The following is a translation of an article written by Alexandra Knopf, originally published on Mandiner.hu.
‘If 2022 was the most difficult year, then 2023 will be the most dangerous year since the regime change’, Viktor Orbán predicted in his annual assessment speech at Castle Garden Bazaar in February 2023. Today we can say with certainty that the Prime Minister was right. The world around us has become even more turbulent in the intervening period. War is raging in our neighbourhood and in the Middle East, migration is on the rise and the threat of terrorism is also growing. In addition, Europe is plagued by sanctions, inflation, and the economic difficulties that follow in their wake. So, the continent is going through shocks the likes of which we have not seen for decades.
We are amid the emergence of a new world order,
and the biggest problem is that even the most respected people in the Western world, the leaders of the most powerful countries, cannot see a way out of the load of problems. In many cases, unfortunately, they do not even understand the problem itself. What will come of this? Rise or fall? This is the unanswered question as we enter 2024, hoping all will be well.
However, it is always worth hoping—not only because it is the right time to do so at the start of the new year, but also because in six months there will be important elections all around Europe. Change is needed in Brussels, and there is a good chance of it, because the bureaucrats, although they do not want to see it, are also sensing that the wind has turned now across the EU. European citizens are fed up with the fact that the EU’s leaders have become so self-serving that they are willingly and obediently subordinating European interests to lobbies representing global economic interests, without any regard for the impact it will have on the daily lives of European people.
Of course, we should certainly not think that the liberal elite, which represents interests outside Europe, is not preparing for the elections. It may not be interested in reality, but it is clinging to power. A good example of this is that in countries where it is already threatened by a high level of discontent, it would simply ban parties or try to prevent the right from forming a government by skulking around in the background. In other words, it is using every means at its disposal to maintain its status quo. But we do not need to go as far as Western Europe for examples: just think of the last parliamentary elections in Hungary when left-wing parties were bought by American billionaires in an attempt to influence the outcome of the elections. Unfortunately for them, the Hungarians clearly saw the ‘dollar left’s’ game and beat them down with unprecedented unity.
‘Sovereignty is the greatest treasure and must be protected by all means.’
The Hungarian people, armed with their historical experience, have well identified that, especially for such a small country, sovereignty is the greatest treasure and must be protected by all means. They recognized that power should not be given to those who do not represent their interests but only those of their clients. If, however, we take seriously the fact that the opponents are very much preparing for the elections in the next six months, and we assume that there will be attempts to gain influence this time too, then we must defend ourselves. This is what the ruling parties did as a first step when they drafted the sovereignty protection bill and thus closed the loophole used in the 2022 election campaign. From now on, not only political parties but also NGOs and associations will not be allowed to accept foreign funding for election campaigns, which means that Gordon Bajnai and his colleagues will have to look for new ways.
Although since the sovereignty protection debate in recent months the ‘dollar left’ has not briefed us on what they had promised in return for the billions, we have some idea. Just think of what has been happening in Poland since the coalition led by Donald Tusk has been in power. POLITICO in Brussels even named Tusk as Europe’s most influential leader in its recent list, which is no coincidence given that the head of the Polish government is expected to be happy to do whatever the Brussels power centre asks of him. At the same time, Warsaw’s problems with the rule of law suddenly seem to disappear, too. One of the first announcements made by the new Prime Minister was that his country would join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which in many respects infringes on the sovereignty of the Member States, which are transferring some of their most important powers to the EU by joining it. Politicians from the Hungarian left wing have also repeatedly announced that they would join the independent body if they were in government. This is no coincidence either. The list of ‘what have they promised in return’ can be continued from now on, with dozens of large companies and utilities being played into foreign hands, Hungarian families being squeezed instead of multinationals and banks, or utility bills being multiplied many times over.
If we look at it from this angle, we can see that sovereignty is at the heart of every political debate.
In 1989–90, the Hungarian people finally regained their self-determination and national independence after four decades of communist dictatorship. After the regime change, the thinking of the Hungarian political elite was mainly determined by the relationship with the communist past. This has changed since then: today we can talk much more about nationalist and globalist politicians, sovereignist and non-sovereignist forces. It is therefore not surprising that the very people who attacked and did not vote for the proposal to defend the country’s sovereignty are those who received millions of dollars from abroad in the last election campaign. Nor is it surprising that the same politicians are again going to Brussels to denounce our country. As the saying goes, those are shouting the loudest whose house is burning. What is remarkable, in any case, is that foreign interests are behind every single decision taken by these politicians. They are the ones who would let migrants in if they had to, who are pro-war if they have to, and who are pro-sanctions if they have to—anyway, they all have one thing in common: they never represent the interests of the Hungarian people under any circumstances. Even if, sooner or later, the consequence of this is that their parties will disappear into the political abyss for good. For that matter, the European Parliament elections will mark out the balance of forces perfectly.
As for 2024: once we have passed the most difficult and dangerous year, we can move on to the next one, the year of sovereignty protection. We who are interested in Hungary remaining a Hungarian country.
Related articles:
Click here to read the original article.
