Hungary's Orbán talks in first appearance since president quit over scandal

Highlights of Orbán's 25th State of the Nation speech:

"This is like a nightmare."

Orbán kicked off his speech by addressing what can be considered his government's greatest crisis / challenge for many years.

The year 2024 could not have started in a worse way. Our President of the Republic has submitted her resignation to Parliament. This is like a nightmare, and it is taking a toll on us all.

Orbán distanced himself of the entire scandal by pushing the responsibility entirely to Katalin Novák.

"But the finest – and at the same time most difficult – task of the President is to sustain the unity of the nation; and if for any reason this balance is upset, so too is the possibility of its restoration.

From the reasoning accompanying her resignation we have learned that it was her decision that compromised the unity of the nation, and so she herself was no longer able to restore that unity.

At the same time, Orbán has also tried to soothe the seething public by stressing that

[...] in this situation what happened was what had to happen.

"Vigilance, comrades!"

The PM has also acknowledged his supporters cannot sit back, they must be alert constantly.

Even if you are a Mike Tyson, or for that matter a Muhammad Ali, you need to know that in politics you are always only one punch away from the canvas. Therefore your only defence is careful consideration and vigilant caution.

While he hardly mentioned the opposition in his speech, he did take a jab at them occasionally, even while he was talking about energy investments and environmental protection.

"[...] we must keep our wits about us because it is a widely known, admitted – even publicly admitted – fact that the “Dollar Left” is financed from abroad. And I hardly believe that nothing is expected from them in return."

We should not be simpletons. Just so that the Left, too, understand: vigilance, comrades!

He once more ripped into the opposition: "As regards the debate surrounding the resignation, all I can – and all I must – say is that

there is more dignity in the little finger of each of the two departing ladies than there is in all the leaders of the Left combined.

As regards the departure of his former Justice Minister Judit Varga, who was expected to lead Fidesz’s list in the June European elections, Orbán also opted for a soft tone when saying:

"In accordance with constitutional customs, and in line with the uninterrupted practice of twenty-five years, a presidential decision was countersigned by the Minister of Justice. Her departure is an inevitable – and, I believe, unfair – consequence of the laws of politics."

Child protection system

"In addition to the lessons, there are also tasks," said Orbán.

The Hungarian child protection system must be strengthened. It must be revised, and the legal rules serving to protect our children must be supplemented – all the way from the Constitution to ministerial decrees.

"The ordeal of the victims places obligations on us," he went on.

It compels us to strengthen the management and oversight of our child protection institutions,

as well as the rules and restrictions applicable to the people working there. And we must submit all these to the National Assembly in the form of a new child protection legislative package."

More about the resignations
The former deputy director of the Bicske children's home, Endre Kónya, who made children sign false confessions he either penned himself or just typed to cover up sexual abuse by the director, had been granted a presidential pardon ahead of a visit by Pope Francis in April 2023. For the coercion he was sentenced to three years and four months imprisonment, while the director got an eight-year prison sentence. Kónya still had nine months to serve when he was pardoned. His criminal record was also wiped clean, meaning he could, in theory, return to work in education or childcare.

Last April, Novák set the record of pardons granted in one day, when she pardoned 22 people, including György Budaházy, who had been convicted of terrorism, and five others accused in the trial of the now defunct far-right group Hunnia. Budaházy, the head of Hunnia, was given a 13-year prison sentence in 2016 for “terrorist acts”, along with 16 other activists. They had all been convicted of carrying out a series of attacks between 2007 and 2009, with firearms and Molotov cocktails, against the homes of various socialist and liberal MPs, who at the time were in power.

New President of the Republic

Orbán said the election of a new President of the Republic is an "urgent task", and asked the governing party's parliamentary group to start the procedure leading to the election of a new president on the day of the incumbent president’s departure.

"As is right for a large and strong government party, we should minimise the transitional period," he added.

Economic outlook

"We managed to zigzag unscathed out of the extra difficult year of 2023," said Orbán, adding that one should expect more from life than just repelling dangers.

He said we must aspire in 2024 to "climb back" to the path Hungary was on in 2019, when inflation was just 3%, while the economy was growing by 5%, the budget deficit was below 2% and national debt was well below 70%, and continuously decreasing, when the number of new homes built was 21,000, and almost 90,000 children were born.

Green energy

"[...] the era of green energy is no longer knocking on our door: it has kicked the door in," said Orbán.

Indirectly, he mentioned battery production, as well, saying that "the green transition requires two things: green energy must be generated, and it must be stored."

He later stressed the impact of the green transition in the automotive industry, a key sector of the Hungarian economy, adding that in addition to new investors, existing domestic companies are also steadily switching to electric car production.

"It will only be a few years before energy storage devices are present in every area of our lives, including our personal lives: in our cars, in our homes, at our workplaces, in factories, in industrial facilities. The Hungarian government is setting an enormous amount of money – hundreds of billions of forints – aside for this purpose," he said.

Sweden's accession to NATO

The good news is that our current dispute with Sweden is moving towards a conclusion.

"Together with the Swedish prime minister,

we have taken important steps in order to rebuild trust.

"We are on course to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO at the beginning of Parliament’s spring session," said Orbán.

News portal Index reported on Monday that, a huge military and military-industrial agreement may have been reached between the two governments in recent weeks, at a prime ministerial level, which could lead to new equipment for the Hungarian Defence Forces, including Gripen fighter jets.

The agreement would add four more Gripen fighters this year to the 14 currently being leased. The leases of the 14 JAS-39 Gripen C/D fighter jets currently operated by the Hungarian Defence Forces will expire in 2026, after which the aircraft will become Hungarian property.

The improving relations between the two PMs could be underpinned by a visit to Hungary by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, and although there is no official information yet, the Swedish Embassy in Hungary is already preparing for the arrival of the prime minister, so the visit is expected in the near future, the portal added.

European Union is a "deadweight Hungary must carry"

Orbán said that 2023 was "a year of failures for the European Union."

And this drags us down, pulls us back, it is a deadweight that we must carry. Can we be successful if the West happens to be unsuccessful? This is the million-dollar question.

He went on to say that Hungary joined the European Union twenty years ago, and "by now, we know it well, and it is doubtful whether we can lean on it."

"It is an open secret in Brussels that the 50 billion euros intended for Ukraine for a period of four years will not be enough, because this year alone there is a 37-billion-euro hole in the Ukrainian budget. The United States is becoming ever more reluctant, and they are financing Ukraine less and less enthusiastically," he added.

This is why we are reluctant to take out ever more loans together with the other Member States of the European Union. If you share your purse with others, it will end in tears.

"If one of them falls, the others will fall with them. We cannot afford this.

We must carve this into stone: collective borrowing is no longer an acceptable option for Hungary.

A pivotal year

The year of 2024 could be a watershed: a “super election” year, when people in Brussels, America, India and a dozen other places will decide what leadership they want in the current of global economic transformation and its crashing ice floes,

said Orbán.

At the end of the year the global political scene will look very different from how it looked at the beginning of this year; and, with God's help, Hungary's room for manoeuvre will not be reduced, but will be expanded to an extent that we have not seen for a long time.

Donald Trump

We cannot interfere in other countries' elections, but we would very much like to see President Donald Trump return to the White House and make peace here in the eastern half of Europe,

said the Prime Minister.

We ourselves are preparing for a presidency. I am talking about the Hungarian EU Presidency. Make Europe Great Again!,

he said after noting that "it is time for another “Make America Great Again” presidency in the United States."

Cover photo: Facebook