Orbán on what makes a freedom fighter, national unity, and Brussels' plan to force the EU into the war in Ukraine

It's been three years since Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán last gave a speech in Budapest on 23 October, the memorial day in honour of the defeated 1956 uprising against Soviet influence over the Hungarian government of the time. This year he took to the stage at Millenáris Park, surrounded by cordons, and spoke to a crowd of pre-invited attendees.

In the past two years, Orbán's excuse for choosing a rural venue instead of the capital has been that the 1956 revolution was not just about Budapest. "It is unfair, patronising and downright wrong to see 1956 only as the revolution of our capital, which is already in the spotlight," he said last year in Veszprém, which was the European Capital of Culture at the time. Speaking at the opening of the Mindszentyneum in Zalaegerszeg the year before, he said that the left does not understand that Budapest does not equal the country, and that 1956 was a revolution of the entire nation.

Two years ago in Zalaegerszeg, the event was only surrounded by cordons, while last year in Veszprém the press was not even allowed in. This year, the cordons were back again, and journalists were led separately to a press tribune 30-40 metres from the open-air stage separated from the central area by the white cordon visible in the photo.

In response to a question from Telex, an organiser explained that the press would not even be allowed to enter the area where the audience is until after the event has concluded, but they couldn't say why. Things were so well organized, that journalists were only permitted to go to the toilet in small groups and accompanied by an escort.

A special celebration

When the Prime Minister took to the stage with a ten-minute delay, the crowd started chanting:"Viktor! Viktor!"

Orbán began his speech by pointing out that "Today's celebration is special because those who helped protect Hungary from the flooding of the Danube a month ago are also with us. They kept the huge body of water threatening to flood and destroy everything in its path in its riverbed,". The water authorities, disaster relief workers, soldiers, police officers and volunteers all did enormous work, the Prime Minister said.

When danger is approaching, when our country is in trouble, we must stand together, Orbán said, and then went on to talk about the Hungarian people being a hard-headed people. He said that the revolution in 1956 was preceded by a series of calamities, like the earthquake and the icy flood at the beginning of that year, and then by October, history itself had "gotten out of its riverbed". Shoemakers, factory workers, farmers became heroes, accountants and students were martyred. October 1956 etched the names of the brave Hungarians in the great history books with golden letters, Orbán continued.

He explained that the reason why history "left its riverbed" in the autumn of 1956 was that Hungary could no longer tolerate the oppression of the Soviet empire. Hungarians are a freedom-loving people, and it is only a matter of time before they break out of their shackles. Orbán said that no invader has ever succeeded in breaking in or taming the Hungarians.

The Soviet imperial oppression crippled us, robbed us and left Hungarian families penniless. Instead of it serving the nation's interest, it wanted to use our country's resources and the labour of our people at the service of the empire. "They imposed a puppet government upon us, which consisted of collaborationist Hungarians". Their task was to pass the wealth of the Hungarians into foreign hands and place it at the service of the empire, he added.

But the nation wanted none of that, and "We pulled off the brightest war of independence in the history of the world, we taught them for life not to mess with Hungarians!"

– he said.

The Soviets and their communist lackeys understood their lesson, and over the next 34 years they kept their claws back and eventually returned home, Orbán continued. This is why according to him, we can be free today, and why everyone in the world knows that Hungarians must be treated with caution.

"Today, history is about to step out of its riverbed once again", Orbán said. There is a war going on in our neighbourhood, and it is becoming bloodier and more bitter. Hundreds of thousands of people have already died on the front line, the lungs of the European economy have received a hit, development has come to a standstill and prices are skyrocketing. According to the Prime Minister, the sanctions are bleeding us dry, investors are leaving for the United States, but European leaders are still living under the illusion of winning the war.

Orbán believes that the chances of the war spreading are increasing. "We have not been this close to a world war in 70 years," he said. According to him, it's time to openly say it:

the European leaders, the Brussels bureaucrats have led Europe into a hopeless war. They want to force the entire European Union into the Russian-Ukrainian war.

According to the head of the Hungarian government, Brussels’ new victory plan is to expand the war by inviting Ukraine to join NATO and moving the front lines to Russia. This would, according to him, mean that "we Hungarians would wake up one morning to find Slavic soldiers from the east being stationed on Hungarian soil again. We do not want that."

Orbán said that Brussels’ pressure on Hungary is getting stronger. "For us, the lesson of '56 is that we must fight for one thing alone: Hungary and Hungarian freedom!" – he said.

Independent Hungarian policy is unacceptable for Brussels, Orbán said. This is why they announced in Brussels that they are getting rid of Hungary's national government and that they want to impose a puppet government of Brussels on the country.

The Prime Minister said that the question now is whether we will bow before the will of Brussels, or whether we will respond as the Hungarians in 1956 did.

"We will not engage in any sort of imperial rivalry," he declared. We want only one thing, he said: to live in peace in the Carpathian Basin, according to our own rules, pursuing our own prosperity. Orbán said that we have proven a hundred times that we are not afraid of being intimidated by the powers that be.

“We know that they want to hand our children over to gender activists.”

They already have the puppet government and its leader picked out, who is a true signatory, according to Orbán.

He then went on to say that 1956 was a struggle for freedom, but in his view, throwing a Molotov cocktail doesn't make one a freedom fighter. According to Orbán, it is neither the clothes nor the talk that make a freedom fighter. He said that both the old and the new opposition is inviting foreigners to Hungary, and said that "the leader of the new opposition is sitting at Manfred Weber's table".

"The Brussels' master scratched the head of the puppy, and love was all around"

– he said, referring to the chairman of the Tisza Party.

In the duel between David and Goliath, the foreign powers always sided with Goliath, Viktor Orbán said. But the end of the story tends to be forgotten: Goliath loses and David wins. Béla Kun and his people fled to Vienna, Rákosi and his people to Moscow, and this time they will go to Brussels, according to Orbán.

He further explained that in 1956 there was unity and there was will, but there wasn't enough strength. Today, there is strong national unity and a strong will within the national government, and this is accompanied by strength.

"To be Hungarian means to fight", the Prime Minister said of the lessons of 1956. "We will not tolerate Hungary being made into a puppet state again, a vassal of Brussels. They will not succeed! We Hungarians will do it again," he concluded.