PM Orbán: “Hungary belongs to Europe. We are Europe”

In an interview in a book published this week by French politician and essayist Philippe de Villiers, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is quoted as saying that “Not even in our worst nightmares did we think that, twenty-nine years after our enchained nations gained freedom and the continent reunited, Europe would again be vulnerable to imperial ambitions – those which this time do not originate outside its borders, but within them.”

Philippe de Villiers was Secretary of State for Culture in the Chirac government in the 1980s, then a Member of the European Parliament, and later the founder of the sovereigntist party Movement for France and its candidate for president of the republic. This week he released his latest book, “I Pulled the Thread of Lies, and Everything Unravelled”. In one of the chapters he writes about his visit to Budapest last December and his interview with the Hungarian prime minister.

Regarding procedures launched against Hungary in Brussels and the political attacks on him personally, Mr. Orbán said “I am not concerned about the Brussels trials […] My grandmother taught me to be humble in adversity. I must put up with all of this. I can do nothing but place myself in God’s hands.” He went on to say: “What outrages our opponents the most is the fact that in our Constitution we have written that Hungary has Christian roots; that here there is no place for multiculturalism; that a child has the right to a mother and a father; and that our nation has the right to defend its borders – which are also the borders of the European Union.”

Mr. Orbán stated that the Hungarian people have long-standing traditions of resistance to “limited sovereignty”: first there were the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire; then the khans of the vast Mongol Empire, followed by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire; and then the Soviet comrades and their tanks.

All of them wanted to put an end to Hungary, he said, but mysteriously the Hungarian people have survived in a boundless sea of Germans and Slavs.

Asked if he is concerned today about the danger of national dissolution, Mr. Orbán said that he sees disintegration of the EU as a greater danger, with a line dividing Europe into two parts: one which is becoming Islamised; and one which does not want to become Islamised. He outlined the choices thus: “If they leave us alone and do not force Islamisation upon us, Europe can live on as a club of free nations. If, however, they force us to accept the UN’s migration compact or the decisions of the European Commission, thereby aligning us with their permissive Western policy, disintegration cannot be ruled out.”

The Prime Minister continued: “For us the accusation that we are not fully European is a cruel joke. When after half a century of Soviet occupation and communist oppression we finally regained our freedom, when the West opened its arms to embrace us, we thought we had returned to our own kind.

After all, Hungary has belonged to Europe for a thousand years. We are Europe. We have always remained European – even when we were sold down the river at Yalta, or let down in 1956.

After the withdrawal of the Soviets, we believed we could regain our place in Europe, in this family of free nations resting on the pillars of Christian culture, national identity and human dignity. Not even in our worst nightmares did we think that, twenty-nine years after our enchained nations gained freedom and the continent reunited, Europe would again be vulnerable to imperial ambitions – those which this time do not originate outside its borders, but within them.” He added that Europe is not a melting pot, but the home of nations.

Featured image: MTI