In the interview published in the Friday issue of the newspaper, in response to the statement that last Christmas there was no vaccine yet against the coronavirus, but this year there is, Mr Orbán said: the same time last year “our house was on fire, and all we could say was that no one should dare go near the fire. We rescued those that we could, but we didn’t have a firehose. This year we already have a remedy, the vaccine that provides protection. But it also gives hope, the hope that we can not only wait for our troubles to pass, but can actively do something for ourselves and for others.”
This restores our vitality, drags us out of the depths of depression. As the country’s acting capacity was restored so did the issues that are important for the people begin to return to the centre of attention, and so did our daily lives begin to resemble our lives before Covid, the Prime Minister stressed.
He added that this year had been much better than last year, “and so even if not exactly with joy – as we have lost a very large number of compatriots – we can now look forward to 2022 more optimistically”.
“Unfortunately, the number of those who reject vaccination is much higher than I was hoping for. We’re Hungarians, we always have a better solution, we always read or hear something that sounds better to us than physicians’ words. In light of this, it’s quite an achievement that more than three million people have already had the third dose of the vaccine, and with this we’re among the best in Europe. This was also the case with the first and second doses,” the Prime Minister said.
“We Hungarians always start well; medieval documents found in Turkish archives relate that the first attack of the Hungarian troops is devastating – but there is no second. We seem to have preserved this characteristic. As regards our lives before Covid, at the time of the last wave of the Spanish flu, people had the same doubts about whether their old lives would ever return. They did. Ours, too, will return,” he stated.
Regarding the situation in the European Union, Mr Orbán said “we’re always the most tired before the last, victorious charge”.
“Victory restores people’s vitality and vigour. This will be so for the Hungarians and Poles as well. We mustn’t give up the fight even if we’re tired. Today those forces are in power in Brussels which want to establish a European state led by Germany, in contrast to us who insist on the existence of a Europe comprised of nations. Additionally, ever more positions are being conquered and occupied by politicians, Brussels bureaucrats who have a concept in their heads about an ideal world, society and species of man which they would keep improving, developing,” he said.
According to the Prime Minister, “the Homo Sovieticus was the first manifestation of that. They wanted everyone to forget the aspiration of two thousand years for a man resembling Christ, respect for the parents and the family as an institution were seen as cheap, dated notions, children had to be raised for the party and class struggle, and life was only allowed to exist in the material world, without a spiritual side.”
He took the view that all this is not far off the Brussels ideal of man. The bureaucrats want to transform societies, he added.
“In immigration they see demographic reinforcements, in their view Muslim adults from the Middle East are a perfect replacement for European Christian children. However, the reality is that this results not in a happy, mixed life, but in terrorism, crime, unemployment and no-go zones,” the Prime Minister said.
He took the view that the same is true of the family: “for them our perception of the family is dated and oppressive, in their view, the progressive principle is for children to wear trousers for six months and skirts for six months, and they would involve people in their education whom we would rather keep away from them.”
Hungary and Poland, however, resist these ideas.
“Our responsibility is great because we know that today these two countries represent not only themselves, but also the millions of Europeans who are forced to keep quiet about their opinions in their own countries,” Mr Orbán pointed out.
He said Brussels’ own revenues are minimal, “they have money from what we the Member States contribute”.
“Though they keep saying it, Brussels doesn’t seriously think for a minute that Hungary is corrupt. […] They don’t seriously think that there is anything wrong with the Hungarian judiciary as in Germany the justice minister has the authority to instruct the chief prosecutor in specific cases. No one in Brussels believes that in Hungary there is no freedom of press […],” the Prime Minister stated, adding that these are political accusations that have nothing to do with reality.
He said “we will receive the funds that Hungary is entitled to down to the last cent because Brussels has no room for manoeuvre here”.
In reference to the referenda and national consultations, he said there is no other country in the EU where, upon the development of the most fundamental government decisions, the opinions of many millions of people are taken into consideration to such a degree as in Hungary.
The Prime Minister identified three tasks for 2022: the implementation of overarching economic measures, continued successful defence against the virus, and the organisation of the child protection referendum.
Mr Orbán encouraged the Hungarian people to recall where Hungary was in 2010, “in the deepest depths of financial bankruptcy,” “what limited goals we could have then, and what soaring plans we can devise now.”
“We would like everyone to appreciate: Hungary is going forward, not backward,” the Prime Minister said.