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. We have been meeting here for 35 years. This place is special — a special place in the Hungarian universe. This camp, this place, this is a place of understanding. Here, a national community always faces its situation. Here, a national community determines what it must do.
And since for our community, for those of us here, reality consists of at least two parts: there is a spiritual and mental reality, and there is a rational, logical reality. That is why we usually address you in pairs. We aspire — openly or not so openly — to continue for a long time to form an inexhaustible duo with László Tőkés. Since our bishop's 75th birthday is approaching, God bless the bishop. We look forward to future occasions as well.
My friends, ladies and gentlemen, this year is a special occasion. After 16 years, I received an invitation as an opposition politician. Our community is now once again experiencing the opposition's position and re-evaluating its role. Today I will take this on. But there are things that have not changed. Tusnádfürdő has not changed. This continues to be the place where Hungarians not only talk about the future but try to understand it. To understand the future, until now we chose the method of establishing that the situation in Hungary, while we were in government for 16 years, was easily understandable and 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 complicated, hard to understand, changing, and chaotic. In previous years, the emphasis here was more on understanding the world. We wanted to distill what the world situation means for Hungary. We now need to change this method. Because what was an easily understandable situation at home under our governance has now become hard to understand. What is happening in Hungary? The Hungarian situation demands analysis and understanding. In today's speech, the emphasis returns to Hungary and the Carpathian Basin. The world will only be discussed here to the extent that 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 new Hungarian phenomenon is, even unusual in the European context. Then I would like to talk about what the new holders of power are doing — or rather what they are not doing — in Hungary. And finally, I would like to tell you what we need to do. Before I dive in, I would like to thank all of you. It is always a joy to return here. One spends a year bound up in struggles, traveling the world, negotiating, debating, bargaining, campaigning — as has been my work. It is good if there is a place, indeed there must be a place, where you don't need to explain things that are undeniable for all of us.
There must be a place where we speak the same language — not only in Hungarian, but also politically, historically, and culturally. There are self-evident statements that need no explanation. Here we want Hungary to remain Hungary. I have 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 a nation — a country has borders, but a nation does not. And I could continue the list at length.
Thank you to the organizers for their work in creating this place every year. Thank you to the Transylvanian Hungarian community for your hospitality, and thank you to all of you who come here year after year and believe that it is worth thinking together about the fate of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin. Thank you for being together with me. What is happening in Hungary?
It is hard to grasp this. On April 13, we woke up to a new reality — to something we thought could only be a bad joke or a tasteless prank. It turned out this is reality. The Szekler wife decides to surprise her husband. New hairstyle, curly hair, city-fashion clothing, makeup. The husband comes home — he doesn't recognize her. 'No, I am your wife.' 'Oh, then that's fine.' That is how we are with Hungary now, ladies and gentlemen. Then that's fine. It is still fine. It is still ours, it is still Hungary.
We know the facts. With personalized, retroactive legal provisions, half of the opposition, its strongest leaders — now also our friend Zsolt — have been excluded from politics. They were forbidden from running in future elections. With this, my dear friends, they have abolished democracy. Because if it is not the people who decide whom they vote for, but power decides whom they are allowed to vote for, then democracy is finished. With personalized, retroactive constitutional amendments, they removed the President of the Republic, the President of the Constitutional Court, the Chief Prosecutor — and with this they also abolished the rule of law. The abolition of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary today is carried out for the sake of exclusive power exercise. This is a crime. It has no significance now, but it will have when we restore the rule of law, and then it will have serious significance.
When we examine what is happening in Hungary, we have developed the feeling that we have seen this before. We search for words, analogies, comparisons. What is this? Some call it Rakosi-era, some call it communist, but we all feel this is something else — more modern — but we have seen this before. Removal of public leaders, making the opposition impossible to function, sending armed police against those who don't support the system — say, influencers — prosecutors placed under party control raiding opposition parties. This is so familiar.
Where have we seen this? Last week I had unofficial meetings in the United States, where we discussed Europe and also Hungary. I shared this dilemma with them — that there is something new that is hard to grasp. They laughed. It's not hard, this exists. They know this from South America. And indeed, in South America there is a trend that the European left has admired for decades — a peculiar mixture of communist thinking, political arbitrary rule, 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 this system in Poland, but in its fullness we are seeing it for the first time now.
After the American meetings, I myself 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 timing. First there too, and here too, they removed state officials who didn't belong to Maduro's party. Today in Hungary, committees are interrogating public officials in Budapest, asking them: 'Are you a Tisza supporter? Do you like the new Prime Minister?' In South America, opposition representatives were stripped of their voting rights and immunity. Criminal proceedings were initiated against them — just as is now happening in Hungary. Then they attacked opposition parties there too, harassed and banned them.
They raided campaign offices, seized computers, arrested and detained people working on campaigns. Then they also attacked those who helped opposition candidates — entrepreneurs and service providers — exactly as is happening in Hungary today. In the next step, they intimidated the system's opponents with false charges. Tax authority proceedings, vague accusations, proceedings initiated without legally clarified grounds, exclusion of legal remedies. This is exactly the kind of system being built in Hungary now.
The National Asset Protection Office is in fact a new AVH — it recalls the communist system's political police. The question is, dear friends, where does this lead when the government creates a new state authority alongside or instead of the existing police and prosecution service in an incomprehensible manner, for the purpose of settling scores with its opponents? Where has this led? Only the communists and Hitler did this kind of thing. We know how it ended.
Ladies and gentlemen, what we now see in Hungary 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. I haven't cast my vote yet, but I see that in the world this phenomenon is named in various ways.
It is called neo-communism — since there was a neoconservative intellectual movement in America, some say what is happening in Hungary could be called neo-communism. Then there are those who call it New Age communism. Some call it a liberal authoritarian system, and some simply call it a coup d'état. I would stick for now with the words arbitrary rule and tyranny. Although it is true that this is more a method than the essence of the system, but the Hungarian language is resourceful — sooner or later we will agree on what to call this thing from which the entire Hungarian homeland suffers today.
The fact is that this thing, this new authoritarian governmental system, was created in Hungary with Brussels' support. We didn't have many illusions about Brussels to begin with, especially as the similarities with Moscow became increasingly obvious. But that it would openly support arbitrary rule — few of us thought that would happen. They would do better not to do this, because this virus, if it reaches Western countries from Hungary, could cause them serious problems too. It will be dangerous for them as well.
Well, whatever its name, ladies and gentlemen, whatever we may call it in the future, one thing is certain: we must act against it. Why must we act against it?
Not because it is another party, not because it's not KDNP and not Fidesz. We must act against it because its operation will have serious economic consequences. I will speak about this later. But above all, we must act against it because it is a bad system. It calls into question things, feelings, and truths about which there was previously a public consensus. This system does not build but destroys, does not ennoble but degrades. First, it makes people uncertain about what power can and cannot do.
Second, it makes them uncertain about what counts as private property and what counts as public property. It does this not only on a large scale but on a small scale too. Today in Hungary, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs who had economic relationships with local governments during the past 16 years are being targeted. In reality, any player in the economy — small, large, national, or local — can be placed under proceedings based on a single citizen's complaint.
Third, this order that is now being built makes people uncertain 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 makes people uncertain about what is reality and what is appearance, what is life and what is a movie. Today in Hungary, many, very many — perhaps the majority of Tisza voters — are still in a kind of economic euphoria and are convinced that everything will be better. There are even those who 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 authoritarian system, similar to the old communist system, creates a feeling where no one can feel safe. Especially those who didn't vote for them or who dare to speak out against them. Revenge governance — a typical communist method. At home, the government — or rather the Tisza government's motto: 'Whoever is not with us is against us. Whoever is not a Tisza supporter is an enemy.' That is how simple politics is in Hungary today.
My friends, this is dangerous. It is dangerous for human coexistence, dangerous for the economy, and dangerous for peace. The end is always violence, and today this politics is directing Hungary.
In summary, I can tell you that the Tisza party wants and is beginning to build a new authoritarian system. After removing Fidesz from power, the goal is to eliminate Fidesz. The goal is to exclude our leaders from politics. Through illegitimate decisions, they make the political alternative impossible. Now they are trying to physically make Fidesz impossible. With police forces they took our servers, our membership records, our correspondence.
The roughly 3.5 million people who voted for the Tisza — this is an important part of Hungarian reality. For now they still believe that arbitrary rule will only be used against Fidesz supporters, but they are mistaken. The essence of arbitrary rule is that power no longer recognizes its own limits. One day the Tisza voters too will wake up to find that there is no one to protect them from the abuses of power.
This new power is aggressive, violent, and abuses its strength. It does not deal with the country's affairs but with persecuting the opposition. It does not try to create unity but turns Hungary upside down and disrupts social peace. Ladies and gentlemen, those who voted for change in the spring — I don't believe they voted for the abuse of power. I think the majority of them were well-intentioned. They 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 unfortunately we haven't had much time for that, because now freedom is in danger in Hungary. Therefore, instead of an opposition policy based on self-criticism, we must now switch to a policy of resistance.
So instead of opposition politics, resistance politics follows. But to you — to our own voters — we must confess that the Prime Minister who is now turning Hungary upside down came from our own ranks. If there is something for which I must apologize to you, this is it.
He came from among us, and this remains true even if he always belonged to the worst part of Fidesz. Because of this, instead of sober balance, Hungary has received dreams and chase. Look, I always laughed at the Americans when I read that before taking office, the president is subjected to a psychological fitness examination. But now, seeing Hungary, I no longer laugh. Those Americans actually know something.
But we don't have to deal with the Prime Minister — we have to deal with Hungarian life. And I can tell you that it is not Hungarian life when decisions are made in Brussels, when its script was written based on some German comedy. I'll leave you a moment to consider whether such a thing as a German comedy even exists. And it is not Hungarian life when its vital decisions are set in California or Poland by the Facebook algorithm tinkerers.
So the question is: what must be done so that we Hungarians once again find that Hungarian living space and way of life in which we feel at home again? In other words, what is to be done?
Dear friends, the first task is to speak out against the lies. We must tirelessly speak out against the lies. Since the lies are many, 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 after all. But the opposite is true. We have always believed that Hungary's place is in the European Union, but it is also true that the EU is pursuing a bad policy, destroying the European economy, and we will always speak out against Brussels pursuing misguided policy. That is why we founded the Patriots for Europe alliance.
Then they also lied that we support Russian interests. Let's face it, this too was a successful lie. The opposite is true. We have always supported Hungary's interests. We needed — and still need — cheap Russian energy, oil, and gas. This is in Hungary's interest. Recently the 21st sanctions package was adopted, which permanently banned Russian energy sources from Europe. The Hungarian government should have vetoed this, as I did on every occasion — not in Russia's interest, but to protect Hungary's interests.
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 for 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 given it up, and Hungary has joined a pro-Ukrainian, anti-Russian European war coalition.
This — dear friends — this is no child's play, this is a very serious matter. With this, if the escalation of war occurs, which is obviously imminent for all of us, they have made Hungary a target — a military target, or at least a potential military target. Giving up Hungary's neutrality was a capital error.
Then they also lied that Fidesz protects pedophiles. This is the Zsolt bácsi case, if you remember. It was a successful lie, but it has now emerged that the Tisza party — indeed the Prime Minister's brother — gave many millions of forints to the person making the false accusations.
They also lied that President Sulyok Tamás is a Fidesz puppet. While in reality he was Hungary's first civilian president — the first president who had no party affiliation. Göncz Árpád was an SZDSZ member. Mádl Ferenc was both MDF and Fidesz. Sólyom László was an MDF board member. The first — I won't speak of Áder János, who was obviously an old fighter for Fidesz. Novák Katalin was my minister. Schmitt Pál was vice president of Fidesz. The first president who had no party affiliation but was a civilian — that was Sulyok Tamás. It is a lie that he was a puppet of any party whatsoever.
So our first task is to systematically and persistently oppose the lies. We cannot allow power to lie to people without consequences. It is also true that we must learn the digital methods of fighting lies. Our second task, ladies and gentlemen, is to tell people the truth about the threatening economic situation.
I did this during the campaign too, with little success. I said difficult times are coming, don't change. Our opponent said the dangers are only invented by Fidesz. Change! Send the government packing and it 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 shouldn't continue the debates of the past. The question is not who was right.
However it was, we must now deal honestly and seriously with the present and the future. So the situation is, ladies and gentlemen, that in Hungary there has been no economic governance for months. There is Facebook governance, there is a movie, and peasant-blinding is going on. The economy is suffering. There are problems in agriculture. The construction industry has stopped. The strong forint, while good for those vacationing abroad, destroys export-oriented businesses that receive no help or compensation, even though they need it to preserve jobs.
And such help can be given from the tax side or the credit side, but we see no trace of it. While economic trouble is knocking at the door, power talks about introducing the euro. I would like you to know this is a fairy tale. The euro is actually a code name — a cipher for austerity. That is why speculators, banks, and financial people support it. When the austerity measures come in the fall, they will invoke this euro. Here again they are lying to the people.
If this comes to pass, and there continues to be no economic governance, and the troubles hit, then as it usually happens, sooner or later foreigners will knock on the door and say they have a solution proposal, and then the Hungarian government gets cornered — and it can happen. May God help us avoid this. But Hungary's fifth plundering could happen. Hungary has been plundered four times.
I don't need to mention Trianon, the post-WWII reparations — we didn't learn about this in school, but we had to pay heavy reparations to the Soviets. After that, we were plundered under the Horn government during the first privatization, and then the remaining state assets were privatized and we were plundered between 2002 and 2010.
Between 2010 and 2026, Hungary took back what it could recover. Banks, the energy sector, telecoms — and we have them again because we doubled the national wealth. Foreign exchange reserves are at unprecedented heights. And the gold reserves we multiplied 33-fold. There is something to lose again. There is something to take from Hungary again. There is a reason to come, a reason to plunder Hungary again.
And if someone walks through Budapest today and knows the faces of the international financial world's players, they won't be surprised how many consultants and advisors there are. At the National Bank governor's office, a foreign big bank president is visiting — as they say, they sense the smell of blood. There will be trouble here, there could be financial chaos, everything's price will fall. 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 defend against this, then Hungary's fifth plundering could happen.
Ladies and gentlemen, the young people were also deceived here. They made the young people believe that everything called European and Brussels-related is good. If it's European, then the green transition is good too — even though we know it's a tragedy in reality.
If it's European, then the EU energy policy is good too — even though we see it is destroying us. They made them believe that if it's European, if it's EU, then the sanctions policy is good too — even though it is obviously costing us. If foreign policy is European Union, then it can only be good — even though we see it leads to war. If economic policy is Brussels-based, then it is necessarily good because we get money and we will develop.
These are the simple things they made people believe. It was easy to make the young people believe because they had never seen a Hungarian government following Brussels economic policy and failing. They only saw a successful national economic policy differing from Brussels economic policy during the past 16 years. That's why it was easy to make them believe there is something better than the national path — because if it's European, it can only be successful.
Ladies and gentlemen! Hungarian young people will now experience for the first time that an economic policy following a European path is dangerous and in the worst case can destroy us. We already saw this before 2010, but to a newborn, every joke is new.
Ladies and gentlemen! And in the fall, the government must tell the truth about the energy, oil, and gas situation. For months they should have been preparing the country, deflecting and softening the energy crisis threatening the Hungarian economy. Instead, they push the line that everything will be fine — it's just propaganda. And people believe it, they want to believe it. Who wouldn't prefer it 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 level with enormous effort. This happens because the United States is releasing strategic petroleum reserves. What falls out due to Iran is compensated from here. But these reserves are running out dangerously 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, usually inflationary.
So ladies and gentlemen, apart from telling the truth about the economic situation, what else must we do in Hungary? In debates, we must defend the past 16 — indeed now almost 36 — years. The national governance was confirmed four times by a two-thirds majority of the voters.
Actually, there is nothing to debate about the 12 years from 2010 to 2022, because the voters confirmed, supported, and reinforced what we did with a two-thirds majority every four years. There was trouble only with the last four years, against which they said no — but they didn't say no to 16 years. Twelve years: four times yes. Last four years: one time no.
Ladies and gentlemen, we must be proud of our past 16 years. We must push back the Tisza party's flippant accusations and we must say calmly and with due modesty, but firmly:
It is a historical fact that the Hungarian right did the most and worked the hardest for Hungary, for the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin, and for the Hungarians of Transylvania. Our community carried out the change of system. We dismantled the communist system. We restored the honor of work. We created one million jobs. We placed the cause of founding families and creating homes above everything. We protected Hungarians from foreign corporate looting.
We protected Hungary from the mass of migrants. We protected Hungary from being dragged into war. And we created Europe's safest country. Our political community — Hungary could always count on this. And we should be proud of this.
There are questions. Others also did things for Hungary. We cannot deny this, nor should we. In fact, some did not do little — but we did the most. Anyone who wants to catch up with us in this competition will have to eat many more dumplings. So let us be proud, dear friends.
If we have that, then the next task is to stand up for one another. It is important that no one feels alone. It is true that we cannot help everyone, we cannot solve everyone's current difficult situation, because we don't have the power or sufficient strength for that. Whomever we can, we will help, and we will always stand by everyone. We won't leave anyone alone, and when democracy is restored, we will give the victims and those who suffered full compensation.
And finally, our most important task, ladies and gentlemen — our most important task is to take action against the new authoritarianism. Say no to it. Stand up for freedom. Build the broadest possible resistance. Create the broadest possible unity in defense of freedom. We must protect Hungary, because we cannot be Europe's shameful banana republic.
There are those of us who have done this before, who have already lived through an authoritarian system. In the end, we come from the underground. I myself was once taken in by police under an authoritarian system. We know what to do in this situation.
We must understand that in this situation, Fidesz too must do something completely new. It must do something entirely different from what we did in the past 16 years. Of course, the parliamentary faction must perform its traditional tasks, traditional political work in parliament.
Led by János Bóka, they must prove that we — our political community — are capable at any moment of fielding a government one class above the current one, in Hungary's interest. But this traditional political work is not enough. Fidesz as a whole must do something different — that is the faction's job. Fidesz must do something entirely different.
We, although we are a political party, must now carry out something different from power struggles, from questions of power.
We are dealing with it. Fidesz's task today is to serve and support the national resistance. The goal of the national resistance is to restore freedom. Freedom is not a party question, nor even a left or right question. Fidesz must now cast the widest possible arc, where every freedom-loving person can fit. That is why Fidesz must now operate not as a party, but as a service center, an incubator, so to speak, a nursery. Fidesz must not strengthen itself, but rather help the groups and organizations of freedom-loving people. We need to help increase the number of freedom-loving people who bravely stand for freedom — that is the goal. For Fidesz now, it is not power but freedom. We have done this once before; we know how to do it. Don't forget, in April 57 percent of Hungarians voted for Tisza, and 47 percent against. And believe me, you will see — this ratio will reverse, and the supporters of freedom will be in the majority, and this will happen sooner than we currently think.
Because this Tisza authoritarian system does not have economic foundations. The movie is over; reality is coming. An authoritarian system that lacks economic foundations — with good politics, one could even create those foundations. But ladies and gentlemen, I see that they do not have the ability or talent to create the missing economic foundations of their authoritarian rule. Just think back for a moment to the Kádár era. Many resigned to it, or at least lived together with the authoritarian rule. I won't say they accepted it, but they tolerated the communist system as long as the economy was going well, as long as the chariot of the economy was rolling. But as soon as the economic foundation slipped out from under the authoritarian system, the entire structure collapsed with surprising speed.
In Hungary, very few of us in 1988 would have said that in two years this authoritarian rule would be over. And it was over. This is because, dear guests of Tusnádfürdő, Hungarians are a freedom-loving people. Even if they accept constraints, even if they occasionally resign themselves to authoritarian rule, they always exact a price for it. A clever people — they will collect that price, it must be paid, if there is anything to pay with. But the truth is that today, not just in Hungary, but across all of Europe, there is nothing to pay with. That is why we call it whatever you will — neo-communism, new age communism, authoritarian liberalism, tyranny, or a coup d'état. This authoritarian system has no future in Hungary. It is a transitional phenomenon that will cease, evaporate, and disappear from our lives. And this is not just the case in Hungary. It is like this everywhere, across all of Europe.
The only question is when this becomes apparent — to quote an old joke from the Kádár era: we know what will happen. The only question is what happens until then, when the unsustainability of this situation becomes clear. So what I can tell you is that it will become apparent on the first day after the 133 days. This is expected sometime in the fall. Do the math. And as the 133 days pass and the 134th arrives, notice: 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 also carry them out. This will be the case with Tisza too. Whoever brings it in will also carry it out. We did not bring it in, so we will not have to shrink it either. Our task is to stand by our two and a half million voters who have always stood by us, and whom we have always stood by.
