If everything continues in this way, then the cities of Europe will clearly have majority Muslim populations, our identity and our nations as we know them will cease to exist, our worst nightmares will have become reality. The West will fall.

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from Prime Minister Orbán’s State of the Nation Address, delivered on February 18, 2018.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The fact that we come to mind when people in Hungary and abroad think of Hungarian politics is not something that has come without cost. Fidesz was formed thirty years ago. This has been a long road: fierce struggles, perseverance, loyalty, camaraderie; loyalty and service to Hungary, unity and camaraderie to one another. Every Hungarian knows us, and has even got to know us well. They know that we mean what we say, and we’re not in thrall to the temptation to exaggerate. We seriously mean what we say. If we commit to something we throw ourselves into it. This is why we work hard for it, and in the end we complete the task and usually achieve our goal. If the slogan had not already been used, I would say that we are “the force of calm”. We are ourselves, and we don’t try to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. We are anti-communists and patriots. We passionately love Hungary, and are ready to do everything we can for it. This is what sets us apart from the other political parties.

It’s not my job to focus on other parties, but forty-nine days before a general election this is hardly avoidable. I look at the state of the other parties, and I cannot always believe my eyes. And I have to tell you I don’t even understand how such people and parties in their present state can ask the people for their trust, and indeed can stand as candidates for government. There’s a party which has asked a player from another team to lead its list. He calls himself a prime-ministerial candidate – even though everyone can see that he’s only a bankruptcy receiver, who has been handed the historic task of leading the MSZP out of Parliament. Another left-wing party is discovering its old roots, and under the leadership of a former prime minister is morphing back into an archetypal communist party, threatening people with prison, nationalisation and a new change of system. All it can say as far as spiritual issues are concerned is that the churches should just keep their mouths shut, and had better keep a low profile. Einstein, who not only observed physical phenomena but also the human mind, said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. There’s another party, we have another party, which has nothing else to say about the world except that it can be different. A brilliant insight, but it is all but impossible to find out from them what that world would be like, because they themselves are so different that we don’t know if they are right- or left-wing, nationalists or internationalists. And there’s so much coming and going that we don’t know who’s in the party and who’s outside it. We can’t even remember the names of the parties formed by those who’ve left, because they’re struggling to remain visible and are so short-lived. But most absurd of all is that in these dangerous, migrant-battered times there is a national party which has seen better days, and which has now come up with the idea that Islam is the last hope for humanity. Well, one’s jaw drops, because one can’t believe one’s ears. Someone should pinch us quickly, so we wake up. But it’s no use: this really is the situation in Hungary today; these are the options, these are the other candidates for government.

All I can say, politely but firmly, is that Hungary deserves better than this. So it’s no wonder that in the country now the mood is not for a change of government, but for a change of opposition. But for a moment let’s take them seriously and make it clear that we are people who think that the last hope for Europe is Christianity. Today when European people talk about Christianity – and this distinction is important – they are primarily thinking of its culture and their way of life. This is why, according to opinion polls and analyses, 78 per cent of people in Hungary want us to preserve our Christian culture and our Christian traditions.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

When we think about the future and the stakes in the election ahead of us, we would do well to observe the increase in the number of pessimistic analyses, forecasts and projections concerning the future of Europe. Commentators claim that there are dark clouds gathering over Europe, due to immigration. There have always been dark prophecies. This is the familiar background music to European politics. What’s worrying these days is that in essence they are mathematical in nature: even though they are estimates, they are about numbers and quantifiable changes; and numbers always carry a great deal of weight. According to estimates, in European countries to the west of us the percentage of immigrants will grow at an ever faster pace. I’d rather not say anything now about France or the Netherlands, but for instance the percentage of German-born citizens in large cities is in decline, as immigrants always occupy the larger cities first of all. For instance, in Bavaria now more money is being spent on asylum, immigration and integration than on the combined state budget for the economy, the environment and health care. Visiting Vienna I heard that this year’s school enrolment data took everyone very much by surprise: the percentage of Muslim children among those starting school has soared. This is the future that over there is already the present. According to NATO reports – it seems that soldiers don’t yet allow themselves to be censored – by 2020, sixty million people will have set off for Europe. There’s also consensus that Africa will be more powerful than any previous expectations had envisaged. By 2050 its population will have doubled, to 2.5 billion. There will be ten times more young Africans than young Europeans. Africa faces two potential futures. In one future it would be able to repeat the spectacular achievements of Asia, where China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, for example, have amazed the world. Each of these – in their own way, but all at lightning speed – have dragged themselves out of poverty, set their economies on a path of growth, and will soon take over the leading role in the world economy. Their success reminds us that rather than history shaping demography, demography shapes history. And like school children who have to repeat a year, we Hungarians could say a lot on that subject. The other possible future would it be if Africa is unable to follow the path of Asian development and is unable to create decent conditions fit for its young generations to live in. If this mass of several hundred million young people is allowed to travel north, then Europe will soon come under horrendous pressure. Furthermore, the majority of immigrants will arrive from the Islamic world. If everything continues in this way, then the cities of Europe will clearly have majority Muslim populations – and London will not be an outlier, but a pioneer. If things continue like this, our culture, our identity and our nations as we know them will cease to exist. Our worst nightmares will have become reality. The West will fall, as Europe is occupied without realising it. Will this be a vindication of the views of those who think that civilisations are not killed, but commit suicide? Many believe that even if all this does take place, it will all take a long time. I think that those who believe this are mistaken. Analyses look ahead as far as 2050, and people of my age will reach their eighties at around that time. In other words, we – not to mention our children and grandchildren – may be able to see with our own eyes what direction the future of our Western world has taken.

And at this point, Dear Friends, I must also say a few words about the dispute between Western and Central Europe. It seems that the courses of development of these two parts of Europe have diverged. Naturally democracy, the rule of law and the market economy remain in common. But the foundations on which these rest today will become increasingly divergent. Politicians do not yet talk about this openly, but everyone can already see it. The great old European nations in Western Europe have become immigrant countries. Day by day their cultural foundations are being transformed, the population raised in a Christian culture is declining, and the major cities are undergoing Islamisation. And I have to say that I cannot see the political forces with the will and ability to stop these processes – let alone, horribile dictu, reverse them. In terms of my message it is now irrelevant whether this is the consequence of the weakness of liberal democracies, the repercussions of an earlier colonial and slave-trading past, or the greedy, subversive actions of a George Soros-style empire; the facts remain. Whatever the reason, Western Europe has become an immigrant zone and a world of mixed populations; and, unlike central Europe, it is heading in the direction of a completely new development future. This is bad news for us. This means that Islamic civilisation – which has always seen its mission as the conversion of Europe to what it calls the true faith – will knock on Central Europe’s door not only from the South, but also from the West. We have successfully defended our southern borders with the building of the fence, the legal and physical border defences, the exemplary steadfastness of our police and the leadership of Sándor Pintér. We have prevented the Muslim world from inundating us from the south. Facing that direction we are the last country in Latin – or Western – Christianity. We are standing firm. Our defence lines are sufficient to hold back the largest flows. Furthermore, Orthodox Christianity is courageously and resolutely fighting ahead of us. We acknowledge Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria.

However absurd it seems, the situation is that now the danger is threatening us from the West. This danger to us comes from politicians in Brussels, Berlin and Paris. They want us to adopt their policies: the policies that made them immigrant countries and that opened the way for the decline of Christian culture and the expansion of Islam. They want us to also accept migrants and to also become countries with mixed populations. Earlier they said that they expect this from us because what is alien is beautiful, a mixed population is better, and because the true European does not defend such obsolete mediaeval concepts as homeland and religion. Today these voices are perhaps quieter. Now the fashionable mantra is that we must become like them because this expresses solidarity. We must clearly state that we stand in solidarity with those Western Europeans and leaders who want to save their homelands and Christian culture, and we have no solidarity with those who want to abandon those things. We shall never express solidarity with those European leaders who want to take Europe into a post-Christian and post-national era.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We must clearly and forthrightly state that we do not see the battle that we’re fighting as a hopeless one; in fact as we see it, we now stand on the brink of victory. The countries of the Visegrád Four are unwavering. The Orthodox world stands firm, and it seems that Croatia has come to its senses. Austria has now turned in the direction of patriotism and Christianity. In Bavaria a spiritual and political resistance has developed under the leadership of the CSU. Perhaps it is not too late. And we await, we keenly anticipate, the result of the Italian election, and with it the turning-point which will see the return to government of common sense, Italian national and cultural identity – and Silvio Berlusconi. Forza Italia!

And let us now remember those European politicians, our counterparts, who in recent years have sunk their teeth into us – and in the end have broken their teeth on us. A brief roll call: Austrian chancellors Faymann and Kern; Italian prime minister Renzi; the inglorious Croatian prime minister Milanović; and, of course, Martin Schulz – who had a manic desire to be everything, and in the end has become nothing. I see that the list is unfinished, and there are a few vacant places on it.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

All this gives us hope. In the end it is good to see that one has not worked in vain. But the situation gives us no reason to be self-satisfied. The forces opposing us, George Soros’s network and the international bureaucrats he has bought, have in no way given up. There are those who still smell money. They look at Europe and see the business opportunities inherent in the weakening of the euro. There are those who do not want to lose the jobs and infantry wages they have received from the globalist elite. And there’s also the type of European ideological intellectual who continually experiments with the transformation of Europe. A well-developed example of the latter is a Hungarian activist from a Soros organisation, who was able to say the following, and I quote: “From almost wherever they come, those arriving here are better than our native population”. I didn’t understand this for a while. I didn’t understand why someone would talk such obvious claptrap. After all, it’s clear that, compared with migrants, we Hungarians are better-trained, better-educated and more employable. This is clear. Then one of the Soros network’s chief ideologues, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, recently let slip that some years ago they secretly launched a programme to breed a Soros-like human race, or, as they modestly put it – if I can pronounce the term – Homo sorosensus. This means “Soros man”. And I realised that from their point of view, from the viewpoint of the Soros types, we indigenous people who have our own countries, our own culture and our own religion – things for which we will fight tooth and nail – are individuals beyond redemption, who cannot be transformed. From their viewpoint, migrants are indeed better raw material to work with. And it is a clear testament to the Hungarian people’s generosity and deep tolerance that the people who are scheming to implement this plan can safely and cheerfully live their lives among us.

Now of course we shall not look on impassively; we are not sheep, who quietly stand around waiting for their fate to be visited upon them. Naturally we shall fight, and if needs be we shall deploy an ever more powerful legal arsenal. Here, for a start, we have the “Stop Soros” legislative proposal. We are linking any activities related to migration and migrants to a national security licence, and we shall divert a proportion of the foreign funding intended for pro-migrant NGOs, or pseudo-civil society organisations, to the border protection budget. We shall order a complete financial transparency screening, and if somebody does not refrain from their dangerous plans we shall simply expel them – however powerful or rich they may be. And we shall fight in the international arena as well. Tomorrow I shall hand over to the Prime Minister of Bulgaria – which currently holds the presidency of the European Union – the European legislative proposal which can provide for the complete protection of Europe’s borders. This is the important thing, the protection of the borders – not mandatory migrant quotas. If we secure the borders, no one can enter without permission, and then there will be no one to distribute. And those who allow migrants to enter their countries should keep them and look after them. And there can be no question at all of them selecting the best and sending us the rest.

So I should also draw your attention to the fact that in the meantime another area for debate has opened up. The United Nations, the UN, has taken it upon itself to finalise an international compact on migration by the end of the year. The draft has been released for debate. The United States has already left the negotiating table, because in its view the proposal is hopelessly pro-migration and anti-border security. Our self-confidence is in a better state, and we have therefore decided to stay at the negotiating table for the time being, and change the wording of the compact being prepared. What does the UN want? This will be a fine task for our friend Péter Szijjártó. What does the UN want? The UN wants everyone to accept that immigration and its facilitation make a positive contribution to economic growth and prosperity. This is a quote from the document. From a European point of view, this is obviously idiocy; it’s like saying that a flu epidemic is a good thing, because it makes a positive contribution to people’s health and well-being. The UN asserts that safe and regulated immigration routes must be created in Europe. The UN asserts that it is every European’s duty to help the immigrants coming to their countries to settle and find jobs.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We understand that some 80 per cent of the UN’s Member States are source countries for migrants. But we didn’t establish the United Nations in order for it to turn against us and force something on us that will ruin us. The United Nations also asserts that the legal and physical barriers obstructing immigrants’ paths across borders must be removed. We can stand up straight and hold our heads high: this is about the fence, and this is directly aimed at us. Interestingly, proposals of this kind mostly originate from people who are protected by bodyguards, who travel in armoured limousines, whose houses are surrounded by high walls and fences, and who are protected by security systems around the clock. We suggest instead that they first dismantle their gates, take down their fences and dismiss their guards. We suggest that we continue the talks if this experiment has succeeded – and they’re still alive. Should the experiment fail, we’ll happily grant them asylum in Hungary.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This is obviously utter nonsense. It’s incomprehensible why they would think us to be such raving lunatics as to accept this and then implement it. We must bluntly state that Hungary is not a country of deranged people. We understand that George Soros’s organisations have not only installed themselves in Brussels and Budapest, but also in New York, at the UN. We understand that they are spending incalculable sums of money on pushing through acceptance for migration at a global level. We understand that Soros has picked a fight not only with us, but also with the British, President Trump and the Israelis. And everywhere the topic is the same: forcing acceptance for immigration and migration. But they won’t succeed. We’re not alone, and we shall fight together to contain – and then to stop – Soros’s plan as presented in Brussels and in the UN. And if we have enough allies – and we can have enough allies – I’m sure that we shall succeed in the end.

Read the full address here.

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