26th Fidesz congress – The congress adopts declaration and re-elects Viktor Orban as chairman

Budapest, December 13 (MTI) – The congress of the Fidesz party on Sunday re-elected Viktor Orban as party chairman. Deputies at the 26th congress of the ruling Fidesz party adopted a political declaration against pro-immigration policy.

Deputy chair Ildiko Gall Pelczne was also re-elected, while new deputy chairs Gergely Gulyas, Gabor Kubatov and Szilard Nemeth were elected to replace outgoing deputy chairs Lajos Kosa, Janos Lazar and Zoltan Pokorni.

Orban, who has been the head of Fidesz since 2003 and previously led the party between 1993 and 2000, was elected with 1174 supporting votes out of 1177 votes.

He told the congress that Fidesz is Central Europe’s longest-standing, largest and most successful party.

“We have been here for thirty years … and we will be here in the next thirty years as well,” he added.

“We trust Hungary and the Hungarians and we trust that Hungarians can lift the country up no matter how bad the situation is. Hungary does not want to be a provider for other nations and it does not want to be dependent on others either”, Orban said.

In the next few years, Fidesz will work on developing a civic Hungary and supporting families will represent an important part of this.

“The aim is to ensure that every family has their own roof above their head, which is why we propose reducing the VAT on home construction,” Orban said.

A proposal to reduce the VAT on home construction from 27 percent to 5 percent in the next four years will go before parliament on Monday, he told the congress.

Full employment, the development of the national industry, providing land to Hungarian farmers and cutting back red tape are further targets, he added. This will result in an additional few hundred thousand jobs, he said.

Orban said the third target of a civic Hungary is to ensure that Hungarians need not live in fear of criminals, terrorists or illegal migrants. This requires strict but fair regulations, strong, well-prepared and young police, a determined counter-terrorism force, and self-assured disaster prevention authority.

“While Hungary is protected, it is also necessary to see that Europe is under invasion and it looks like a battlefield,” he said.

“What shows today is only the tip of the iceberg because tens of millions might still set off to Europe which is weak because its leaders flounder instead of taking action”, Orban said.

The left-wing elite and several countries’ leaders are trying to find ways to take in even more migrants instead of stopping the flow, he added.

“It is clear to every sensible person that Europe cannot handle this many people and its welfare system would break down under such a load”, he said. Migration is also a threat to Europeans’ security because of the proliferation of terrorism and crime. It is not allowed to talk about this in Europe, but the facts show that wherever many migrants settle, there is an increase in crime, he added.

Migrants will not give up their lifestyles and under the surface, a parallel society develops which “slowly but surely will turn our world into a minority”, Orban said.

The main problem is that Europe does not stand up for itself and “issues of secondary importance” such as human rights, progress, openness, new forms of family and tolerance are placed in the foreground. Europe does not believe anymore in the virtues that all these ideals originate from, including Christianity, common sense, military virtues and national pride, Orban said.

He called on everyone to sign Fidesz’s petition against the mandatory migrant quotas in Europe.

Orban said Europe is crying out for reform, it needs new rules, and it needs to return to democracy.

He said “the past 25 years have been a great liberal period in European history, but liberalism has by now tired out, it has turned against freedom, turned against the people and democracy itself.”