In his speech the Prime Minister stressed that Hungary cannot expect a solution from outside, from Brussels, and as a result “we ourselves must organise our own defence”.
Mr. Orbán also said that today Hungary is one of the European Union’s safest countries, thanks to the efforts of the defence and police forces: “There is no terrorism here, there is no mass violence, there are no trucks being driven into crowds of people”. This does not mean, however, that such atrocities could not happen to the Hungarian people, he warned.
Europe would have been better off, he continued, if it had not attacked Hungarian responses to the problem – responses which have proved to be viable and useful, and which have since been adopted by an increasing number of countries. “Our actions have proved that immigration can be stopped”, he said.
The Prime Minister stressed that the border guards were taking an oath to protect Hungary’s borders, and thus also to defend Europe, “as has been the custom around here for the past 500 years”. He said that “Over the centuries the destiny of the Hungarian nation has become to defend both ourselves and Europe ”.
In his view the era of naivety, illusions and weakness is over, and “the starting point must be what we see, rather than what we would like to see”. While there are some who believe that every person coming to Europe wants to live by the customs and laws which we have here, the facts appear to show the opposite: terrorist attacks, violence and crime, ethnic and cultural conflict all warn us, he said, that “those who come here do not want to live our way of life”, but would like to continue their own ways of life – but with a European standard of living.
The Prime Minister stressed, however, that migrants are also victims: victims of people smugglers, of European politicians who promise them admission and invitation, and of their own illusions.
“We understand them, but we cannot yield to their demands: we cannot let them into Europe. Nowhere do human rights prescribe national suicide”, he said, adding that among the illegal immigrants arriving in Europe there are also terrorists. As a result, he said, in a number of European countries innocent people have died; they lost their lives because of their own countries’ weakness.
Illegal immigration and unlimited migration simultaneously threaten the security of our everyday lives, our economic achievements and our culture, Mr. Orbán stated.
The European migration crisis has not come to an end, the Prime Minister said, and Brussels continues to seek distribution of the two million who have illegally entered Europe over the past few years. At the same time, he stressed, in the future his government will continue to do “what our sense of duty and conscience dictate”: in other words the Government will protect the Hungarian borders and the security of Hungarians’ everyday lives. “It is always better to be sure that we cannot be harmed, than to assume that no one wants to harm us”, he said.
In conclusion, the Prime Minister thanked the border guards for having the courage to perform this service: “Your courage forms the basis of the Hungarian people’s security”, he said.
In addition, the ceremonial swearing-in of the 532 non-commissioned officers at Hungexpo was attended by relatives, as well as by Interior Minister Sándor Pintér, Defence Minister István Simicskó, and György Bakondi, Chief Security Advisor to the Prime Minister.
Last August the Government decided to increase the number of border guards under police command through the recruitment of an extra three thousand officers. Nationwide recruitment began on 1 September.
