“Today, Hungary has a reputation in international politics. This is unusual.”
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán began his speech at the CPAC (extreme) right-wing conference. Orbán said that he thinks this is interesting because Hungary is small: but according to the prime minister, people are interested in Hungary because
- there is something attractive about it, something exotic. Perhaps the language that no one understands”;
- in the face of the progressive-liberal ocean, “a conservative island remains here”.
Viktor Orbán also spoke about the rule of law in Hungary, since the CPAC could also be organized: here everyone “rents the place they want” and “says what they want”. Orbán added that CPAC is a conservative conference that they don’t want to make impossible and that they “don’t fire overnight” – according to him, “not like in Brussels”.
“If I wanted to, I couldn’t tell a Hungarian court what the right decision was. In fact, even if I were to tell you, I would definitely decide the opposite”.
Viktor Orbán then greeted his allies in the audience, including former Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša (who was previously convicted of corruption) and the recent Prime Minister of the Polish PiS, Mateusz Morawiecki. In addition, there are also representatives from Georgia, Israel, and Chile.
Orbán recalled that at the first CPAC he spoke about the Hungarian recipe for success, and a year ago about Hungary being a laboratory against liberalism. But the year 2024 “is not the year of theory, but of practice,” said Orbán. Because there will be elections in the world and “we have to win these elections”.
“Progressive liberals feel the danger. Replacing the era also means replacing them. The end of the progressive world spirit”
– concluded Orbán, and then outlined that the progressive liberals are now in power, who he thinks are very dangerous. “This is what happens to us Hungarians in Brussels. This is what is happening with President Trump in America,” Viktor Orbán indicated that there is a court case against Donald Trump in the USA. According to the indictment, this year’s Republican presidential candidate committed an economic crime during the 2016 campaign by accounting for silence money as legal expenses.
Cheese and communists
Orbán then spoke about how the communists (and now the progressives) “sing the cheese out of our mouths in five steps”. According to Orbán, these five steps are:
- “They redefine the normal”;
- “They use state means to spread their ideas”;
- “They spread the word that because you hold dangerous views, you are also a security risk”;
- “The press is inciting you”;
- Then “the state bodies will also take action”.
But Orbán did not use the well-established state propaganda media or the press that is arbitrarily banned from events close to the government, but rather the “democracy space dogs”, whatever that means.
According to Orbán, the liberal order failed after “bringing confusion into the world”. According to him, these leaders “know more about world peace than even a beauty pageant”. He added that it is not the “adventurous academics” and others who say what is right, but the politicians elected by the people. In the end, Orbán said that “the election battle is about to begin”, in which their job will be to “distract” the communists and “let the age of souvenirists finally come”. Orbán ended his speech with the motto known from Donald Trump: “Make America great again”, then added: “make Europe great again”.
What is CPAC?
This year, the Hungarian edition of the annual superconference (CPAC) organized by the (extreme) right wing of the American Republican Party, CPAC Hungary in Budapest, was held for the third time, with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as the keynote speaker every year. As in previous years, this year the Center for Fundamental Rights, which is heavily supported by public funds, is organizing the right-wing conference between April 25 and 26.
CPAC was originally the annual convention of the American right since the 1970s, the first European forum, CPAC Hungary, was organized by the Center for Fundamental Rights in 2022. According to the description, “the world’s best-known right-wing leaders, researchers and influencers will visit CPAC Hungary, last year, for example, former US President Donald Trump and host Tucker Carlson greeted the participants in a video message.
