Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban spoke in Tusványos about the challenges facing Hungary. Most reactions were triggered by his comment in the speech, where he said that „we are not of mixed race” – suggesting that the inhabitants of the Carpathian Basin are not mixed with non-European nations.
The Hungarian prime minister said that „the Winter of Our Discontent” a fundamentally Western feeling of life, stemming from the fact that Western civilization is losing its strength, power, authority and capacity to act.
„The decline of the West, predicted a century ago, was a sign of intellectual and demographic decline, but today, he said, the West is experiencing a loss of power and material space, linked to the modernization of other civilizations. Rival civilizations, including Chinese, Indian, Russian Orthodox and Islamic, have adopted Western technology and the Western financial system, but they „have no intention of adopting Western values” and feel humiliated when the West tries to spread its own values, he explained.
In his speech, Orbán identified migration as the second most important challenge after population growth.
„We can call it population exchange or population overflow.”
– said the prime minister, who said migration had divided Europe in two.
Orbán believes that countries where European and non-European peoples live together are no longer nations.
„These countries are nothing but conglomerates of peoples.”
– Orbán said.
The Prime Minister also said that the West had moved intellectually to Central Europe, and that only the post-West remained, which was waging war against Central Europe.
„Although there is less talk about migration now, the situation remains what it was: George Soros and the forces in Brussels are still trying to force migration on us, they have taken Hungary to court, we even have been „condemned.”
– said the Prime Minister, who said that this verdict has not yet been implemented only because of the Ukrainian crisis.
„All we ask is that they do not try to force upon us what we see not as a fate, but as a destiny for a nation.”
The prime minister believes that the internationalist left is behind the fact that Europe has a mixed population. Orbán said this is a sham, because there are places where European and non-European peoples mix, and places where European peoples mix, such as the Carpathian Basin.
„We are not a mixed race”
– Orbán said, adding that „we are willing to mix with each other, but we do not want to become mixed.”
The prime minister’s speech, which received a lot of media coverage, was also echoed by representatives of the Jewish community.
„As I understand it, a significant part of the speech was about the loss of space in Western Judeo-Christian culture and the challenges that this poses. In many respects, one can even identify with this part of the thought process.”
– Slomó Köves, the chief rabbi of the EMIH-Hungarian Jewish Federation, told Neokohn.
„At the same time, one of the fundamental values of Judeo-Christian civilisation is that God created every human being in his own image.”
– the rabbi pointed out.
„For this reason alone, it is particularly unfortunate to speak of ‘races and miscegenation’.”
– said Slomo Köves.
Neolog chief rabbi Róbert Frölich also reacted to Viktor Orbán’s statement in his speech in Tusványos.
„For some reason, Attila József, Miklós Radnóti, Antal Szerb, Endre Gelléri Andor, Jenő Rejtő and many other names and faces, known and unknown, float before me. They (though not Attila József, for he was only on this list because of his common sense) fell victim to the simpleminded theories of race. Speaking of race:
Many species populate our planet. But there is only one species that lives on this earth, walking, working, talking and sometimes thinking: Homo Sapiens Sapiens. This species is one and indivisible.
I commend the above to your attention.”
– wrote Frölich.
András Heisler, President of the Mazsihisz, said in a statement that he „attaches great importance to preventing public debates from becoming heated and therefore requests a meeting with the Prime Minister”.
