1 February 2014, Felcsút

Good Morning, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The inaugural speech has already been made, as the Member of Parliament has already told us about the ideas that lie behind the Village House, which ideas brought us here today, and in the spirit of which we live our lives and try to manage the affairs of the country. And so I would like to contribute to today's events with a few personal words, if I may. First of all, I am of course a little biased, because I liked that old building. It was a bit ugly perhaps, especially towards the end, but we had all grown to love it. I see here László Vara, who taught me to play table tennis here, for example. And we fought many a ping-pong battle here with János Oláh, "Bogyesz". And then the various official events were also held here. Congratulations to those of my former classmates who are now kindergarten teachers and care for children. I remember, when I was in primary school, I stood here sometime around the 4th of April and read out the workers' movement poem by Nezval Vitĕzlav entitled "I cast my vote into the urn of the revolution". These are the kinds of things that occurred here. Of course it is great to have a new House, but we loved the old one too. And while we are on the subject of revolutionary poetry, Ladies and Gentlemen, I remember that the whole school was practically one big family, the Mészáros family, who weren't even pioneers. They couldn't even tie a pioneer's necktie around Lőrinc's neck, so it's no wonder that those same people are shouting "rope" these days, although they will fail with that too.

So, Ladies and Gentlemen,

This village has seen many things, and this place has seen many things too, and I was a little sad when it was demolished, but we must all recognise that we cannot carry on living like we did in the past, without changing it, forming it and making it modern, and it was high time that this House was demolished. I would like to congratulate the people of the village and especially the Mayor, for bringing about the solidarity with which he solved the village's old problem, about which he also spoke, namely that there was practically no place left in the village where people could gather to read and talk, or for members of the pensioners' club to meet, for example.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

All projects of this nature, and especially if they are realised in the Prime Minister's home village, are naturally the subjects of political debate. We live in a world and in a country in which people are even capable of making a political issue out of a village community centre. But we have seen much worse. I am not sure if you remember, when we first formed a government in 1998 we inaugurated a new sports stadium in Alcsút, and then that was their reason for political uproar. And so Hungary is a place where, if something happens in the Prime Minister's home town, we cannot help making a political issue out of it. I apologise to all of you for this, because it is obviously an uncomfortable situation, but it would seem that this goes hand-in-hand with our village's development. And there is plenty that we need to develop. I am glad to see that the house of our catholic brothers and sisters, the local Catholic church, has also been renovated. Congratulations! And we too are waiting for the official opening, if it hasn't occurred already. We can all see that the hall behind us is in a relatively bad state. Something needs to be done with that too. This water tower also looks pretty bad. It would be good if the Mayor found a way of getting that sorted out too. And in general, one of the problems of our village is that it is a long, narrow village that runs along a valley, so it would be good to develop something here, near the church, the school and the community centre. So there will be a lot happening in Felcsút in the future. And this is a message to my political opponents. Because they can make policies issues out of these things, but around here life works like this; the caravan is moving, and it will continue to move in future.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to wish everyone much strength and good health. Congratulations to the Mayor on achieving this solidarity. And it is true that this didn't cost the treasury a penny, which I would also like to say thank you for. Because one's heart might rest in Felcsút, but I must after all take responsibility for the finances of the whole country, and I am glad that we do not need to bring money here, because it is certainly needed elsewhere. I would like to thank the enterprises involved and especially the local businesses for helping the construction of this Village House with their work and their donations. An important development of recent times, since we last met, is that the administration has assumed 40 million forints in debt from the village's shoulders. The Government, together with the debts of all villages in Hungary, has assumed these debts to enable Hungary's villages to begin with a clean slate and take their own fate into their own hands.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The English have a wise old saying that goes something like: quality life can only be lived in the country. We feel the truth of this saying and we also know that this is not yet true in Hungary today. We need to establish village houses and community spaces in lots and lots of villages before people can feel that, although they live in a village, they have access to everything that people living in the capital have access to, apart from perhaps having to drive 40 kilometres to go to the opera. But apart from that they are not in the middle of nowhere, they are not shut out from everything and are just as much part of the sweeping everyday life of the country as those people who live in cities. To achieve this, we must develop our villages, and the project we are inaugurating today is part of that logic. I would like to add a further thought to the words of the Member of Parliament and Mayor of Bicske and to the Member of Parliament and Mayor of Felcsút. It may be true that Hungary and the Hungarian nation has gone through much misery. There is a saying by István Széchényi that is especially close to my heart, and which I would like to quote for you now, according to which: it is an uplifting feeling to be Hungarian, but it is not rewarding. What I am working to achieve, and what I am asking your support for, concerns the fact that we are working so that being Hungarian continues to be uplifting, but is also rewarding. And for this reason, no matter what criticism we may receive and no matter how much we are mocked; no matter in what way we are attacked, we will continue to build the country. Here in Felcsút and throughout the country. I would like to thank the people of Felcsút for the support I have received from you in recent years both as the leader of the opposition and as the leader of the governing party. I congratulate Felcsút on its vitality, because when we inaugurated the Castle kindergarten, our political community happened to be in opposition, but the village was developing regardless. I wish you this continued vitality during the upcoming years.

Thank you for your kind attention.

(Prime Minister’s Office)