Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Speech at the Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony of the Dyke to be built between Komárom and Almásfüzitő

February 20, 2014 11:05 AM

PM Lays Foundation Stone for Dyke to Protect Komárom and Almásfüzitő

Please allow me to also respectfully welcome you all. Good morning everyone.

It is true that in a normal situation, when there is trouble, a Prime Minister must go to where things are going well, to where there are enough people. It is easy to accept acknowledgement and ovations. But when there is trouble, one must immediately go and organise the required solidarity, although all difficult periods eventually end, and then we have the opportunity to meet at an occasion such as this one, here today. All the important information, Ladies and Gentlemen, can be read on this sign we have here before us. We can see that the amount of funding provided, or rather the cost of the project is 7 billion forints. It may say that this money comes from the European Union, but you should be aware of the fact that this is our money. They may send it to us from there, but that money belongs to the Hungarians and we do not receive such monies as a gift but in exchange for the fact that when Hungary joined the European Union it opened its economy to which end we abolished customs duties, and so Hungary became part of the single European market, which, however, also brings with it temporary disadvantages, and this is why we receive development funding. And so it may be true that the money comes from Brussels, but the money we are going to spend here is after all the Hungarians' money, or of you prefer, you have worked hard for it. The sign also includes a sentence that may be accurate in the language of law, but which is somewhat misleading. The sign states: "Beneficiary: North Transdanubia Water Directorate." This is not true. We are the beneficiaries, meaning the people of Komárom and of Almásfüzitő, the people who live here. All they will be doing is using the money for your benefit, let there be no misunderstanding. And there follows a very important sentence, that "Hungary is being renewed".

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This is what I would like to say a few words to you about, if you will allow me. It may be true, and General Bakondi [Commander of the Disaster Management Authority] spoke of this with modest resolve, that state institutions must always perform their duties to the full, because if there are no good water management experts, if the disaster management services do not do a good job, if there are no good firefighters, if the railways don't help us and if the police do not mobilise, then the country cannot defend itself properly. But there is another side to the coin: no matter how well General Bakondi performs his duties, if there is trouble then without volunteers, the state alone cannot defend the country. We need volunteers, and from where I am sitting it is thanks to the volunteers that during the floods last year we were not swept away by the water and succeeded in keeping the Danube in its bed, or at least behind the dykes.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Continuing on from General Bakondi's recollection of events, let us quickly think back to the year 2000, when the flooding of the Tisza Rover almost swept away the city of Szolnok. And then there was the flooding of the river Bereg in 2001, when 42 settlements were undermined by the water and had to be rebuilt. And then there was the flooding of the river Borsod in the summer of 2010, I think, which was the result of huge quantities of melting snow rushing down from the mountains. And then we were beset by the red sludge disaster in Kolontár, after which came the great Danube flood.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would recommend to everyone, if you have the opportunity, to go down to Devecser and Kolontár and see for yourselves the new settlements that have sprouted up there following the reconstruction. If you have the strength, visit the river Bereg and have a look at those 42 settlements, at what a country should look like after a flood and at how a settlement should be rebuilt. And I can also tell you that we will be keeping to the deadline, and in August 2015 you will be able to come out here and see how a country should construct a dyke, if it does not want to once again have to live through exciting times such as the ones we had to live through together last summer.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

People draw different conclusions from the events. I see only a single conclusion, and that is that nobody should tell us that something is impossible. That is what they said about last year's flood of the century, that it was impossible to stop. They said about the reconstruction at the river Bereg, that it was impossible to perform within a year. They said about Kolontár, that it could never again be rebuilt, and the list goes on. And we succeeded in doing all of them. And the reason we succeeded, Ladies and Gentlemen, is that after 2010, and thinking back, during the period before 2002 also, there was solidarity. And if there is solidarity then we are also capable of seemingly impossible feats. There is something else I would also like to mention, because we are in the middle of an election campaign after all, and this is that the 7 billion forints which we will be spending here had to be generated by the Hungarian economy. It is very important to note that we can only be capable of building dykes and of magically rebuilding settlements after a disaster, if the economy is working properly, if people are working, if there are available jobs, and if everyone performs their duties properly.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, Hungary is in a situation that we can call promising. It would be a big mistake to say that everything is as it should be, but Hungary is in a promising state. We are travelling on a path, of which it has been proven, that it is taking us forwards from day to day. And what I would like to ask of you, Ladies and Gentlemen, in view of the fact that it was difficult to find this path – I would not like to talk about the past now, we all remember what things were like before 2010 – it was a difficult task to find the path, about which we can state that we are capable of taking a step forward along it each and every day. Now that we have found it, what I would like to ask of you is that we do not stray from that path. What I ask of you is that we protect what we have achieved, what we have realised. Let us protect our opportunities for investing in development projects, let us protect our family support systems and the family allowance extra scheme, let us protect the reduction in public utility prices and let us protect the favourable economic positions we have achieved I the face of the banks and the big service providers. And generally, what I ask of you is that we protect the future of Hungary together.

I am glad to have had the opportunity to be with you here again today. Congratulations on this development project. I hope to have the opportunity to be here again with you next year.