Distinguished Members of Parliament.
 
First of all, allow me to express my gratitude to you on behalf of my country for paying such persistent attention to issues about Hungary. I would also like to thank the support of all those contributors, who stood by Hungary and spoke as the friends of Hungary. I would like to remind President Swoboda - because he was concerned about the political ‘rotation’ in Hungary - that I spent fifteen of the past twenty years in opposition: I governed for four years earlier, then I lost and now I lead the government again. You can rest assured, that if there one single person in Europe, who is a friend of political competition, then it is me and you can always count on me in this respect.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have to say to President Verhofstadt, who read out a statement, which was correct, that he omitted to mention one fact at the end. It is true that the statement was signed by former anti-communist dissidents, but what he failed to mention is important: these people were board members of the liberal party, therefore they are party people. The party in which they worked, lost the confidence of the Hungarian people so badly that the last time round, they failed to achieve the five per cent support required to be in Parliament.     
 
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Taking note of the late hour, allow me to refrain from rectifying one by one all the – unfortunately numerous - factual mistakes that were said here today, therefore I would like to ask all those who spoke today and criticized or accused Hungary and the Hungarian constitution, to please be kind enough to read the constitution. It is an extremely valuable document. You will discover many new things in it: protection of minorities, protection of the sign language, environment protection and the condemnation of GMOs, which I think could be food for thought for any European country.

I also felt, dear Ladies and Gentlemen, that this debate about Hungary also had a European aspect to it: a kind of an ideological debate. People like me and our community have to acknowledge that the ideals we represent do not enjoy majority support even in this house. Undoubtedly, our ideals are Christian, built on individual responsibility, we consider the national sentiment to be important and positive and look on the family as the basis for the future. It is possible that many think differently, but this position still remains a European position. We might be in minority with this in Europe, but it still is a European position and it is permissible for us to represent this position. You might not agree with what I am about to quote, but I personally agree with the statement of Schumann, who said that European democracy will either be Christian or it will not exist. This is a European position, Ladies and Gentlemen.

What concerns the concrete issues, permit me to refrain from the debate that we will have to conduct with the Commission on concrete questions and to only mention two concrete questions here. We have no conflict with the Commission on the independence of the judiciary, because the question of the retirement age of judges pertains to the new pension system and not to that of the judiciary. Hungary was ruined by the unmanageable pension system, which was riddled with privileges. Therefore we made the decision to introduce one single age limit for all civil servants: one single and general age limit; we increased the retirement age of the police and the military, because they were under this limit, while for others we decreased it. For us this is not a judicial but a pension issue and we will be happy to consider the position of the Commission. We can accept all but one of remarks concerning the independence of the National Bank. There is only one single item, on which there is an acute difference of opinion between us and the Commission. The Commission is asking not to have the Governor of the National Bank and the members of the Monetary Council sworn in by Parliament and to take an oath on the Hungarian constitution. I suggest that we consider this. Apart from this, I see that we concur on all other issues. Whether we will concede on this latter one, I would like to ask that we discuss this in the future.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, what concerns the old and the new constitution, I would only like to say to you that the old constitution was no longer capable of protecting the national assets of the country and indebted the future of Hungarians – seriously indebted it, it did not protect competition, the Hungarian economy was ruled by economic monopolies and cartels, the previous constitution did not protect the environment, which went into decline and fell into disrepair, and the previous constitution did not protect civil liberties, because it did not protect the civilians against police brutality and allowed paramilitary organizations to keep minority groups in fear. The new constitution remedies all these shortfalls and I am convinced that the remedy it provides is good.

Finally allow me one more remark. We Hungarians think that Europe is Europe because of its culture. We believe that the basis of European culture is goodwill and benevolence, there have always been and there always will be debates in Europe, but if the arguments are concrete, sober and based on common sense and if we can suppose good intent from the other, then we will always have the chance to find a way to settle the conflict. I am sorry that on several occasions in today’s debate I did not always hear concrete arguments, did not get facts, but instead absurd factual errors, emotions, anger and prejudice. I am convinced that accusations made without knowledge of the laws in question are not worthy of Europe, nor are judgements that lack common sense and objectivity, that are driven by party political anger and emotions. We Hungarians and I myself also believe in these values, it was these values that led us back to Europe, therefore we ask everyone to return to the European way when it comes to issues of conflict. Hungary has always been the land of freedom fighters; it is one today and will remain like this. As a thousand year old European nation, we demand the respect and European manners that we show to every nation. If you have doubts about this, please come to Hungary and get to know us, get to know the Hungarian people.

Thank you for your honouring attention!


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