Good day. Good day. I respectfully greet all of you — Bishop László Tőkés, my friend Zsolt Német, and all of you who have honored us with your presence here together.
We have been meeting here for 35 years. This place is special — a special place in the Hungarian universe. This camp, this place, is a place of understanding. Here, a national community always confronts its situation and defines what it must do. And since the reality for our community — for those of us here — consists of at least two parts: a spiritual and soulful reality, and a rational, logical reality. That is why we usually speak to you as a duo. We aspire — let's admit it openly — to remain an inexhaustible pair with László Tőkés for a long time to come. Since our bishop's 75th birthday is approaching — may God grant him many years — we look forward to future occasions as well.
Friends, ladies and gentlemen, this year is a special occasion. After 16 years, I received an invitation as an opposition politician. Our community is once again experiencing opposition status and re-evaluating its role. That is what I intend to do today. But there are things that haven't changed. Tusnádfürdő hasn't changed. It remains a place where Hungarians not only talk about the future but try to understand it. To understand the future, we have so far chosen a method: we established that the situation in Hungary when we were in government for 16 years was easy to understand — transparent, national-Christian government, work-based economy, family-based society, sovereignty-based foreign and national policy. Simple, clear, easy to overview.
In recent years, however, the world situation has been complex and difficult to understand — changing and chaotic. In previous years, the emphasis here was more on understanding the world: we wanted to figure out what the world situation meant for Hungary. Now we must change this method. Because what was an easily understandable situation at home during our governance has become difficult to understand. What is actually happening in Hungary? The Hungarian situation requires analysis and understanding. That is why today my emphasis shifts back to Hungary and the Carpathian Basin. I will speak about the world only insofar as it is absolutely necessary. So what I would like to address before you today: What is happening in Hungary? Let us understand what this unusual phenomenon is, unusual even in the European context. Then I want to talk about what the new holders of power are doing — and what they are not doing — in Hungary. And finally, I want to speak to you about what we must do ourselves.
Before I dive in, I want to thank all of you. It is always a joy to return here. When a person spends a year in the thick of struggles — traveling the world, negotiating, debating, bargaining, campaigning, as my work has been — it is good, even necessary, to have a place where you don't have to explain things that are beyond dispute for all of us. There must be a place where we speak the same language — not just in Hungarian, but politically, historically, and culturally. There are self-evident truths that need no explanation. Here we want Hungary to remain Hungary. I always wanted a Christian Hungary, because only that has a future. We will not become an immigrant country. We will not become a Brussels colony. We want to unite the nation — only the country has borders, the nation has none. And I could go on at length. Thank you to the organizers for creating this place every year. Thank you to the Hungarian community of Transylvania for your hospitality. And thank you to all of you for coming here year after year, believing that it is worth thinking together about the fate of the Hungarian community in the Carpathian Basin. Thank you for being together with me.
What is happening? In Hungary, it is difficult to grasp this. On April 13, we woke up to a new reality — something we thought could only be a bad joke or a tasteless prank. It turned out to be reality. The Szekler wife decides to surprise her husband. New hairstyle, curled hair, Budapest-fashion clothing, makeup. The husband comes home. His father doesn't recognize her. 'No, I'm your wife.' 'Then that's fine.' This is how we are now in Hungary. Ladies and gentlemen — well then, that's fine. It's fine this way too. It's still beautiful, it's still Hungary.
We know the facts. With personalized, retroactive laws, they have excluded half the opposition, its strongest leaders — now even our friend Zsolt — from politics. They banned them, banned us, from running in future elections. With this, my dear friends, they have dismantled democracy. Because if it is not the people who decide whom to vote for, but power that decides whom they may vote for, then democracy is finished. With personalized, retroactive constitutional amendments, they removed the President of the Republic, the President of the Constitutional Court, and the Chief Prosecutor — and with that, they abolished the rule of law as well. The dismantling of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary today serves the exclusive exercise of power. This is a crime. It may not have significance now, but when we restore the rule of law, it will have serious significance.
When we examine what is happening in Hungary, we get the feeling that we have seen this before. We search for the words, the analogy, the comparison. What is this? Some call it Rakosi's system, some call it communist — but we all feel that this is something else, something more modern, though we have indeed seen this before. Removal of public office holders, making the opposition impossible, sending armed police against those who don't support the system — say, as influencers — with party-controlled prosecutors raiding opposition parties. It all feels so familiar. Where have we seen this? Last week I had unofficial talks in the United States, where we discussed Hungary alongside Europe. I shared this dilemma with them — that there is something new that is hard to grasp. They laughed. It's not hard, they said, there is something like this. They know it from South America. And indeed, in South America there is a tendency that the European left has admired for decades — a peculiar mix of communist thinking, political tyranny, and economic oppression. It is also true that this system, known in South America, is now being introduced in Europe for the first time. This has never happened before. Perhaps we can recognize some elements of it in Poland, but in its full completeness, we are seeing it for the first time now. After the talks with the Americans, I realized that Hungary is the new Venezuela — only without oil wealth. The Americans hit the nail on the head. Similar methods, similar tools, even the same sequencing. First, there too and here too, they removed state officials who did not belong to Maduro's party. In Hungary today, committees interrogate public officials in Budapest and ask: Are you Tisza? Do you love the new Prime Minister? In South America, opposition representatives were stripped of their voting rights and immunity. Criminal proceedings were launched against them, just as is happening now in Hungary. Then they attacked opposition parties there too — harassed and banned them. They raided campaign offices, confiscated computers, and detained campaign workers. Then they went after those who helped opposition candidates — businesses and service providers — exactly as is happening in Hungary today. In the next step, they intimidated opponents of the system with false charges. Tax authority proceedings, vague accusations, cases launched without legally clarified grounds, exclusion of legal remedies. This is exactly the system now being built in Hungary.
The National Asset Protection Office is essentially a new AVH — it recalls the political police of the communist system. The question is only, my dear friends, where this leads when the government — alongside or instead of the existing police and prosecution — inexplicably creates a new state authority to settle scores with its opponents. Where does this lead? In our part of the world, only the communists and Hitler did this. We know how it ended. Ladies and gentlemen, what we see in Hungary now is a radical left-wing political virus. International networks are spreading it — only until now it couldn't penetrate Hungary. And because it couldn't penetrate until now, it doesn't even have a proper Hungarian name yet. I too am searching for one. I won't commit yet, but I see that around the world this phenomenon is called by various names. Some call it neo-communism — since America had a neoconservative intellectual movement, following that model some call what is happening in Hungary neo-communism. Others call it New Age communism. Others call it a liberal authoritarian system. Some simply call it coups. I'll stick for now with the words tyranny and autocratic system. Though it's more of a method than the essence of the system, the Hungarian language is inventive. Sooner or later we'll agree on what to call this thing from which the entire Hungarian nation suffers today. The fact is that this new autocratic governmental system came into being in Hungary with Brussels' support. We had few illusions about Brussels to begin with — especially as the similarity to Moscow became increasingly obvious. But that it would openly support autocratic rule — few of us expected that. They would do better not to, because this virus, if it spreads from Hungary to Western countries, could cause them serious problems too. It will be dangerous for them as well.
Well, whatever its name, ladies and gentlemen, whatever we end up calling it in the future, one thing is certain: we must oppose it. Why must we oppose it? Not because it's another party — because it's not KDNP and not Fidesz. We must oppose it because its operation will have serious economic consequences — I'll speak about that later — but above all because it is a bad system. It calls into question values, senses, and truths that were previously matters of consensus. This system does not build but destroys; it does not ennoble but degrades. First, it makes people uncertain about what power can and cannot do. Second, it creates uncertainty about what counts as private property and what counts as public property. It does this not only on a grand scale but on a small scale too. Today in Hungary, small and medium-sized businesses that had economic ties with local governments over the past 16 years are being attacked. In reality, every economic actor — small, large, national, and local — can be subjected to proceedings based on a single citizen's complaint. Third, this order that is now being built creates uncertainty about what is true and what is false. That is why there is Facebook governance. In the old days, censorship worked by banning the truth. Today it works by drowning it out. That is the essence of Facebook governance.
Fourth, it creates uncertainty about what is reality and what is appearance, what is life and what is cinema. In Hungary today, many people — very many, perhaps the majority of Tisza voters — are still in a kind of economic euphoria, convinced that everything will get better. Some even think they can get more money with less work. They believe they are seeing reality, but they are sitting in a cinema. Those who know they are in a cinema think they are watching a documentary, but it is a fantasy. This new autocratic system, similar to the old communist system, creates a feeling where no one can feel safe — especially those who did not vote for them or who dare to speak out against them. Revenge governance — a typical communist method. At home, the Tisza government's motto: whoever is not with us is against us. Whoever is not Tisza is the enemy. That's how simple politics is in Hungary today. Friends, this is dangerous. Dangerous for human coexistence, dangerous for the economy, and dangerous for peace. The end is always violence, and today this is the politics governing Hungary.
In summary, then, I can tell you that the Tisza wants and is beginning to build a new autocratic system. After removing Fidesz from power, the goal is to eliminate Fidesz. The goal is to exclude our leaders from politics. With illegitimate decisions, they make the political alternative impossible. Now they want to physically make Fidesz impossible. With coercive forces, they seized our servers, our membership registry, our correspondence. The approximately three and a half million people who voted for the Tisza — this is an important part of Hungarian reality — still believe that the autocracy will only be used against Fidesz supporters. But they are mistaken. The essence of autocracy is that power no longer recognizes its own limits. One day the Tisza voters too will wake up to find that no one is left to protect them from the abuses of power. This new power is aggressive, violent, and abuses its strength. It does not attend to the affairs of the country but pursues the opposition. It does not try to create unity but subverts Hungary and disrupts social peace.
Ladies and gentlemen, those of you who voted for change in the spring — I don't believe you voted for the abuse of power. I believe the majority of you were acting in good faith. You expected fewer government mistakes and more economic results. We must understand the voters' decision — after a defeat, one must always look at the world with self-criticism. But we don't have much time for that, because now freedom is in danger in Hungary. That is why, instead of an opposition policy built on self-criticism, we must now switch to a policy of resistance. So, instead of opposition politics, resistance politics follows. But we must confess to you, our own voters, that the Prime Minister who is now subverting the country came from our own ranks. If there is anything for which I must ask your forgiveness, it is this — he came from among us. And this remains true even though he always belonged to the worst part of Fidesz.
Therefore, Hungary now has dreams and fantasies instead of sober balance. I always laughed at the Americans when I read that before taking office, the president is subjected to a psychological fitness examination. But looking at Hungary, I am no longer laughing. The Americans may know something after all. But we don't have a problem with the Prime Minister — we have a problem with Hungarian life. And I can tell you: that is not Hungarian life which is decided in Brussels, whose script was written based on some German comedy. I'll give you a moment to think about whether such a thing as a German comedy exists. And that is not Hungarian life whose fate is decided in California or Poland by Facebook algorithm tinkerers. So the question is: what must we do to rediscover the Hungarian living space and way of life in which we Hungarians once again feel at home? So, dear friends, what is to be done?
Dear friends, the first task is to speak out against lies. Tirelessly, we must speak out against lies. Since there are many lies, we must endure the monotony. First, they lied that we want to leave the European Union. This is a lie, but it was a successful lie. There are successful lies, but the opposite is true. We always believed that Hungary's place is in the European Union. But it is also true that the Union pursues bad policies, destroys the European economy, and we will always speak out against Brussels pursuing mistaken policies. That is why we founded the European Patriots' Alliance. Then they also lied that we support Russian interests. Let's admit it — this was also a successful lie. Yet the opposite is true. We always supported Hungary's interests. We needed cheap Russian energy — oil and gas — and we still need it. That is in Hungary's interest. The other day, the 21st sanctions package was adopted, permanently banning Russian energy sources from Europe. The Hungarian government should have vetoed this — as I did every time — not in Russia's interest, but to protect Hungary's interest. Similarly, we must make clear that NATO is vital, but NATO is a defense alliance. Within NATO territory, there is no compromise. It is a common defense alliance, but regarding wars outside NATO territory, we have the right to neutrality, and we want to remain neutral in military conflicts outside NATO territory. This neutrality — they have now abandoned it — and Hungary has joined a pro-Ukrainian, anti-Russian European war coalition.
With this, my friends — and this is no childish matter, it is very serious — in case of war escalation, which is obviously imminent for all of us, they have made Hungary a military target, or at least a potential military target. It was a colossal mistake to abandon Hungary's neutrality. Then they also lied that Fidesz protects pedophiles. The Zsolt Baci case, if you recall, was a successful lie — but it has now emerged that the Tisza party, and even the Prime Minister's brother, gave millions of forints to the person who made the false accusations. They also lied that President Sulyok Tamás is a Fidesz puppet, when in reality he was Hungary's first civilian president — the first president without party affiliation. Göncz Árpád was SZDSZ. Mátyás Ferenc was MDF, and also Fidesz. Sólyom László was an MDF presidency member. I won't even mention Áder János, who was obviously an old Fidesz fighter. Novák Katalin was my minister. Schmitt Pál was a Fidesz vice-president. The first president without party affiliation, who was a civilian, was Sulyok Tamás. It is a lie that he was anyone's puppet.
So, our first task is to systematically and persistently stand up against lies. We cannot allow power to lie to the people without consequences. It is also true that we must learn a digital mode of warfare against lies. Our second task, ladies and gentlemen, is to tell people the truth about the threatening economic situation. I did this during the campaign as well, with limited success. I said: difficult times are coming, don't change. Our opponent said the dangers are invented only by Fidesz. Change, send the government away, and things will be better, much better. And the people — at least three and a half million of them — believed them. I can no longer change that. That is why we should not continue the debates of the past. The question is not who was right. Whatever happened, we must now deal honestly and seriously with the present and the future. So the situation is this, ladies and gentlemen: in Hungary there has been no economic governance for months. There is Facebook governance, cinema, and deception. The economy is suffering — agriculture is in trouble, the construction industry has stopped. The strong forint is good for those vacationing abroad but destroys export-oriented businesses that receive no help or compensation, though they should, to preserve jobs. This can be done through tax relief or credit measures, but we see no trace of it. Meanwhile, as economic trouble knocks on the door, the government talks about introducing the euro. I'd like you to know: this is a fairy tale. The euro is actually a code name — a cipher — the code for austerity. That's why speculators, bankers, and financial people support it. When the austerity measures come in the autumn, they will invoke this euro. They are lying to the people again. If this comes to pass, and there is still no economic governance, and the troubles hit — as they usually do — sooner or later foreigners will knock on the door and say, 'We have a solution proposal.' And then the Hungarian government will be cornered, and it could happen. May God help us avoid it. But it could happen — Hungary's fifth plundering. Hungary has been plundered four times before.
I don't need to mention Trianon, the post-World War II reparations — we didn't learn about this in school, but we had to pay heavy reparations to the Soviets. Then we were plundered under the first post-communist government during the first privatizations, and the remaining state assets were privatized, plundering us between 2002 and 2010. Between 2010 and 2026, Hungary took back what could be recovered — banks, energy sector, telecommunications — and we doubled national wealth. Foreign exchange reserves are at unprecedented heights, and we multiplied gold reserves thirty-three times. There is something to lose again. There is something to take from Hungary again. There is reason to come, reason to plunder Hungary again. And if someone walks through Budapest today and recognizes the faces of international financial players, they won't be surprised at the number of consultants and advisors. At the National Bank governor's office, a foreign big bank president is visiting. As they say, they smell blood. There will be trouble here. There could be financial chaos. Everything's price will drop. It will be possible to buy cheaply in Hungary again. If we don't pay attention, if economic governance doesn't start, if we don't ward this off, Hungary's fifth plundering could come to pass.
Ladies and gentlemen, the young people were deceived too. They made young people believe that everything called European and Brussels-related is good. If it's European, then the green transition is good too — though we know it's a tragedy in reality. If it's European, then the EU energy policy is good too — though we see it destroys us. They made them believe that if it's European, if it's EU, then sanctions policy is good too — though obviously we lose out. If foreign policy is EU policy, it can only be good — though we see it leads to war. If economic policy is Brussels policy, it's necessarily good because we get money and will develop. Such simple things were made to be believed. It was easy to convince young people because they had never seen in Hungary a unsuccessful government pursuing Brussels economic policy. They only saw the successful national economic policy that diverged from Brussels' path over the past 16 years. That's why it was easy to convince them that there is something better than the national path — because if it's European, it can only succeed.
Ladies and gentlemen! Hungarian young people will now experience for the first time that an economy policy following a European trajectory is dangerous, and in the worst case can destroy us. We saw this before 2010, but to a newborn, every joke is new. Ladies and gentlemen! And in the autumn, the government must confess the truth about the energy, oil, and gas situation as well. For months now, they should have been working to prepare the country, to deflect and soften the energy crisis threatening the Hungarian economy. Instead, they push the message that everything will be fine — just propaganda. And the people believe it, want to believe it. Who wouldn't want things to be better, much better? But the reality is alarming. Eighteen percent of the world's oil supply has been cut off. Today, global energy prices are being held far below market value with enormous effort. This happens because the United States is releasing its strategic petroleum reserves. What is lost from Iran comes from here. But these reserves are running out fast. This situation, this policy is unsustainable. The whole world is preparing — except Hungary — for the moment of reckoning, when prices can no longer be held down, and this can have serious consequences, typically inflationary.
So, ladies and gentlemen, besides telling the truth about the economic situation, what else must we do in Hungary? In debates, we must defend the past 16 years — indeed, the past 36 years. National governance was confirmed four times with two-thirds majorities by the voters. There really is nothing to debate about the 12 years from 2010 to 2022, because every four years the voters confirmed, supported, and reinforced what we did with two-thirds majorities. The only problem was the last four years, which they said no to — but they did not say no to 16 years. Twelve years — four yeses. Last four years — one no. Ladies and gentlemen, we must be proud of our past 16 years. The frivolous accusations of the Tisza supporters must be repelled, and we must say calmly and firmly: it is a historical fact that the Hungarian right did the most and worked the hardest for Hungary, for the Hungarians of the Carpathian Basin, and for the Hungarians of Transylvania too. Our community carried out the regime change. We dismantled the communist system. We restored the honor of work. We created one million jobs. We elevated family formation and home-building above all else. We protected Hungarians from the plunder of foreign big capital. We protected Hungary from the flood of migrants. We prevented Hungary from being drawn into war. And we created the safest country in Europe. Hungary could always count on our political community. Let us be proud of that.
Others have done things for Hungary too. We cannot deny this, nor should we. In fact, some have done quite a lot. But we did the most. Anyone who wants to catch up with us in this race still has many dumplings to eat. So let us be proud, my dear friends. If we have achieved this, then the next task is to stand up for each other. It is important that no one feels alone. It is true that we cannot help everyone, cannot solve everyone's current difficult situation, because we do not have the power or sufficient strength. But to those we can help, we will help, and we will always stand by everyone. We will not leave anyone alone, and when democracy is restored, the victims and those who have suffered will receive full restitution.
And finally, the most important task, ladies and gentlemen, is to stand up against the new autocracy. Let us say no to it, stand up for freedom, build the broadest possible resistance, create the broadest possible solidarity for freedom. We must defend Hungary, because we cannot be Europe's banana republic. We are people who have done this before — who have already lived through an autocratic system. In the end, we come from the underground. I myself have been taken in by police under an autocratic system. We know what to do in such a situation. We must understand that in this situation, Fidesz too must do something entirely new — something completely different from what it did over the past 16 years. Of course, the parliamentary group must carry out traditional tasks — traditional political work in parliament. Under János Bóka's leadership, they must prove that our political community is capable at any moment of producing a government at a class higher than today's, in Hungary's interest. But this traditional political work is not enough. Fidesz must do something different — that is the parliamentary group's job. Fidesz must do something else entirely. We, although we are a political party, must now focus not on power, not on questions of power. Fidesz's task today is to serve and support the national resistance. The goal of the national resistance is the restoration of freedom. And freedom is not a party question — it's not even a right-or-left question. Fidesz must now draw the widest possible arc, where every freedom-loving person fits. That is why Fidesz must now function not as a party but as a service center, an incubator — as it were, a nursery. Fidesz must not strengthen itself but rather the groups and organizations of freedom-loving people. The goal is to help the number of freedom-loving people who boldly stand up for freedom grow. For Fidesz now, the goal is not power but freedom. We've done this before — we know how to remember it. In April, fifty-three percent of Hungarians voted for the Tisza, and forty-seven percent against it. And believe me, you will see this ratio reverse. The supporters of freedom will be in the majority, and it will happen sooner than we think now.
Because this Tisza autocratic system does not have its economic foundations. The cinema will end — reality will arrive. An autocratic system without economic foundations can, with good policy, perhaps even create them. But ladies and gentlemen, I see that they do not have the ability or talent to create the economic foundations the autocracy currently lacks. For a moment, remember the Kádár system. Many accepted, or at least lived alongside, the tyranny. I won't say they accepted the communist system, but they tolerated it as long as the economy was doing well. But once the economic foundation slipped out from under the autocratic system, the entire edifice collapsed with surprising speed. In Hungary, very few of us in 1988 would have said that in two years this autocracy would be over — and it was over. This is because, ladies and gentlemen of Tusnádfürdő, Hungarians are a freedom-loving people. Even if they accept constraints, even if they sometimes tolerate autocracy, they always exact the price for it. The Hungarians are a clever nation and will collect that price — and it must be paid, if there is something to pay with. But the truth is that today, not only in Hungary but across all of Europe, there is nothing to pay with. That is why, whatever we call it — neo-communism, New Age communism, authoritarian liberalism, tyranny, or coups — this autocratic system has no future in Hungary. It is a transitional phenomenon that will cease, evaporate, disappear from our lives.
And this is not only the case in Hungary. It is so everywhere — across all of Europe. The question is only when this becomes clear. To quote an old joke from the Kádár era: we know what will happen — the question is only what will happen until then. When will the unsustainability of the situation become apparent? I can tell you: it will become apparent the day after the first 133 days. This is expected sometime in the autumn. Count it out for yourselves. And as the 133 days pass and the 134th arrives, watch carefully — day by day the resistance will grow, and the camp of freedom will grow. The nature of politics is such — at least in Hungary — that whoever brought in anti-freedom politics will carry it out too. This will happen with the Tisza as well. They brought it, they carry it. It is not we who need to take it down — we will not. Our task is to stand firm with our two and a half million voters who always stood with us, and with whom we always stood. But it is also true that this two and a half million, which in any European country would be a fantastic result at around forty percent, in Hungary represents a serious defeat. But the truth is that this two and a half million voters is not enough for a majority. The hundreds of thousands missing for a majority will actually be brought by the political waves created by reality — by economic troubles and economic difficulties. And when people wake up, they will realize: Mother, this is not the horse I wanted. And when this happens, the two and a half million and those who did not want this horse will together produce a new broad coalition of freedom, and there will be a majority for restoring freedom and democracy.
