11 March 2014, Bátonyterenye
A warm welcome to everyone, good afternoon!
First of all, I would like to congratulate the Mayor on this investment project. I would like to express my gratitude to Member of Parliament Zsolt Becsó for helping in its realisation. Congratulations to the locals, and especially to the girls who sang for us a little earlier. Thank you for coming here and being with us today. I was a little shocked earlier, because I've seen investors who roughly knew their way around Hungary and feel at home here to some extent, and I've seen many who settle down here after a while: it's a beautiful country, the girls are pretty, life is good in Hungary if you have a job. But I have never encountered anyone who was capable of pronouncing words like "gyártókapacitás", "ülőbútor" or "megelégedettség". And so please allow me, Mr. Vandendriessche [Joost Vandendriessche, Managing Director of Sinia] to congratulate you both on this new project and on your excellent Hungarian.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On my way here, my favourite childhood board game, 'Gazdálkodj okosan!', came to mind. I'm sure you all remember, the objective of the game embodied the dream of practically every Hungarian; the goal was to save enough money to eventually buy a house and furnish it. And the winner was the one who was the first to fully furnish their new home.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Systems, I mean political systems, may come and go, but people will always have the desire to make a home for themselves. And it is furniture that really makes a place homely. And so today, when we place the foundation stone for this new furniture factory, in addition to the favourable economic effects we are also thinking about Hungarian homes and we are also making the statement that we believe that more and more families will be capable of making a home for themselves and furnishing it according to their own taste. And in fact we also believe that more and more Hungarians who start a family will have the opportunity of achieving this not just later in life, but already in their youth.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Bátonyterenye has a famous and glorious past. Historically, it was once the estate of the aristocratic Almássy and Gyürky families, and in modern times the settlement and the surrounding area began to thrive as a result of coal mining. For 120 years, mining and the related industries provided a secure livelihood and often a means of getting ahead for the town's inhabitants. And then everything suddenly changed.
Dear people of Bátonyterenye,
Hungary's greatest problem since the change in regime in 1989 is that in those days, the early nineties, almost one and a half million jobs were lost with frightening speed here in Hungary. This was a serious shock in itself, but in addition the country lost its old commercial markets, and as a result the country's industry, and especially its heavy industry, began to disintegrate very rapidly. Many once thriving settlements such as Ózd, Salgótartján, Komló and Miskolc suddenly lost the role they had previously played within the national economy, tens of thousands of people found themselves without work; people lost their self-confidence, and even their self-respect was often dented. Something similar happened here in Bátonyterenye. The foundation stone we are placing here today represents the fact that we Hungarians are trying to build a country that does not abandon a single region, does not abandon a single city and does not abandon a single individual, because nobody is expendable.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The first and perhaps most important step in achieving this, in building a Hungary of this kind, was that we freed Hungary's settlements from the debt trap. One of the painful consequences of the eight years prior to 2010 was that settlements found themselves up to their eyeballs in debt and prepared each year with practically no hope at all for that period in February when they had to draw up their budgets. The first step we had to undertake to enable the most disadvantaged regions to begin developing was to free them from their debts. In the case of Bátonyterenye, if my calculations are correct, this meant that the Government assumed over one billion forints in debt from the city's local government. This means that when you draw up your budget you no longer need to think hard on how you are going to manage to finance this year's interest payments and how you are going to eventually repay the principal instalments. I can well imagine how many of the country's Mayors, especially in disadvantaged settlements with poor credit, had many sleepless nights or probably weeks thinking about how the heck they can somehow manage the accumulated debt without the town crashing down onto the heads of the people who live there.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let us be appreciative of the fact that over the past three years the Hungarian economy has succeeded in achieving a position in which the Government was able to undertake to assume the debts of the country's local governments, and as a result to create an opportunity for our cities, including yours, to begin the future with a clean slate. My wish for the Mayor and Council of Bátonyterenye is that you seize this opportunity.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would also like to say a few words about what the Government has contributed to here in Bátonyterenye during the past four years. I do so with suitable modesty, because I haven't come here to praise myself, but if I don't mention it, nobody else will. According to some, self-praise is so important that it should not be entrusted to others, although I have my doubts, but nevertheless it is with suitable modesty and humility that I would like to tell you that in addition to freeing the city of its debts, we have, thanks to your Member of Parliament, my fellow MP Zsolt Becsó, and the City Council, also succeeded in channelling development funding to Bátonyterenye. Around 170 development programmes have been launched here over the past four years at a total cost of almost 16 billion forints. Some of these only partly involve the city, investments totalling some 3 billion forints, but I must say that 12-13 billion forints arrived directly here, to your settlement. 120 of these programmes have already been completed successfully. I think that these are impressive figures, and if you take into account the fact that we have achieved all this amidst a serious European crisis, then it is all the more deserving of acknowledgement.
And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, let me also say a few words about Sinia. As I read in my notes, it has been almost fifteen years since Sinia "moved in" with the people of Nógrád County. It is now one of the region's successful businesses. I don't want to repeat these impressive figures, because Mr. Vandendriessche has already listed them; I would simply like to mention a few things that make this investment project an especially valuable example. First of all, it is important because it provides work for many people. As we have heard, the company employs 225 people in Salgótarján. It is also important to us because it pays taxes. May God keep Mr. Vandendriessche in this good habit of his! Between 2011 and 2013, the company paid 830 million forints in taxes into the Hungarian treasury and to the local government with relation to its earnings sets and the employment of its staff. I also find it exemplary that this company has donated 28 million forints to various sports organisations, something which is important to us, the people who live here in Hungary. I would also like to thank Mr. Vandendriessche and express my appreciation for the fact that the company has donated 6 million forints worth of furniture to the Fót Children' Centre, because we must also take care of our orphans.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Every new plant and factory that opens of course takes us one step closer to our goal, for which my government and sometimes I myself are often the subject of ridicule, but we'll see who is right in the end, because our objective is full employment. People try to explain to us that in the modern world it is impossible to practice an economic policy that provides work for everybody. I do not agree; I think there exists such an economic policy. It may be the case, as in Hungary, that a market, an economy that operates on a commercial basis, is unable to provide work for everyone. But I think the time has come when the state must begin to think differently about its own responsibilities, and in places where the market is incapable of providing work, it is the state who must step in first to organise work for people so that they don't stay unemployed in the long term. Because as time passes, it is increasingly difficult to bring people who have been unemployed for a long time back to the world of work. And let us put our hands on our hearts: we all know families in Hungary in which it has been at least ten or fifteen years since the children have seen their parents waking up early in the morning and getting ready to go to work. And if the number of such families increases, then Hungary will not have a viable future. This is not just a problem for families who live in such circumstances and have found themselves in such a situation, but also for us, because such families must also make a living from something eventually. And we all know what the consequences of that are, because make a living they must. And so my opinion is that regardless of liberal theses of economic policy and regardless of market-friendly economic theories, the state cannot allow large numbers of the population to remain permanently unemployed. This is damaging both to the families involved and to the country itself. And accordingly, the task of the Hungarian Government today is – and we firmly believe in this, as attested to by what during the past four years has simply been called public work – that the gates must be opened and an opportunity must be provided for the long-term unemployed to return to the community of people who make a living from work. It is also my firm belief that in addition, philosophically, if you like, the world owes everyone the chance to be able to maintain themselves and their families through their own work.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This is one of the reasons we are grateful to this company, because according to plans this new factory here in Bátonyterenye will mean the creation of 150 new jobs. And this means that together with the workers of the factory in Salgótartján, the number of Hungarian families who make a living thanks to this particular company will increase to 370.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I cannot of course behave as if there are not going to be elections on 6 April. I am attempting to intelligently stay within the usual boundaries of a foundation stone laying ceremony, but as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. I cannot go without saying something about this important moment. Because in addition to the fact that the elections are a celebration of democracy, because that is when we all have an opportunity to participate in the shaping of our lives, this is not simply a celebration for us but also an important day on which our fate will be decided. The common fate of all of us will be decided. The Hungarians have learned a lot over the past twenty years or so, because there have been a good many elections in Hungary during that time. And I think that the Hungarians, including the people of Bátonyterenye, know full well that decisions have consequences. The question know isn't simply who we like and who we don't. The issues gaining light on the doorsteps of certain parties is also not irrelevant, that is important too, but the most important thing is undoubtedly that the direction which all of our lives will be taking is going to be decided. We will decide what will happen to us. And in the past we have made some good decisions and some poorer decisions. There have been decisions that brought with them results, achievements and hope, and there were decisions with which we turned back to the past and cut ourselves off from the opportunity to develop. It is not easy alone, but it is even more difficult together. And the situation now is that a promising joint future must be forged out of the personal decisions of four million people. It will not be easy.
I would like to encourage the people of Bátonyterenye to take part in the elections. Go out; think about the situation honestly and seriously, as is proper. Weigh up the opportunities and listen to both your hearts and your minds; all I ask is that you do not take the country back to where we managed with only great difficult to finally save it from four years ago. I would like to ask, now that we have finally found the right direction and have set out on this path, that we complete the task. This direction will bring the required results. The intermediate results that we see today, such as this project, are encouraging. What I would like to convince you of is that this country not only has a future, but that there is much more in this country than a lot of people think today. It just has to be organised well, we just need to do things right, we just need to pull together. We just need to trust in the fact that we are capable of building a better Hungary. I wish you all much strength and good health for this decision.
Go, Hungary! Go, Hungarians!
(Prime Minister's Office)
