13 December 2013, Budapest
Dear Madam Dalma, Dear Award Winners, President Zoltán Balog, Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are in the middle of the Advent period, and in addition to filling us with expectation for the coming festivities, it is also an opportunity for an end of year review. During Advent, we think back on a story that is the determinative story of our whole European civilisation. Over two thousand years ago, the world was waiting for a saviour who, it was hoped, would arrive in magnificent, royal regalia and would put justice to rights with his power. And instead, a baby was born in a stable, amid persecution, and in a manger among animals, in the most vulnerable situation possible. And today, two thousand years later, the world still celebrates Him as its Messiah.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Madam Dalma,
This story helps us to view everything that we have experienced during this past year more deeply and more genuinely, or rather more deeply and genuinely, and perhaps also more humbly, than usual. It helps us to better understand where our true strength lies. This story helps us understand what we have ourselves to thank for, and what we have Divine Providence to thank for. One of the advantages of end-of-year reviews is that one does not usually get bogged down in data and figures, no matter how compelling that data and those figures may be. At this time of year, there is a good chance that it will not turn into a boring report on production figures or into an agricultural cooperative's end-of-year report celebration accompanied by music and dancing. And this evening too is one that calls for the investigation, or at least a quick review, of causes, reasons, explanations and the deeper truths that lie below the surface. First of all, my dear friends, we have much to look back on and we have much to review, because this past year was a year rich in struggles, excitement and developments. As has been true for every year since 2010. We could of course make do with a compulsory listing of achievements, which would go something like this: After 2010 we first succeeded in saving our country from financial bankruptcy, after which we succeed in doing what no government had succeeded in doing in the previous nine years, which is to reduce the budget deficit to below 3 percent, after which we generated economic growth. And finally, in 2013 and 2014 the positive effects of the economic changes have finally appeared, or will finally appear in the world of everyday life. We could say that the minimum wage has increased to over one hundred thousand forints; the Job Protection Action Plan is a success; it has been forty years since inflation has been this low; we have reduced public utility charges by twenty percent, and January will see the launch of the tax benefits system for people with low incomes and the beginning of the era of the childcare allowance extra scheme. And we have achieved all this by building on the spiritual foundations of Christian European values and national solidarity. We must accept with suitable modesty, that those who say that even the most committed social democrats would lick their lips after such achievements are right. They might even lick clean all ten of their fingers.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This may all be true, but the fact is that our situation, the world in which we live and the politics we are exercising, are much more complicated. And this is what I would like to talk to you about today. There is still much debate today concerning what exactly caused and what exactly is this state of affairs that we have experienced in Europe in recent years and which we usually refer to simply as the crisis. Whatever future historians may say about this, what is already absolutely clear is that this situation has forced everyone to struggle. Nations, families and individuals alike. It has forced families in which one member has lost their job or whose business has gone bankrupt to struggle, and it has been especially difficult for those families who suddenly found that their mortgage payments have tripled and their homes are in danger.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The struggles that families are experiencing draw our attention to a very important lesson. We have seen that the families who have succeeded in staying afloat and surviving these difficult times are those who replied to trouble with solidarity, who clung together and searches for a solution and a way out together. And, Ladies and Gentlemen, nations have had to struggle with increasing debt, unemployment, economic recession and several other opponents. And in this struggle only certain countries have stayed afloat and performed well, while other countries have collapsed and have bled to death, or at are at least close to doing so. And if we taker a closer look, we can again see that it is those countries who have increased their solidarity who have managed to keep their heads above water, and not those who have amplified their differences; this is what we call political stability. Where no unity has come about, countries have fallen to their knees and lost the battle. Where there is solidarity and the nation has become unified, they have been able to hold the line even in the most difficult times. Hungary was also forced to struggle as a result of the crisis. During the first two years of the financial crisis, in 2008 and 2009, we were in all sorts of trouble, and we put our hands up and waited for a lifebelt from others, and mainly in the form of other people's money. This almost led to our demise. And then in 2010 we finally woke up, linked arms and took up the gauntlet. Here in Hungary, practically everyone understood that we must begin moving in a different direction. We began fighting with new weapons and on new fronts. Initially in the interests of survival, and then for the opportunity to prosper. We were given the most important element in our fight; the strength, the tool, meaning the two-thirds parliamentary mandate, by the voters. It was our duty to use this power wisely and with skill. But, dear friends, without courage, strength is like an axe without a handle. And so we gathered our strength and our courage and took up the fight against the mistakes of the past, against the huge debt we had inherited from the socialist governments, against unemployment and against the deficit. We took up the fight against the banks and we took up the fight against the multinationals, who had previously been scrambling for profits and had trampled over Hungarian families at a mistaken rate and level with total disregard for important, and in fact fundamental human and humanitarian criteria. And we took up the fight with the European left, and with the bureaucrats in Brussels, who rather than supporting us, stood by the banks and the multinationals and who complained, and without embarrassment or shame in fact applied double standards against our novel solutions and national economic policy. We fought for our own Constitution, for the reunification of our nation and for our economic and financial autonomy. We fought for the families who had found themselves in difficulties because of foreign currency based loans, for our central bank, for the reinforcement of our state and for our tax system that rewards work instead of punishing it. We fought for the equitable distribution of burdens that does not place the burden of the crisis onto the shoulders of the people. And we fought for the reacquisition, or at least the state control, of our most fundamental economic instruments, assets and enterprises.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We cannot be grateful enough to the people of Hungary, or to be more precise, all ten million of us cannot be grateful enough to each other for having understood, realised and accepted that either the country eliminates its debt, or the debt will eliminate the country. There is no third option. The country has fought valiantly and with determination, as have families, businesses and the people. And the results were soon to follow. Dependency, the deficit and debt have all decreased, as has unemployment, and we have even managed to preserve the real value of wages and pensions. But meanwhile, we were continuously under attack from all sides. And what was more worrying, new waves of the European crisis appeared, especially in 2012. It started to look – I remember these months well – like it was all too much. Too difficult. Like we were too outnumbered, we wouldn’t be able to take it and couldn't succeed. It was as if everything and everybody had collaborated against us and to top it all – I'm sure you remember – as the drought showed, not even luck wanted to be on our side. Many people, and many of us, began to think that despite the fact that we are right, despite the fact that we are fighting with all our strength and despite the fact that we have some results to show for it, we quite simply cannot take the strain. People began to doubt that this struggle would ever be over. Can we continue fighting against such odds? And if there will never be an end to it, is there any point in fighting and in encouraging people to hold the line?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
These kinds of doubts, thoughts and misgivings almost inevitably accompany situations of economic crisis. Since it is Advent, let me refer to a few relevant parables from the New Testament. Had we disregarded these doubts that consume one from inside and spread from inside, it would not have meant that we were strong and courageous people, but that we were blithering idiots. I will not go into the relevant examples now.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As we are taught, Divine Providence works in mysterious ways. And one of the teachings of Christianity is also that God does not put a greater burden on our shoulders than we are capable of carrying. And when the European Union was preparing for yet another unfair and undeserved attack because of the reduction in public utility charges, there suddenly came the Danube flood. A flood of never before seen proportions. A flood which did extraordinary damage and caused loss of human life in other countries. It was the Danube flood of the century, reaching record highs in every Hungarian settlement along its length. And then, Ladies and Gentlemen, we Hungarians almost without exception put down what we happened to be doing. We pulled together, went out to the dykes or to wherever the situation dictated, and we conquered the natural disaster through two weeks of ceaseless work. Ferenc Deák, the "Wise Man of the Nation" once said: "Love your homeland more that you hate your enemies." And this can often be replaced by the term each other. If he had the time to pay attention to what was happening in Hungary at the time of the flood, I am sure that he lit his pipe in satisfaction. Because the flood had no choice but to leave the country in disappointment; not only was there no loss of life, but the flood caused no significant damage. And no matter how strange is may sound, Ladies and Gentlemen, today, here in the light of the expectation of Advent, I see clearly that this is what turned around the approaching feeling of resignation in people's minds. This is what gave rise to the spiritual about-face, and this is what gave rise to victory. Because we Hungarians were given an opportunity, and we were able to show that we are capable of turning around even a seemingly hopeless situation. Simply by working together. It transpired, or rather we showed, that if we work together, there is no enemy we cannot vanquish. After all, what is being put to torture in Brussels compared to the flood of the century? We were able to ask ourselves at the time. And for precisely this reason, Ladies and Gentlemen, for me, the greatest success and greatest achievement of this past year was the unprecedented solidarity with which we overcame the flood of the century. During those weeks, Hungary showed is best possible face; we provided a glimpse of that greatness of the Hungarian nation, which the world has seen at memorable times during our history.
The experts, the leaders of the affected settlements, the disaster management service, the armed forces, the fire brigade, the counter terrorism service, the non-governmental organisations and the volunteers, in other words everyone, did an exemplary job. On the dykes, differences disappeared and conflicts were forgotten. During the defence efforts there was no right and no left, no rural and no city folk, and no in-border and cross-border Hungarians. There was no rank and no title, only Hungarians fighting to defend their country and each other. They were simply Hungarian people, nothing else. Let us remember the protection of Győrújfalu or the persistence of Budapest in defending Margaret Island or the Római Part. My dear friends, this was the moment from which we again began to believe that we Hungarians can once again be strong and successful. Our faith returned: if we work together, we can make Hungary successful. This solidarity and this victory gave the country courage. After 2010, it again gave courage to a slowly tiring Hungary. We again believed that what we had achieved until then had not been in vain. And indeed, you will have noticed the coincidences in dates, the spectacular economic achievements began arriving one after the other. We freed ourselves from the grip of the IMF; for the first time in decades we succeeded in reducing public utility charges by a total of 20 percent; we pushed inflation down to a record low; we have entered an era of rational wage increases, our exports are soaring and the economy has begun to grow, and with data that has exceeded expectations and even better prospects for 2014. Today, we are at the stage where we can state, with the required modesty but with suitable confidence, that there may still be much to do, but Hungary is performing better.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It also transpired during these past months that there can be and are Hungarian solutions to the economic crisis. There exists a Hungarian model, a social and economic model, and the model is successful. It would be exaggerating to say that Europe is copying us, but we perhaps can say that several European countries are beginning to use the Hungarian solutions to the crisis. The Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Scotland have begun to reduce public utility charges. England is making welfare payments dependent on performing public work. France and Slovakia have imposed special surtaxes similar to our own. And Poland is restructuring its pensions system according to the Hungarian model. What we have begun, others are continuing. It is a good feeling after all these years to be able to think calmly, with due moderation and in the quiet that is worthy of the expectation of Advent, on the fact that we too may now finally believe that our efforts have been worth it. It gives us the strength and courage to not stop what we have begun doing.
My Dear Friends,
And we will not stop here. Following two successful reductions in public utility charges it is now worth introducing a third. Our parliamentary group leader is already working on the details.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
And now it is only right that I too salute the greatest heroes of this year. I salute Gergő Szilvágyi, disabled volunteer from the Suhanj! Foundation. I salute the twelve-man volunteer firefighting unit of the town of Dercen in Transcarpathia. And I too salute Ensign Csaba Füsi and Sergeant-Major Andrea Miletics, who eventually succeeded in getting married [the couple postponed their marriage because of the flood, but after having both been assigned to flood defence work on the same stretch of the Danube, they were married on the dyke during the flood. Ed.]. Congratulations! You have our gratitude and our thanks. But it is not only they who deserve our acknowledgement and our thanks today. Today, every Hungarian deserves our thanks and acknowledgement.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Hungary has achieved great things during the course of this year, and everyone has done their part to make this a reality. I would like to thank every citizen of Hungary both for having done an excellent job in everyday life and for having performed heroically in emergency situations. The heroes we have honoured today represent millions of people, of whom we are all proud. My respect and my thanks to the everyday heroes!
Go Hungary, Go Hungarians!
(Prime Minister’s Office)
