Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán delivered a barnstorming speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday afternoon, during which he urged Hungarian and U.S. conservatives to unite in order to defeat the liberal progressives intent on creating a post-Western world.
Orbán began his 35-minute address by expressing his delight at being invited to speak alongside U.S. conservative heavyweights in the Lone Star State, describing his own country as the “Lone Star State of Europe.”
In a nod to Hungary, Orbán explained that Hungarians have fought for “independence, freedom, and sovereignty” for the last 500 years. “We fought for Christian democracy in the 20th century and continue to fight to this day.”
“We are a nation of 15 million in the heart of Europe, with a unique language,” Orbán told the conference, sharing an anecdote of a meeting with Pope Francis in which he was told that Hungarian was the official language in heaven because it takes an eternity to learn.”
Orbán described himself as an “old-fashioned freedom fighter,” highlighting the fact he is the longest-serving prime minister in Europe, “the only anti-migration leader on our continent,” and a father of five.
Hitting the “leftist media”
The Hungarian prime minister informed the conference organizers that they had managed to trigger the “leftist” mainstream media with his invitation. “I can already see tomorrow’s headlines,” a tongue-in-cheek Orbán quipped: “Far-right European racist, anti-Semite strongman, the Trojan horse of Putin, holds speech at conservative conference!”
“But I don’t want to give them any ideas,” he added, insisting that “they know best how to write fake news” while he himself tells the truth. “In Hungary, we introduced a zero-tolerance policy on racism and anti-Semitism, so abusing us is fake news and those who make these claims are simply idiots.”
Orbán used the opportunity to attack progressive non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who he claims are too busy “writing their research papers on how I destroyed Hungarian democracy,” and had some choice words for the “elite of the Democratic Party.”
“I want to be clear: We respect the government of the United States,” Orbán said. “We are guests here, and we need to behave decently with the current administration,” he added, before highlighting that the current Biden administration had “put Europe and especially Brussels under ideological pressure. This is not good for us, it’s bad.”
Orbán claimed the Obama administration had “tried to force us to change the Fundamental law of Hungary and delete Christian and national values [to] change our constitution according to a globalist liberal concept,” something that conservatives in Hungary “resisted successfully.”
“They did not want me to be here,” Orbán said of leading Democrats. “They made every effort to drive a wedge between us. They hate me and slander me and my country, as they hate you and slander you and the America you stand for.
“Progressive liberals do not want me to be here because they knew what I will tell you, because I am here to tell you that we should unite our forces. We Hungarians know how to defeat the enemies of freedom on the political battlefield,” Orbán told the conference, reminding attendees that Hungarians had defeated communism.
“It took a while… but we did it. Our fathers fired the first shot, and we, their sons, won the war,” he added.
However, in Orbán’s view, the communists “rose from the ashes” and “came together with the liberals and came back stronger than ever,” and so conservatives had to beat them again.
The Hungarian prime minister chooses not to rest on his laurels, however, insisting that “yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.”
To win, you can never quit
“I’ve been a member of parliament for 32 years, spending 16 years in opposition and 16 years as prime minister,” Orbán explained. “I’ve learned that a quitter never wins, and the winner never quits,” he added, urging conservative activists to stand by their country “in good times and bad.”
The key to Hungary’s success story, in Orbán’s view, is that conservatives give 100 percent when they fight, and they represent the truth “even if half the world attacks us for it.” The Hungarian leader advised U.S. conservatives to give everything to win and to trust their Judeo-Christian teachings. “They help us decide which actions are right and which actions are wrong,” he explained.
“We have to be brave enough to address even the most sensitive questions — migration, gender, and the clash of civilizations,” Orbán said, telling activists to never hesitate to challenge the liberal opposition on these issues.
“Christian values protect us from going too far,” Orbán explained. “We know that at the end of our life, the moment will come when all of our actions will be judged, so you cannot do anything without limits. As Clint Eastwood said, ‘A man has got to know his limitations.'”
The Hungarian prime minister accused the left in politics of not knowing any limitations, and claimed that today’s progressives are trying to “separate Western civilization from its Christian roots once again. They are crossing a line that should never be crossed.”
He warned that when Western civilization is separated from its Judeo-Christian heritage, “the worst things in history happen.”
Orbán saved room in his speech to call out his political opponent George Soros who he referred to as “the wealthiest and one of the most talented Hungarians on Earth.”
“He believes in none of the things that we believe in,” Orbán told the conference, warning attendees that Soros has an army of “money, NGOs, universities, research institutions, and half the bureaucracy in Brussels at his service. “He uses this army to force his will on his opponents like us Hungarians,” Orbán added.
The Hungarian leader said that Soros believes nationalistic views and values led to the horrors of the 20th century, “but the case is exactly the opposite. The horrors of Nazism and communism happened because some Western states in continental Europe abandoned their Christian values, and today’s progressives are planning to do the same. They want to give up on Western values and create a new world, a post-Western world. Who is going to stop them if we don’t?” Orbán asked.
Play by your own rules
The Hungarian prime minister encouraged conservatives who want to lead the counter-offensive against the Biden administration in the next election to play by their own rules: “You have to believe that you are better than your left, liberal opponents, and don’t care what the liberals say. They always say you will lose, they say it cannot be done. You just have to prove them wrong!”
Orbán explained that this wasn’t just a political war but a culture one, and he called on conservatives to “revitalize our churches, our families, our universities and our community institutions” from the stain of liberalism and progressiveness.
“They are in total attack,” Orbán said of the liberal adversaries, “so we need a total defense. You have to be brave. If you feel fear, you have a job to do. The oldest thing we Hungarians can show you is how to fight back by our own rules.”
Hungary is leading on the migration war
On the issue of migration, Orbán told the conservative conference that it was his country that was the first in Europe “to say ‘No’ to illegal migration and to stop the invasion of illegals migrants” in order to “protect our nation.”
He explained that his country democratically voted in favor of border security. “We had a referendum, and the Hungarian people decided they didn’t want migration, they don’t want to play by the rules of the progressives,” Orbán said.
In reference to the migrant crisis of 2015, which saw more than a million economic migrants flood into Europe’s porous borders, Orbán said that his country built a wall, “guarded by people who love their country,” and managed to reduce illegal migration to zero.
“This year, we have already suffered 160,000 illegal border crossing attempts, so we at the Hungarian border catch every illegal migrant and escort them back to the other side of the border. The rule is simple, you can apply for asylum at our embassies, but if you try to come to Hungary illegally, you will never ever make it!
The importance of family values
Moving on to family policy, which Orbán said is at “the heart of our politics,” he accused liberals of failing to preserve family values, of saying that there is no such thing as family.
“They say that Western families is the place where the oppression of the so-called patriarchy begins,” Orbán said, before again reiterating the need for conservatives to play by their own rules.
“Family is the place to transfer the values of parents to a next generation. If traditional families are gone, there is nothing that can save the West from going under,” he warned, highlighting that his government has spent more than 6 percent of Hungary’s GDP each year on family policy, introducing measures such as tax breaks and income tax exemptions for mothers of four children.
He praised stats showing than in the last 10 years of his Fidesz party’s governance, “the number of marriages has doubled, and the number of abortions has halved.”
“Not a bad start,” Orbán quipped.
Law and order
The Hungarian prime minister refused to apologize for his government’s devotion to “law and order without compromise,” quipping: “We don’t need more genders, we need more rangers!”
He praised Hungarian law enforcement agencies as the “guardians of freedom” and insisted that unlike in other Western states, they are not viewed as the “peoples’ enemies.” He insisted that the law should “not protect criminals but protect the victims and those who are defending the law,” and hailed Hungary as “the safest country in Europe.”
Taxation
Orbán criticized liberal progressives for always wanting the money of those who they govern. “They love higher taxes,” he claimed.
“We believe that people should have their money in their own hands,” Orbán said, as he reeled off Hungary’s tax-friendly policies including a flat 15 percent tax on personal income and business-friendly corporate tax rate of 9 percent, which helped Hungary acquire a 27 percent investment rate last year, “among the best in Europe.”
He referred to proposals in Washington D.C. and Brussels to introduce a global minimum tax, saying that after all other European countries surrendered to the whims of the globalists, “Hungary is the last man standing.”
The war in Ukraine
The Hungarian leader took the opportunity once again to condemn the “attack by Russia against Ukraine,” which has forced 1 million refugees to Hungary, and accused the current strategy by the globalist leaders of escalating the war and decreasing the chance of peace.
He once again called for talks between the United States and Russia, insisting that “more and more people will die and suffer, and our economies will come to the brink of collapse” without a strong U.S. leader initiating peace talks.
Conservatives can fight back against the globalists
Concluding his speech, Orbán called on conservatives to “take up the fight [to] take back the institutions in Washington and in Brussels.”
He urged a coordinated response among conservatives across the Atlantic, insisting that these two locations will “define the two fronts in the battle being fought for Western civilization.”
Taking his final word from the Bible, Orbán recalled Saint John Paul’s teaching: “‘There is no enemy that Christ has not already defeated.'”
