“There is no third way, only a Third World War”

Viktor Orbán speaks at the rally for peace in Budapest on 1 June 2014

Excerpts compiled by Marita Brune Koch for “Swiss Standpoint”

(14 June 2024) In an impressive demonstration, over one hundred thousand Hungarian citizens expressed their desire for peace. They applauded their prime minister for several minutes before he could even begin his speech. Viktor Orbán seemed visibly moved by the demonstrators’ approval. It comes as no surprise to observers that most Hungarians are behind Orbán, as he is doing everything he can to save his people from a devastating war. We present extracts from his speech in which he addresses the question of war and peace.

At the beginning, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán encourages the large crowd of demonstrators: “Never before has anyone been able to mobilise so many people for peace. [...] We are the largest peacekeeping force in Europe.” He emphasised the magnitude of the task of preserving peace: “We will need every drop of energy, because the task ahead of us is the most enormous we have ever faced before. Europe must be prevented from rushing to war, to its own demise.”

“The war train has no brakes, and the driver is out of his mind”

He characterises the current warmongering: “Today, Europe is preparing to go to war. Every day they announce the opening of another section of the road to hell. Every day they shower us with hundreds of billions of euros being pumped into Ukraine, the deployment of nuclear weapons in the centre of Europe, the recruitment of our sons into a foreign army, a NATO mission in Ukraine, the deployment of European military units in Ukraine. My friends, it seems as if the war train has no brakes, and the driver is out of his mind. [...]

We must pull the emergency brake so that at least those who want to can get off and stay out of the war. The Hungarian government knows how to do this. We know how to stay out of fatal things. We have unhitched the Hungarian wagon in good time from the bandwagon of pro-migration, which is hurtling towards the self-abandonment of nations. Stop migration! And we have also rescued Hungarian children from the hands of dangerous and repulsive gender activists. Stop gender! We will not allow our children and grandchildren to be transported to the Ukrainian front either. Stop war! For those who want to go to hell, please take the second door on the left.

No migration! No gender! No war! – so that they understand it in Brussels too.”

“The intoxication of war”

Viktor Orbán warns against the warmongers: “Those in favour of war have ignored common sense. Those in favour of war are drunk. They want to defeat Russia, as they tried to do in the First and Second World Wars. They are even prepared to take on the whole of the East. They believe that they will win this war. But the intoxication of war is like a drug: those who are addicted to it hold themselves accountable for nothing. They don’t listen to anyone. They step over you. They feel no remorse. We are not important to them, neither you nor your life, your family, the house you have worked for or the future you work for every day. They don’t care about the future of your children. They can’t be convinced. And that’s why we don’t have to convince them, we must defeat them.”

“We will not go to war!”

He recalls what the European Union was once founded for: “The founding fathers of the European Union were right: Europe cannot survive another war. That is why the European Union was founded. Before the First World War, Europe was the master of the world. After the Second World War, it was no longer master of itself and was occupied by foreign empires in the West and East. Now we are playing second fiddle. As things stand, after another war Europe will no longer even play in the orchestra that sets the rhythm of the world – if there is an orchestra at all.

This is even truer for Hungary: in war we have nothing to gain, but everything to lose. In the past, we were dragged into a war against our will, and we lost. And it would be the same now, in 2024. In the First World War, we lost two thirds of the country. In the Second World War, the powerful Hungarian army was destroyed on foreign soil. There was no one left to defend our homeland, our country, our women and children. We didn’t even have enough strength left to negotiate with the supposed victors.

In the two world wars, we Hungarians lost one and a half million people and with them their future children and grandchildren. What a strong country we would have been if they had survived! And now we are once again expected to take part in another war. I’m saying this slowly so that people in Brussels understand: We will not go to war. We are not going to the East for the third time, we are not going to the Russian front again, we have already been there, we have no business there.

We will not sacrifice the Hungarian youth so that the war speculators can enrich themselves to the last drop. We say no to the war plan that was concocted for the sake of money and the wealth to be gained in Ukraine and for the sake of the great powers. It is an old plan, and we know it well. Thirty years ago, George Soros wrote his own overthrow scenario, according to which Russia could be defeated by Western technology and the use of Eastern European manpower. And the people who are lost in the process can be replaced by migrants.”

Don’t give in to evil – don’t give up on peace

The Hungarian Prime Minister sees the question of war and peace as a fundamental ethical antagonism: “Many people believe that evil does not exist. But evil is behind the world wars. We must not give in to it. The time has come for an exorcism. Either we win or they win. There is no third way, only a third World War. Let’s show Soros and his cohorts where the God of Hungary lives!”

And so, he gives a clear answer: “Hungary is stronger today than it has ever been in the last hundred years. A calm and strong island in the centre of Europe. Co-operation internally and unity with the outside world. That is the secret of our success. That is why we are still living in peace today. But the crucial question is already banging on our door: will we give up peace? Giving up peace means dying for Ukraine. Do we want to give Hungarian blood for Ukraine? We do not want that! We will not go to war, and we will not die for others on foreign soil. This is the Hungarian truth. And now it is up to us, if God allows it, to turn the justice of the Hungarians into the justice of Europe.”

“The only antidote to war is peace”

Viktor Orbán summarises the inevitable horrors of war: “Big wars don’t come out of the blue. Economic crisis, scarcity of raw materials, arms race, epidemics, false prophets, assassinations, dark shadows all around us. This is how it starts. There were generations on earth – our grandparents and great-grandparents – whose worst nightmares came true. We watch out for the signs. We see the writing on the wall. Hungarians know the very nature of war.

You know, wars always end differently than people initially thought. That’s why millions of young Europeans lie in mass graves today. That’s why there aren’t enough European people, that’s why there aren’t enough European children. War kills. One dies with a weapon in his hand. Others die on their flight. Some die in the bombing. Still others die in the enemy’s prisons. Others in an epidemic. Others die of hunger. Some are tortured. Some are raped. Some are abducted as slaves. Graves lined up in countless rows. Mothers weeping for their sons. Women weeping for their husbands. So many lives lost.

One thing we know: Where war takes hold, there is no escape. War will catch up with us. You can’t avoid it; you can’t hide from it.”

He concludes unequivocally: “The only antidote to war is peace. Let us keep out of the war and preserve Hungary as an island of peace. That is our mission. And if we don’t want the war to catch up with us, we must stop it. Now! This peace cannot be won with weapons. This war has no solution on the battlefield. There is only death and destruction. There must be a ceasefire and there must be negotiations.”

Source: https://miniszterelnok.hu/en/viktor-Orbáns-rede-auf-dem-friedensmarsch/, 1 June 2024

(Translation “Swiss Standpoint”)