Viktor Orbán’s speech at the commemoration ceremony of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary held his speech at Erzsébet Square and commemorated the 65^th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution against the Soviet terror in 1956, as well as the 15^th anniversary of the 2006 events under the government of the opposition politician, Ferenc Gyurcsány.

Events of 2006

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, alluding to clashes between Fidesz supporters and riot police in 2006 on the anniversary of the 1956 revolution on the spot in Budapest where he delivered his speech, said that 15 years ago “tear gas grenades” had been on one side and “a cheated and humiliated nation” on the other.

Speaking at a ceremony held at the intersection of Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street and Andrássy Street, the prime minister said: “Fifteen years ago, at this very time, here on the corner of Andrássy and Bajcsy-Zsilinszky streets, the past and the present confronted one another.”

“On one side were tear gas grenades, rubber bullets, plain-clothed unidentified police and water cannons,” Orbán said. “On the other side stood a cheated and humiliated nation which … was yet again forced to listen to the fact that they had been lied to morning and night.”

“On one side was a power that had cheated with hundreds of tricks … and on the other were desperate people lined up behind the giant letters of Freedom.”

“Today we remember that moment when the Hungarian nation in a matter of moments found itself,” Orbán said. In that moment, “the name Hungarian became worthy of its great old fame,” he said. “The new generation of communists in 2006 wrangled with this Hungary again,” Orbán said.

He said the Socialist-led government had entered into power by telling lies. They deceived people by promising tax cuts before hiking taxes and introduced a fee for hospital visits and made utility prices skyrocket, he added.

The previous government scrapped the 13th-month pensions and family benefit schemes, and “pushed hundreds of thousands of families into the trap of currency loans in cahoots with the international banks”, Orbán said. “They sold off the entire country — everything, including its international airport and national utility and public service providers — to foreigners,” he said, adding that the next step “after bankrupting the country” was “to put the IMF’s leash around our neck”.

“And when we raised our voice against it all, they responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and an attack by police mounted on horses. They shot people’s eyes out and beat unprotected women and elderly people with rubber batons,” Orbán said.

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The Government’s work

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, addressing a crowd commemorating the 1956 revolution in Budapest said that it had taken “years to clear up the havoc the left-wing government left behind, but we have succeeded in putting Hungary back on its feet”.

“Mercifully, in the meantime, national unity has endured and workers, engineers, farmers, small and medium-sized firms, scientists, teachers, nurses and doctors have cleared the ruins,” Orbán said in his speech.

“We have created a million new jobs, got rid of foreign currency loans, cut taxes, and next year the minimum wage will be higher than the average wage during the time of the [former governing] Socialists.”

The national wealth, he added, had grown one and a half times since Fidesz’s time in power. “We taxed multinationals, protected families, and now utility bills are the lowest in Europe,” he said.

The prime minister said Hungary was now giving both the elderly and young people their due, with the phasing in of the 13-month pension and the tax break for young workers being introduced next year. Further, families raising children are getting this year’s taxes returned to them, he noted.