-
“Everyone felt morally driven to conquer their fear.”
It all began with a battle, the battle for our freedom. What the communists had taken from the Hungarians, the young people had to take back. The first task is to organise small circles of freedom, and this begins in Bibó István College.
-
“We learned from our revered professor that conservatism is anything but an ideology – and is in fact the opposite of ideology.”
During his time at Oxford University, he develops a close friendship with Roger Scruton, the leading figure in Anglo-Saxon conservatism, whose ideas on the need for nations continue to influence the Prime Minister to this day.
-
“If we believe in our own strength, we can end the communist dictatorship. If we are determined enough, we can force the ruling party to submit to free elections.”
If a nation is not free, then none of its citizens are free. The struggle for the Hungarian people and for a free country moves to the streets.
-
“If we do not lose sight of the ideals of 1956 we can elect a government that will directly start negotiations on the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops.”
The Bolsheviks wanted to deprive Hungary of its history, but to no avail: the Hungarians wrote them out of it. One of the first milestones in this is the reburial of Imre Nagy and his associates, at which Viktor Orbán is the first to publicly say that Soviet troops must be withdrawn from Hungary.
-
“Hungary’s young democracy needs young democrats.”
Hungary returns to its own independent, national path: the path of a free and democratic, parliamentary Hungary. Hungarians put an end to the socialist dictatorship, fighting for our freedom at the Hungarian Roundtable Talks.
-
“We know exactly what kind of world we want to live in, and we want to be there in its construction.”
On the frontline: the first duels in Parliament. In the new, democratically elected Parliament, Fidesz MPs fight for the creation of a free and honoured country.
-
“The Fidesz story is about ten, twenty or thirty guys turning up from somewhere, rebelling, having had enough of the world around them, defiantly turning up their collars and writing their own script.”
Sweaters are being replaced by suits: the political balance of power begins to shift as support for Fidesz continues to rise. These are the years in which we acquire our routine political skills.
-
“If your heart is in the right place, your mind will easily follow.”
Fidesz holds its annual congress, at which its members elect Viktor Orbán as party president without a single opposing vote.
-
“The communists are all going to the polls; let's be there too!”
The second parliamentary cycle begins with the return of the communists: the post-communist successor party, the MSZP, emerges from political “quarantine” to form a coalition government with the liberals. Fidesz MPs present this “progressive” government with tough opposition.
-
“The communists were back: the socialists in the saddle and their liberals in the sidecar.”
In opposition, Fidesz's task is to form a counterweight to the left-liberal bloc. But there is not only an increase in the scale of party-building: there is also the realisation that fragmentation needs to be reversed, and that the Hungarian right needs to be reorganised under the leadership of Viktor Orbán.
-
“In 1996 Fidesz published a discussion paper entitled ‘For A Civic Hungary’.”
Intellectual construction work begins with laying the foundations of a civic Hungary. There is the creation of new alternative, which is about a civic future, a civic Hungary.
-
“On the one side the socialist forces, on the other citizens forming a united front. It is up to us to decide when the past ends and the future begins.”
Where there is unity, there is strength. A new alternative on the right emerges, incorporating Fidesz, the Christian Democrats and the former governing party the MDF.
-
“Democracy is about always having alternatives to choose from.”
Debate with Prime Minister Gyula Horn in the final days of the election campaign. Civic, right-oriented thinking proves a more attractive alternative than that offered by the post-communists.
-
“Three children, three rooms and four wheels for all who want them.”
The Right wins! The time comes for Hungary to take its destiny in its own hands and restore what the post-communists have wrecked. The task is to strengthen the middle class and restore respect for Hungary’s provincial regions and rural areas.
-
“A long process has been completed: our country has been irrevocably integrated into the safe world.”
A fundamental objective of the toppling of communism was transatlantic integration. One of the important milestones in this process is Hungary gaining full membership of NATO in 1999.
-
“If the foundations of the future Hungary did not include Christianity as a very important inheritance, then Hungary would be a very poor and vulnerable country.”
Before the finalisation of Hungary’s accession to the European Union, former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl – who sees that Hungary's governance is based on Christian foundations – invites Fidesz to join the European People's Party, which is the European Parliament’s Christian-conservative parliamentary group.
-
“Every era has its own symbols. The Mária Valéria Bridge has remained a symbol, which conveys this message: ‘We are the future of Europe, and let us never again allow the destruction of the bridges that link us to one another.’”
Hungary is the country of 15 million Hungarians around the world, and Fidesz has organised its government with the interests of all these Hungarians in mind. In order to hold together the sundered nation, bridges are built which are not only symbolic, but also physical; one such is the rebuilt Mária Valéria Bridge, linking Slovakia and Hungary.
-
“Dear friends, on 7 April we were many, but still not enough.”
Back then we still did not know that it is not enough to be successful: you also have to look successful. And so the socialist successor party returns to power. But the work of the Right has not been wasted: EU accession continues to be a national goal.
-
“Now our watchword is this: ‘One camp, one flag’.”
The nation cannot remain in opposition and cannot remain without representation: “One camp, one flag”. Fidesz forges a new alliance with Hungarians: we create the Civic Circles to revitalise local cultural and public life. Thus everyone will be ready when the time for action arrives.
-
“Let this day be the day of Europe’s reunification, a day of shared hope and celebration. A day of shared hope and celebration, for we have all worked for it.”
Hungarians have decided: our country’s place is in the European Union. And Fidesz has come first in every European Parliament election: since accession, every European election has been won by the civic forces, by Fidesz.
-
“Whoever cuts themselves off from their own past cuts themselves off from their own future.”
In a referendum we want it to be decided that Hungarians living beyond our borders will be granted dual citizenship; but this is prevented by the Left, who in the process tear apart both hearts and the nation. But we continue to insist that the true strength of Hungarians is the unity of the nation. We stand united!
-
“Behind people’s truth is reality.”
For us people’s opinions matter – and not just once every four years. The national consultation is one of the most important traditions in Hungarian political life, and one that is regularly used by the government of the right. Few people remember it, but we initiate the first national consultation back in 2005, to hold up the mirror of truth to the Left.
-
“This is the legacy of the communist system: communists lie – including the present-day communists.”
They lied in the morning, at noon and at night. News emerges of Ferenc Gyurcsány's “Öszöd speech of lies”, in which the then prime minister admits that the Left won that year’s election by lying. Political orders are given to violently disperse people on the streets with mounted police charges and water cannons.
-
“We Hungarians have nowhere left to retreat! Our opponents have bared their teeth. They are aggressive, ruthless and driven by a brutal lust for power. We have nowhere to left retreat!”
The left-liberal government cordons off the “nation's main square”, outside Parliament. But the post-communists have failed in their attempt to follow in their predecessors’ footsteps, and Hungarian freedom cannot be hobbled by lies and the trampling of rights.
-
“As long as we attack one another, we will not have the time or the strength to declare that the Emperor has no clothes. But now, on 9 March, we have said it. And with this we have taken the first and most important step; now we must simply stay on our own path.”
One cannot govern in opposition to the people. What the post-communists wanted to impose on us from above, the Hungarian people reject in a referendum: we reverse their paid health care and paid education policies. The socialists are in their death throes, and soon their final hour will strike.
-
“The socialist governments had made off with everything that was heavier than air, and when the first wave of the financial crisis arrived, there was nothing left to draw on.”
The country is pushed to the brink by the irresponsible economic policies of the socialist-liberal tandem and the global financial crisis. The socialists put Hungary deep in debt and in a vulnerable condition, and during the crisis they abandon people, who are made to pay the price for the Government’s mistakes.
-
“The state must regain the capacity to enforce the will of the people and protect its citizens.”
A political, social and moral crisis shakes the foundations of state order and public security, with extremist paramilitary groups marching in the streets and terrorising the Roma community.
-
“In a system of national cooperation, the winner is not given credit for being right, but is given a task to fulfil.”
That's it, enough! As they did earlier with the communists, Hungarians drive the post-communists from power by peaceful means, in a “ballot-box revolution”. In the parliamentary election Fidesz-KDNP wins a two-thirds constitutional majority.
-
“We did not abandon those who live there, but helped them: we rebuilt the whole area.”
Not only has the leftist government’s irresponsible governance landed the country deep in debt, but it has also led to one of the worst accidents in Hungary’s industrial history. The red mud disaster in Ajka causes incalculable damage in human, economic and environmental terms. The authorities, volunteers, civil society organisations and the new national government act as one to provide immediate assistance. Reconstruction of the region becomes our national cause and our task.
-
“The Hungarian nation is more than a set of individuals: it is a community that must be organised, strengthened, and even built.”
A strong Europe can only be built on the foundation of strong nations; it is with this aspirational precept – which we espouse to this day – that Hungary begins its first ever tenure of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
-
“We have now reached a milestone in the great work we started in May 2010. The first phase of our undertaking is now complete. Hungary stands on new foundations.”
Parliament brings the chaotic years following the fall of communism to an end by adopting the new Fundamental Law. In doing so it forges an alliance between the Hungarians of the past, the present and the future – an alliance that gives expression to the will of the Hungarian people throughout a thousand years of history.
-
“We have also fulfilled a Hungarian national strategic goal – we have eliminated discrimination.”
Borders are not dividing people, but uniting them. We make it possible for Hungarians outside our borders to acquire dual citizenship; thus comes to an end almost one hundred years of solitude imposed on the Hungarian nation by Trianon.
-
“We shall defend families, we shall defend reductions in household utility bills, we shall defend Hungary’s security!”
After 2010 the traps of impoverishment and dependency need to be eliminated. People plunged into foreign currency debt by the socialists have to be rescued, and utility bills have to be slashed.
-
“Today Hungary is the most united nation in Europe.”
Victory again! The spring parliamentary election is the first in which Hungarians living beyond Hungary’s borders are able to vote. Fidesz-KDNP wins another two-thirds majority.
-
“We have successfully defended our southern borders with the building of the fence, the legal and physical border defences, and the exemplary steadfastness of our police. We have prevented the Muslim world from inundating us from the south.”
Hungary was, and is. The question now is whether it will be. The first waves of modern migration crash into Hungary. While Europe is being shaken by terrorist attacks, our country is building a fence and calling a halt to mass migration. In the years since, Hungary has continued to excel itself in defending the borders of the whole of Europe.
-
“Faster, higher, stronger!”
For Hungarians, sport is a national cause, which is why the national government gives priority to sports investments. This is already being reflected in results: in 2016 Hungary’s national football team qualifies for the UEFA European Championship for the first time in 44 years, and will do so again in 2021. In fact, since then we have beaten the English both at home and away. Go Hungarians!
-
“Let's work to ensure that Hungary remains a Hungarian country.”
The Fidesz-KDNP government is the only one in Europe to ask people what kind of Europe they would like to live in. As a result of the referendum, the will of the electorate is also incorporated in the Fundamental Law: No foreign population shall be settled in Hungary without the consent of Parliament.
-
“We have emerged from a great battle and we have achieved a crucial victory: we have received the opportunity – and we have created the opportunity – to defend and be able to defend Hungary.”
For the third time Fidesz-KDNP wins a two-thirds majority in a parliamentary election. Despite political pressure from Soros NGOs, armies of paid agents and Brussels, Hungarians have supported the Government's position on migration. They have voted for Hungary to be a Hungarian country and not an immigrant country.
-
“If there is work, there is everything.”
In less than ten years we have progressed economically from being at the tail end to being one of the EU’s frontrunners. Hungary is among the best performers in terms of rising employment, in falling unemployment and in economic growth. Our collective successes are supported by Hungarians, and Fidesz wins an overwhelming victory in the elections for the European Parliament.
-
“‘God, homeland and family’ – this is the watchword of conservative thinking in Hungary.”
Without Hungarian families there is no Hungarian future. Therefore demographic challenges must be solved not by resettling migrants, but by encouraging people to have children and start families. This is why the amount of money our central budget devotes to protecting families is higher than anywhere else in the world. As long as Hungary has a national government, Hungarians will have a family-friendly government.
-
“Don’t forget, we’re working towards 2030!”
In November 2020, after having led governments for a total of 14 years, Viktor Orbán overtakes Kálmán Tisza to become the longest-serving prime minister in Hungary’s history. That is a lot by any reckoning, but the true measure of governance is using the trust received from the people for the benefit of the country and the nation.
-
“We’ve pledged to create as many jobs as the virus destroys.”
Loss of life, curfews and quarantine. The arrival of COVID-19 brings with it the age of pandemics. Hungarians have not only had to cope with migration waves, but also with successive waves of pandemic. In addition, the pandemic triggers an economic crisis across the entire world. Instead of lockdowns and shutting down the country, Hungary chooses a different strategy: tax cuts, promotion of investment and job protection. This path is effective. After all, Hungarians are the kind of people who get tougher with every blow they receive, and so we emerge from the crisis stronger than we were before.
-
“The education of Hungarian children is a matter for the Hungarian people alone.”
In Hungary migration and child protection are decided on by the people. Hungarians have the final word: we shall not allow sexual propaganda to be aimed at children. The sexual education of children is the exclusive responsibility of their parents.
-
“We’ve won a victory that’s big enough to be seen from the moon.”
Fidesz-KDNP wins its fourth two-thirds victory in a parliamentary election. In a twist of fate, it wins its biggest victory just when everyone has united against the Right.
-
“Hungary stands on the side of peace.”
Gunfire crackles and cannons roar. No sooner has the pandemic ended when the Russo-Ukrainian war breaks out in that country neighbouring us. The war – and Brussels’ sanctions in response – result in an energy crisis and inflation in Europe. In contrast to the dominant pro-war sentiment elsewhere, Hungary is on the side of peace and an immediate ceasefire.
