PM Orban's Speech in Tusvanyos Serves as a Compass

Apart from analysis of current political challenges and situation assessment, Mr Orban's speeches in Tusvanyos typically also reveal his strategy for the future. The Hungarian prime minister's address, traditionally held on the last day of the Balvanyos Free University camp, is always a highly popular event.

In keeping with tradition, Viktor Orban will once again address the Balvanyos Free University [commonly called Tusvanyos that is held annually in Baile Tusnad, Romania] on Saturday morning. The Hungarian prime minister regularly shares his thoughts on governance and strategy-making at the event. His assessment can serve as a compass not only for political actors but for voters, as well.

Plans until 2040

In last year's speech, Mr Orban stressed that we are living in a particularly dangerous time in human history, a time of great change. The balance of power in the world has shifted, and we are now suffering the grave consequences. He indicated that China has shifted the global balance of power, which has been a long-standing fear of the Western world. There has never been such a rapid and tectonic shift in global equilibrium as the one we are living in today. In his assessment of the European Union, the PM noted that one has the feeling that the EU is plagued by anxiety and feels hemmed in. At the heart of the conflicts between the EU and Hungary lies our Fundamental Law, he said, explaining that the EU is rejecting our Christian heritage, orchestrating a population replacement and waging an LGBTQ campaign against family-friendly nations. In the politician's view, Europe has created its own political class, which is no longer accountable, no longer Christian nor democratic in its convictions.

We do not want everyone to have the same faith or the same family life or to celebrate the same holidays. But we do insist that we have a common home, a common language, a common culture and a common public sphere that must be protected at all costs. That is why we will not compromise and we will not back down. We will insist on our rights and will not give in to political or economic blackmail,

he stressed.

In addition to assessing the global political situation, in past Tusvanyos speeches Mr Orban has also touched on the prospects for the Hungarian economy. He said that we had collided with two meteors in the space of three years: first, Covid in 2020, which we managed to fend off, but the war of 2022 knocked us off course. The PM also noted that if everything goes right, at Tusvanyos 2024, he could talk calmly about plans for 2030 to 2040.

Local successes

In 2022, after a three-year pause due to the Corona virus, Viktor Orban addressed the Free University audience again. He stressed that since 2019, the world had entered a decade of wars and dangers, and that the pillars of Western civilization that were thought to be unshakable had been weakened. The prime minister had already predicted the latter development three years earlier, when he warned of a decline in European competitiveness due to liberal policies.

The world political situation is unfavorable, Mr Orban stated at the time, saying that Hungary is facing several challenges simultaneously: the first remains demographic numbers, followed by migration and the attempt to replace the European population, the third is the threat posed by the rise of gender ideology in the West, the fourth is war, followed by the emerging energy crisis. Closely related to this is the horror of the European and international economic recession.

The Hungarian leader had also announced a way out, an action plan, and spoke about the government's strategic plans, stressing that there is no realistic chance of peace before the US presidential elections in 2024, and compared the European Union's strategy for dealing with the conflict to that of a car with all four wheels punctured. He said, the EU needs a new vision and Hungary needs to take steps to guarantee its local success in order to stay out of the global crisis.

Illiberal democracy

Before that, in 2019, Viktor Orban said that the Hungarian nation has the capabilities to defend itself, that it is on a promising course, and that its further development is threatened not from within, but from without.

At Tusvanyos the PM regularly makes political predictions, which usually materialize, for example back in 2018 he predicted the Russia-Ukraine war.

"Russia sees itself as a country that is not safe if it is not surrounded by a buffer zone. Therefore, it will seek to establish buffer zones around its territory as it has done so far. Ukraine is one of the victims of this," Viktor Orban stated six years ago.

At Tusvanyos 2016, he became the world's first sitting political leader to stand up for Donald Trump, while in 2014 he spoke for the first time about illiberal democracy. In 2013, the PM talked of the need to protect national resources, highlighting the importance of national sovereignty, the importance of the national constitution and the primacy of family policy. In 2011, he spoke about the paradigm shift in the world and a new understanding of the role of the state, calling for a work-based society rather than a consumer-based one, and a year later he spoke about the successful nation-state crisis management in Central European countries.

In 2010, the PM spoke of the two-thirds majority revolution and the creation of a system of national cooperation as an antidote to Western-style speculative capitalism.

Viktor Orban first addressed the Balvanyos Free University in 1998. Then, as newly elected prime minister, he stressed the importance of Hungary's membership in NATO, and over the years his speeches here have become political keynote presentations.

Cover photo: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban gives speech at Balvanyos Free University (Tusvanyos) in Baile Tusnad (Tusnadfurdo), Romania (Photo: Mate Bach)