27 February 2014, Ózd
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The reason we are beginning this get-together a little later than is usual is because beforehand we had a meeting with entrepreneurs and investors at which we also spoke about the future. About whether Ózd has or will have a future, and if it does, then what it will be like, and about what we must do to ensure that your city does have a future. It is hard to talk about the future when we are standing in a place such as this and the only thing that comes to mind again and again is: did it have to be this way? Because twenty one or so years ago people used to work here, something was operating here, value was still being created here, people still receive salaries at the end of the month here, with which they could maintain their families, and now here we are twenty one years or so later and it feels like being in some kind of industrial museum. It is a strange feeling to stand in the production hall of a shut down factory like this that has ceased operating, and of course different things come to mind for different people. What comes to my mind the most is that behind each and every brick we see here lies human labour. What comes to mind is that it wasn't their fault. It wasn't the fault of the people who worked here that the factory was closed and we see around us this state of affairs today. But it is at least as important, dear people of Ózd, that we do not wallow in self pity, because all I can tell you now is that what happened, happened, the past is the past, but since then we have reached the level we are at now. If we want to call our forefathers to help us describe this feeling, then perhaps I can quote Széchényi, the 'greatest Hungarian', who said that the past has fallen from our power, but we are the masters of the future. It is my belief that the people gathered here today all believe that they are still masters of the future, of their own future. And it is worth speaking a little more about this, Ladies and Gentlemen.
When the Government was formed in 2010, which you supported, which the people of Ózd supported, and I would like to express my gratitude for that confidence and for those votes, thank you for supporting your Mayor and for supporting Member of Parliament Gábor Riz, so when the Government began operating in 2010, our view was that there are a few questions of honour that we must sort out. The country has a few industrial bastions in which the people who worked achieved fantastic results under the previous regime, but which have since fallen into the background and into decline, and have perhaps even begun to go under. Dunaújváros, Ózd, Komló, Salgótarján. These cities were once the pride of the nation, and at the time we spoke with Gábor [Riz] and with Lajos Dorkota, who is the MP for Dunaújváros, and with Mrs. Melinda Széky Sztrémi MP, who is both Mayor and Member of Parliament for Salgótarján, about the fact that we must pay special attention to these cities. Because both we and the people of Hungary can best believe in the fact that the country has a future if it transpires that these cities also have a future.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This is why we have searched for ways, methods and possibilities of also making a credible future, an encouraging and credible future, available to these cities. I am sure you all know the simple, common-sense saying that to begin moving forward one must first stand up. This was no different in the case of Hungary. For Hungary to be able to begin moving forward it first had to stand up, and you know much better than I do that in 2010 this country was most certainly not standing on its feet. Even worse, it was on its knees and it was very doubtful if it could manage to stand up at all. And of course from its own strength, because the reason we wanted to stand up was clearly not so we could serve others, but so we could finally become our own masters again. But whatever the case, the country succeeded in turning back from the edge of the precipice that was threatening us with total financial collapse. It succeeded in standing up on its own two feet, and it began to work. In the case of the city of Ózd, standing up, dear people of Ózd, meant that we first had to free your city from the huge debt of 4.7 billion forints that it had accumulated previously. I have not come here today to speak about the past or to point an accusing finger at the past; I haven't come here to speak ill of the city's previous leaders. I have come here today to speak about the future, and so I do not wish to mention the past; I wish only to point out that the Hungarian Government has assumed 4.7 billion forints in debt from the shoulders of the city of Ózd. This means that when your city plans this year's budget, it will be able to do so with a clean slate. The local government, dear Mr. Mayor, can no longer blame things on the fact that we are being crushed by our inherited debt, because that debt no longer exists. You must try and make the most of the opportunities provided by this clean slate. I would also like to remind you, not in the interests of complimenting my own horse, this isn't why I'm here, but I would nevertheless like to remind you that we have also tried to help the city of Ózd in addition to assuming its debts. We have spent some one-and-a-half billion forints on refurbishing the hospital. We have done our best to develop the city centre, on which we spent 680 million forints, and we are developing two schools at a cost of over 500 million forints each. It is not my business to say so in your place, but I feel that the city of Ózd has found quite a bargain in the current Government. I removed the debt, you received the money for various development projects; it doesn't sound like a bad deal, does it?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would also like to say that of course you did not receive these monies as a gift, but for various causes and purposes, and you received them because you have worked hard for them. The city of Ózd was a city that was left by the wayside for many years, and it was high time that we try to somehow lift the city of Ózd back to the place, to the shelf of acknowledgement, where it otherwise belongs based on its past.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I know that this perhaps still brings a sardonic smile to the faces of the people here for the moment, but the objective of the Hungarian Government is for there again to be full employment in Hungary. We believe that the world owes everyone the opportunity to be able to maintain themselves and their families through their own work. The question is, can we organise our country in such a way that this becomes reality. I took a look at the figures before travelling here today, and I saw that unemployment [here in Ózd] has fallen from 22 percent to 17 percent or so, but 17 percent is still a lot, Ladies and Gentlemen! We still need to reduce this and I know that you also watch the news and have heard that unemployment in Hungary has fallen to under 9 percent – and even that is still too high, but the 9 percent is still a much better situation than the 17 percent we have here. This clearly shows, dear Gábor, dear Member of Parliament and dear candidate for Member of Parliament, that there will be much for us to do in the upcoming four years. But I would like the people of Ózd to know that the objective has not changed; we want to build a world here in Hungary in which everyone can make a living from their salaries.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
And now, please allow me to also say a few words about this development project, because when I saw the plans for the project, my first question was: but why? Digitising is a good thing, as we have heard from [Minister of State for Culture] Lajos Lovas, but digitising isn't what people usually do in Ózd, it's producing iron and steel. Why don't we reopen the steelworks here in this production hall? To which the reply was that it would perhaps have been possible to modernise the factory in 1990, but it's impossible with what we have here now. Even if we want to produce steel, and I have met factory owners who produce steel and steel products here, well, this will not be the location for it. And so we had to think about what to do. And I am sure you know that people's first thought with regard to cultural development projects, especially if they serve the whole country, is that they are always realised in Budapest. And this was our first thought here too, that if there is going to be a national digitising programme, a big investment – we're talking about 2.5 billion forints – then it belongs in the heart of the country, in the capital. And then, we owe Gábor a debt of gratitude, we must also thank the Member of Parliament, who said: and why must everything always happen in Budapest? We live in a modern world, especially when it comes to digitisation, we could just as easily operate a digitising centre outside the capital, and then since we had no better idea with regard to what we could realise relatively quickly in Ózd, we came to the decision that we could perhaps begin with this, at least this could be realised here in Ózd, let's get started. And so this 2.5 billion forint development project will be realised here. Few people know this, but around a thousand university graduates in around 160 public institutions throughout the country are currently working on what Lajos Lovas spoke about a little earlier, on digitising various objects of cultural value to make them available to anyone interested even at huge distances. The majority of these university graduates, of these one thousand people, in fact perform this task as public work and create outstanding value.
Public work, which as far as I know is relatively popular here and many people apply for it, is often criticized. I would like to ask you to stand up for public workers. Because it is my belief that Hungary owes public workers its recognition, and we have every reason to be proud of them because some of these people had no work opportunity for ten or fifteen years and now, when the public work programme was launched, they applied for a job and perform their work diligently. I think that for someone to go back to the world of work and step into the world of work after having been unemployed for some time requires a gateway, a door through which they can step, and for very many people, the gateway to the world of work today is the public work programme. And so I would ask that if you hear anyone criticising the programme, please stand up and defend the idea of public work and the idea of full employment. Stand up for public workers who, I would like to stress once again, are applying for jobs in greater numbers that the public work places available, which is a clear indication of the fact that if people want to and have the choice, then they would rather make a living from work than live off benefits.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In closing, I would like to express my thanks for the cooperation of everyone with whom I have worked together during these past years, including in the interests of the city of Ózd. Thanks you to Mr. Gábor Riz for your allied support, to Mr. Pál Fürjes, the Mayor, for the development plan that he gave me today; I will do my utmost to support it. I would like to express my thanks to the police, their leaders and to the members of the civil watch, who have done much in recent years to enable things to improve. I won't say things are good, but things in Ózd are also better than they used to be with regard to public safety.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
And finally, I would like to ask you to preserve or renew the alliance you have forged with us. Over the past four years we have strived to manage the country's affairs to the best of our ability. We have also strived to spend strength and energy on the city of Ózd, and we have achieved many things, but you know full well that four years is not enough for everything. And accordingly I would like to ask you – they aren't here quite just yet, but I might as well kill two birds with one stone since we have gathered here today – since there will be elections in Hungary in thirty-one days' time or so, and at such times we decide on our fate, to be so kind as to give Mr. Gábor Riz, the Mayor, and me personally, the opportunity to continue the work that we have previously begun in the interests of all of us. I hope we are given the chance and can meet again on numerous joyous occasions like this.
Go, Hungary! Go, Hungarians!
(Prime Minister’s Office)
