continues," he said. "We've been rebelling up until now, but now we also want to win."

"This year will be different: now we’re the ones on the main street of history, and our opponents are wandering the muddy suburban backroads," he said.

Commenting on this week’s meeting of European leaders in Paris, Orban said the EU was "outraged that the [peace] talks began without them and they want a seat at the table".

Orban said that after Hungary, the United States had also "revolted". He warned, at the same time, that Hungarians should not think that the US's "successful revolt" would secure "victory" for Hungary.

"They can't win for us, they can only improve our chances," he said, adding that US President Donald Trump was "not our saviour but our brother-in-arms".

"From Hungary's perspective, all that has happened was that in the battle of David and Goliath, David's brother has arrived and he seems like a pretty tough guy," Orban said.

"We've been given a chance to break out from a castle that's under siege … and break through the empire's positions," he said.

"Now is the time to think big and bold. So I propose that 2025 be a breakthrough year."

The prime minister warned, at the same time, that they "shouldn’t fall in love with last year’s success". "Though our opponents have been dealt a serious blow … it would be a mistake to underestimate them."

"We can only achieve a breakthrough with disciplined and planned military manoeuvres, even under these circumstances," he added.


Orban: Drug dealers destroy, kill children

Drug dealers turn other people’s children into "a mess" and eventually kill them, and they will not be shown mercy, Prime Minister Viktor Orban in a speech assessing the nation over the past year.

Orban expressed concern over data indicating a rise in drug dealing and use. "Something’s wrong here," he added.

He said the country was "flooded with cheap, toxic concoctions and synthetic drugs", adding that this had to be stopped "at all cost".

Orban said he will appoint a government commissioner to handle the matter, and the government will introduce a policy of zero tolerance. He said he has asked Interior Minister Sandor Pinter to order a "manhunt" against drug dealers.


Orban pledges to protect small localities, cash use

Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday pledged to protect cash use and small localities in a speech assessing the country over the past year.

The government approved a lawmaker's proposal to enshrine the right to use cash in the constitution, he said in the speech held in Varkert Bazaar in Budapest on Saturday, saying that the use of cash was "a matter of freedom ... not a habit but a right". 

"We don't want to be servants of banks. The bank card belongs to the bank, cash belongs to you," he said.

Meanwhile, Orban said: "I smell a fight coming over small localities' right to self-defence, whether they have a right to protect their village, rural lives and image and what tools they can be given to curb people moving there."

Orban: Substantial raise of basic food prices 'unacceptable'

Prime Minister Viktor Orban called it "unacceptable" that vendors and grocery chains have raised the price of basic foodstuffs considerably, boosting their own profits.

In a speech on the state of the country over the past year, Orban noted that the price of milk had risen by 39 percent in January, while eggs were 35 percent and cooking oil 11 percent dearer. 

"That is too much, that is unacceptable," he said in the speech held at the Varkert Bazaar..

Orban said he had instructed National Economy Minister Marton Nagy to strike a deal with the grocery chains to stop price hikes. "We will ask nicely. If that doesn't work, price caps will do the trick," he said.

Should they fail to reach an agreement, price caps will be introduced, he said. Should that not be enough, the government will limit profits from sales, he said.


Orban: Brussels 'only wants compliant govt in Hungary'

The European Union "only wants a compliant government in Hungary that doesn't build fences, doesn't tax multinational companies and banks, doesn't pass a child protection law, a 13th month pension and utility price caps but allows them to … plunder the country as they used to do," Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a speech assessing the nation over the past year.

In future, members of the European Parliament will have to submit the same asset declarations as members of the Hungarian parliament, Orban said.

"Let us not forget that our real opponent is not the Hungarian opposition but their paymaster. The Hungarian opposition is only following the orders of the imperial will that funds it..." Orban said.


Orban: Hungary to 'fight five great battles with Brussels bureaucrats'

"Five great battles await Hungary against Brussels bureaucrats," Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a speech assessing the country over the past year.

He said liberal networks were withdrawing to Brussels, and "there are things Hungary can't budge on".

Hungary will not suffer the migration pact "which Brussels would use to direct migrants here". "We will not stop protecting our children", he said, proposing to enshrine in the constitution that a person is either a man or a woman.

He said the organisers of the Pride March "should now bother with the organising, it's a waste of money and time".

Orban stood up for preserving the 13th month pension and utility price caps.

On another topic, Orban said Ukraine would not become a NATO member, "but Hungarians will decide whether it will become an EU member. Ukraine will never become a member of the European Union against the will of Hungarians," he said, adding that Ukraine's membership would ruin Hungarian farmers and "the Hungarian national economy as a whole".


Orban: 'The empire has one head in Washington and one in Brussels'

In a speech on the state of the nation over the past year, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday that "the empire has two heads: one in Washington and one in Brussels, and a Soros-branch here in Budapest."

"The US has unveiled and made public a deeply corrupt, oppressive power machinery that syphoned billions from the US budget into sham NGOs and journalists, judges, prosecutors, politicians, foundations and bureaucrats they had bought," Orban said. 

"An enormous machinery that operated a liberal dictatorship of opinion and political oppression in the entire Western world, including Hungary."

The government will send a government commissioner to the US to gather all data and evidence concerning Hungary, Orban said.

Then they will "create the legal and constitutional background so we don't have to watch idly as sham NGOs serve foreign interests before our eyes and organise political action."

"The Budapest branch may be dealt with by Easter," he said.


Orban calls for getting party politics out of military

Party politics should be kept out of the military instead of being brought in, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a speech assessing the nation over the past year.

Only national strategy has a place in the military, and officers should know that this is far above party politics, the prime minister said.

He said rivalries and egos were not worthy of the armed forces.

PM's speech in English available here


Opposition parties react to Orban's speech

Opposition parties reacted to Prime Minister Viktor Orban's speech assessing the state of the nation over the past year.

Klara Dobrev, an MEP of the leftist Democratic Coalition, said the measures announced by the prime minister would be "ineffective in reversing the trend of continuous decline".

"Orban is offering the harsh reality of Russian everyday life," she said in a statement. Dobrev said that "by assisting [US President Donald] Trump in the most horrific historical, political and human sin of the past 70 years", Orban was "putting not just his own honour, but also that of the entire country, on the line".

Peter Magyar, the leader of the Tisza Party, said Orban had touched "on no subject relevant to the everyday life of the people ... and offered no solution to the cost-of-living crisis." 

Magyar said the speech had shown that Orban was "terrified ... trying to cling on by accepting the Tisza Party's proposals."

Laszlo Toroczkai of the Our Homeland party said "Orban fails to see the difficulties caused by bad legislation and suffocating bureaucracy, and the real reasons of corruption, the crumbling law enforcement and health care, emptying villages, the problems of the railway system, wages, inflation, education and the cost of living."

 Orban had announced "big handouts", Toroczkai said, adding that "this will have a serious blowback after 2026, because the government refuses to introduce the economic turnabout" necessary to finance it.

Jobbik said the speech contained "a tsunami of promises that won't solve the problems caused by the recent years' governance". The biggest losers of the speech, the statement said, were "health care and our EU funding".

The statement said the speech had provided "no answers to the issues of the closure of hospital wards ... or the EU monies that all Hungarians are entitled to but seem to be lost through the fault of the government."

Socialist Party leader Imre Komjathi said the speech had been "an exercise in rhetoric trying to divert attention from the utter failure of the government with conspiracy theories". The "real enemy", the statement said, was systemic societal inequality, exploitation and economic injustice. 

"Orban's statements prove that he has lost touch with reality but continues to deepen the rift between various parts of society."

The Momentum Movement said: "Inflation is sky high, the state is imploding, there are no EU monies, but Orban is attacking the last island of freedom, Pride. This is base incitement, nothing more," that statement said.

Source: 
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.

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