Orbán: The time has come for exorcism, because the other option is world war

Viktor Orbán wiped his eyes as he took to the stage on Budapest’s Margaret Island, laughed a little and then, as he gave his speech at the Peace March eight days ahead of the 9 June elections, he tried to show the kind of strength that would make all Fidesz supporters believe that they have nothing to fear following the turbulent events of the past few months in domestic politics, and that they have every chance of winning Europe's biggest election victory.

The Hungarian Prime Minister even identified specific tasks that need to be accomplished for this to happen: activists must knock on millions of doors and "push the pedal to the metal during this last week". The stakes are high: he believes that this is the only way to avoid millions of Hungarians dying in yet another world war.

Saturday’s event, organized by the Fidesz-affiliated CÖF-CÖKA was described as Europe's biggest peace march, and its main objective was to show that there are still many people who support Viktor Orbán's party, even though Péter Magyar's tour around the country has been attracting massive crowds. This is crucial before an election:

undecided voters tend to be drawn to the camp where they see strength and a chance of victory.

After being greeted with several minutes of applause and chants of "Viktor, Viktor", Orbán began his speech. He asked God's blessing on the Hungarians of Transcarpathia, who have spent the past two years helplessly waiting for the war to end. "The day is not far off when your fate will change for the better," the Prime Minister promised the Hungarian minority living in Western Ukraine. He also sent his greetings to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who is still recovering following an assassination attempt in mid-May. "Robert Fico was shot because he stood for peace", Orbán said, adding that his Slovak counterpart was a tough guy and would soon return to strengthen the pro-peace camp.

“Next week we will set a world record in mobilization.”

After speaking of the importance of peace, Orbán took a sharp turn to talk of an election crusade, and spent several minutes hyping up his camp the way a football coach would his players in the dressing room at half-time during a final.

He pointed out that Fidesz had won every election since the autumn of 2006. In the last parliamentary elections they won their biggest ever victory while the united opposition suffered its biggest ever defeat.

"How full of themselves they were! They roared like a lion. Then it turned out that their claws were made of paper-mâché, like a paper tiger that gets drenched by the first spring shower."

– said Orbán, who has not said much about his domestic opponents in recent months.

According to the Prime Minister, so many people had gone to the Peace March that if they were to so much as breathe on the opposition, it would send them all flying all the way to Brussels. But instead, Orbán's party is sending Fidesz-KDNP candidates there, led by MEP Tamás Deutsch, to occupy Brussels and put the Brussels bureaucrats on the road.

Orbán said they were on the verge of another huge victory, but there was still plenty of work to do in the last seven days, the real campaigning was just beginning.

“One more week of Fidesz's legendary final push, and we'll knock the opposition out of the race. We are in a great position to score, we just need to pass the ball now.”

According to him, Fidesz's strength, ingenuity, perseverance and the good cause they serve are in their favor, but so is the condition and capabilities of their opponents. "We have order and strength, our opponents have violence, electoral brawls, and a shoving match. They don't want to win the war, they want to defeat each other. We have nothing to do with them, let them tear each other to pieces, each punch lands in a good place over there anyways," he said.

Orbán was also keen to prevent Fidesz voters from sitting back and not going to the polls next Sunday, confident of certain victory. If they don't concentrate, they could end up failing, he warned. "In government, routine is an advantage. An experienced hand can certainly hold the steering wheel more strongly. But in campaigning, routine is like poison, it will kill you. Getting used to victory makes one complacent, and such a person wants to cheer from the sofa, and will not strain themselves for victory in the field."

He said that a successful campaign requires heart, and a victorious election calls for passion. "Passion and victory or routine and defeat". He said that passion is the fuel of the right, and that the reason why people gathered for the Peace March was to get their tanks filled for the final leg of the campaign.

He then praised Fidesz: “Our camp is the biggest, our unity the strongest in all of Europe. We are the best at campaigning, we have the biggest electoral army.”

Orbán says they are present in every square across the country, on boulevards and side streets, in villages and even in granaries. But in order to win, in the last days, they will have to knock on millions of doors and talk to millions of Hungarians. “We are the Fidesz-KDNP alliance, and next week we will set a world record in mobilization.”

He said the “crazy pro-war locomotive drivers must be defeated, not persuaded.”

"The task is the biggest we've ever seen," coach Orbán said, referring to the stakes of next Sunday's match. We must prevent Europe from rushing into another war and its own destruction.

“There are no brakes on the pro-war train and the engine driver has gone mad”

– said the Prime Minister, who believes that this train must be stopped at the EP elections. He said that by now, the Hungarian government has acquired a routine in staying out of fatal things. As an example, he cited the timely disconnection of the Hungarian carriage from the pro-migration train and the rescuing of children from pro-LGBTQ activists.

In his opinion, after having stopped migration and gender propaganda, we must now prevent a war from happening. "We can only stay out of the war if the Hungarian electorate reaffirms the government in its place, if we secure Europe's biggest electoral victory". No other political force is able to do this, and every vote for Fidesz-KDNP could literally save someone's life, the Prime Minister insisted.

If the left wins, Orbán said it was only a matter of time before "the war will reach us". After all, the pro-war forces are intoxicated and want to defeat Russia, just like they tried to do in the First and Second World Wars. "The frenzy of war is like a drug. Those who are hooked on it don't hold themselves responsible for anything, and they won't listen to anyone. it's not convincing they need, but defeating.

He also argued that the founding fathers of the European Union were right: Europe cannot endure another war. Before the First World War, Europe ruled the world, after the Second World War, the continent was invaded by foreign empires, and today we are only playing second fiddle. “After one more war, Europe would not even be in the orchestra that sets the rhythm of the world, if there were to be an orchestra at all”.

“There's nothing we can gain from war, but we can lose everything.”

– Orbán continued, and went on to recall that in the two world wars Hungary lost 1.5 million Hungarian lives, and with them their future children and grandchildren. According to the Prime Minister we are now again expected to take part in a war where Hungarian people would be killed, women would be raped and children orphaned. He said that war is the reason why there are not enough European children today, which is why Brussels wants to bring migrants into the EU.

After his lengthy elaboration on war, Orbán reassured his supporters that Hungary would not enter a war. "We will not go to the Russian front again. We have been there before, we have no business being there." According to the Prime Minister, there is no solution to the war on the battlefield. What is needed is a ceasefire and negotiations, but first we need to win the EP elections. The time has come for an "exorcism" because the only other option is world war. He hopes that in a week's time, the Hungarian government, which he described as pro-peace, will receive reinforcements from all the countries of Europe, and that a pro-peace coalition will be formed in the European Parliament. And then, in November, after Donald Trump's victory in the US, "the pro-peace camp will become the majority in the whole world".