PM Orban To Set Direction In Kotcse

At one of the key events of the autumn political season, Prime Minister Viktor Orban will deliver his assessment at the Kotcse picnic. For the first time, his speech will not be held behind closed doors but broadcast on social media for all to follow. Mr. Orban’s addresses in Kotcse are of major strategic importance, regularly highlighting the challenges ahead and the opportunities before the country. This year’s speech is expected to focus in particular on the 2026 parliamentary elections.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Kotcse, September 9, 2023 (Photo: MTI/Prime Minister’s Press Office/Zoltan Fischer)

The annual Kotcse picnic will be held on Sunday, where it has become customary for Viktor Orban to give his assessment of political developments, ahead of invited figures from the conservative intellectual and business community. The civic picnic has been organised since 2004 by the Foundation for a Civic Hungary at the Dobozy Mansion in Kotcse. The speeches delivered there by the prime minister traditionally mark the start of the political season. This year’s picnic will break new ground: unlike in the past, Mr. Orban will not hold his assessment behind closed doors, as for the first time the proceedings will be broadcast live on Facebook.

PM Orban’s speeches in Kotcse are always of great significance (Photo: MTI/Mathe Zoltan)

In his speeches at Kotcse, the prime minister traditionally reflects on questions of national destiny, speaks about Hungary’s place and role in the world, gives regular assessments of domestic and foreign policy, and sets out governmental priorities and direction for the period ahead.

With parliamentary elections scheduled for next spring, the prime minister may well address the issue in detail. This is reinforced by the fact that two weeks ago, while holidaying in Croatia, he announced that he and his close colleagues had drawn up a victory plan for 2026.

Other topics may include the state of the European Union, the war in Ukraine, and the global changes triggered by last year’s U.S. presidential election. Economic issues and support for families are also expected to feature.

PM Orban On Loyalty And Neutrality

Although last year’s Kotcse assessment was delivered behind closed doors, Mr. Orban later shared several details from his speech. At the 2023 picnic, he said he believed the right’s greatest advantage over the left was loyalty.

“The Hungarian people can be certain of this: they can always count on us. We do not run away, we do not look for separate paths. We will stay here. That is our mission. And the precondition for fulfilling that mission is electoral victory time and again, along with modesty, humility, and work,

– he stressed.

PM Orban also underlined that Hungary’s new economic policy must remain neutral. In his view, this means resisting the formation of blocs in all shape or form, and staying out of conflicts that would force Hungary to take sides. He argued that Hungary should maintain deep economic ties with all partners for as long as possible.

He further noted that the economy should not be viewed through a political lens, but solely in terms of Hungary’s economic viability. He explained that the first element of economic neutrality is neutrality in financing. Speaking to journalists before the speech, Mr. Orban said that a new global economy had emerged and Hungary must adapt, which is why a new economic policy is needed — one whose heart and essence is economic neutrality.

Dangers and Opportunities

The 2023 Kotcse meeting primarily focused on this year’s European parliamentary elections. Three years ago, the main theme of the prime minister’s address was the war in Ukraine and its impact on Europe. At the 2021 event, Mr. Orban declared that even if the EU were to collapse, “we would be among the last to hold up the final beam.” In 2020, the picnic was not held due to the pandemic. At the last pre-pandemic meeting in 2019, Mr. Orban touched on a wide range of topics, from family policy and assessments of the domestic and international — largely European — political situation, to neighbourhood policy and its economic dimensions, and finally the question of Christian freedom.

After the 2018 election victory, two civic picnics were held. At the June gathering, Mr. Orban spoke about the stakes of the 2019 European parliamentary elections. He emphasized that Hungary faced enormous opportunities, as well as serious dangers. Migration topped the list of those dangers, but, he said, “here we are standing our ground successfully.” At the September 2018 picnic, the focus was on the renewal of Christian democracy, the preservation of national identity, and again the European parliamentary elections.

In his 2017 address, the prime minister highlighted the protection of Hungary’s borders, the safeguarding of families and jobs, and the maintenance of public security.

At the September 2017 gathering, he also remarked that since the Trianon Peace Treaty, Hungary had never been as strong as it is now, and that the Hungarian nation could once again influence the fate of the Carpathian Basin. In his 2015 speech in Kotcse, regarding the wave of illegal migration hitting Europe, Mr. Orban emphasized that it was not a matter of hundreds of thousands, but tens of millions of people, that the supply of migration was inexhaustible, and that nobody could force Hungary to accept a significant Islamic community.

A Lasting Thought 

Many believe that of all his Kotcse speeches, the most influential was delivered in the autumn of 2009, when Mr. Orban set out his concept of the “central power field” in a lecture entitled Preserving the Hungarian Quality of Existence.

There is a real possibility that over the next 15–20 years, Hungarian politics will not be defined by a dual power field, which generates constant disputes over values and petty, unnecessary social consequences. Instead, there will emerge a major governing party, a central political force capable of articulating national issues,

– Mr. Orban stated at the time.

Cover photo: Prime Minister Viktor Orban (Photo: MTI/Prime Minister’s Press Office/Zoltan Fischer)