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In the case of child abuse there is no room for mercy, and therefore President Katalin Novák’s resignation in the case of clemency was the right decision, as it strengthens us, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in his annual speech in Budapest on Saturday.
“A child’s safety is inviolable, and its abuse carries the most severe punishment. There is no room for mercy in such a situation. Therefore, the resignation was the right thing to do,” the Prime Minister said in connection with the resignation of former Head of State Katalin Novák and former Justice Minister Judit Varga.
He added that the government has the task of restoring moral order and remedying the situation legally. At the same time, Prime Minister Orbán noted that political mistakes are annoying even if there is an explanation for them.
In his view, the outrage over the pardon decision has been fueled by the political right’s anger over the fact, that the controversial presidential amnesty was not a decision taken in a complicated situation, but an “unforced error”. “For the right, it is a simple proposition: no mercy for pedophile crimes!” he said.
But what has inflamed the right’s anger should also temper our passions, he continued, because
the resignation is a satisfaction and an example for the country, which has given Hungary a chance to emerge stronger from the crisis. And we will,”
he added.
Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told his audience that in his assessment the country had “emerged unscathed” from the extra difficult year of ’23, and that we “cannot be dissatisfied” with the results. In his view, the most important thing, jobs, have been protected, as never before have so many people been working in Hungary as now. The government had also managed to protect pensions and restore the 13th month pension, which was taken away from people by the previous left-wing governments, he said.
With the help of the central bank, inflation was brought down from a record high of 25 percent to below 4 percent, the budget deficit was kept on a downward path, the minimum wage was raised by 15 percent and the minimum wage for skilled workers by 10 percent,
he explained.
The future belongs to green energy, and of course to those who can make the transition quickly and sensibly, the Prime Minister said. “We must also take account of the fact that the world has changed a lot. The era of green energy in the economy is no longer knocking on the door, but has kicked it down”. According to the Prime Minister, the green switchover is just what Hungary needs, “we can kill two birds with one stone”. Our country will be more liveable and we can free ourselves from the energy dependency that has plagued us since the collapse of the Hapsburg monarchy, he pointed out.
According to Viktor Orbán, the green transition requires two things: green energy must be produced and stored. “Our plan is to build the Paks 2 nuclear power stations, to extend the operating life of Paks 1 and to build smaller as well as larger solar power plants at high speed, he explained.
We will also save our car factories, the Prime Minister pledged. He pointed out that in the Western world many car factories are being closed down and relocated, “something that must be avoided in Hungary”. Imagine the town of Győr without the Audi plant, or the town of Kecskemét without Mercedes,” the Prime Minister said. The Hungarian government is investing a huge amount of money, hundreds of billions of forints, for this purpose, he said.
He added: “The Hungarian automotive industry is worth more than 13 thousand billion forints (EUR 33 billion); it provides the bread and butter for hundreds of thousands of families, and we have accumulated a huge amount of technical and engineering know-how.
“Trouble is pouring in from Brussels, and Brussels’ strategy towards Ukraine has failed spectacularly, not only on the battlefield but also in international politics”, he continued. The Prime Minister stressed that, despite the fact that this war was a fratricidal war between two Slavic peoples and not ours, Brussels had almost “plunged itself” into the conflict. He complained that Hungary’s position in favor of peace was unique, but as with its stance against migration in the past, it would be just as right with regards to the war.
It is a tragedy that hundreds of thousands of people have died and must die in the meantime,
he said.
Viktor Orbán confirmed that Hungary’s position remains unchanged: “we will not be dragged into war” and we will not supply arms, even if there are great powers that do not like this stance. He added that the United States was increasingly reluctant to pay for Ukraine, with diminishing enthusiasm at that, hence an increasing share of the burden was falling on Europe, whose economy was “already in trouble”.
The new agricultural rules and the opening up of markets to Ukraine have put European agriculture in an impossible situation, the Prime Minister pointed out saying that in his view, Brussels had abandoned Europeans.
Instead of healthy, locally produced food, they are feeding us artificial meat and GMO junk”.
He added that farmers protesting across Europe would like to see binding legislation, not one written by “climate fanatics and mad room scientists running around in Brussels corridors”.
Viktor Orbán said, “I have nothing but bad news on migration”. Even the blind can see that migration is a security risk, a breeding ground for anti-Semitism, and is turning the roots of European societies upside down. “They themselves lured the migrants in.
They sat out in the blazing sun in Brussels and Berlin with cotton candy, and then wondered why the hornets were attacking them”.
The Prime Minister concluded that Brussels had abandoned Europeans. There has never been such a gap between Brussels’ policies and the interests and will of the European people,” he added. There is a need for change in Brussels, he concluded.
Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd
We would like Donald Trump to return to the US presidency and bring peace to the eastern half of Europe, said Viktor Orbán. He stressed that 2024 could be a fateful year. “In Brussels, in the United States, in India and in a dozen other places, people will decide what kind of leadership they want to go forward with. What is important for Hungary is that we have a great opportunity ahead of us,” he said. “At the end of the year, the global political scene will look completely different from what it did at the beginning of the year, and if God helps us, Hungary’s room for manoeuvre will not be reduced, but will be expanded to a degree that we have seen for a long time”.
He pointed out that Hungary cannot interfere in the elections in other countries, but he would very much like President Donald Trump to return to the presidency and make peace here in the east of Europe. He also said that the bureaucrats in Brussels will not pull Europe out of the crisis, and that real change can only come from a new European right, of which we Hungarians are a part. At the same time, he warned,
in order to avoid throwing the baby out with the bath water”, the “new right must not be an alternative to Europe, but a European alternative”.
Via MTI; Featured Image: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd