What is it like to be friends with Viktor Orban for 40 years? - interview with Zsolt Nemeth

this is common sense generation Common Sense generation Welcome All Of You the viewers of Common Sense generation my name is Maria kesa Cooper and today we actually have a real active politician with us ralt NT from um the foreign affair Committee of the Hungarian Parliament thank you very much for being here thank you very much uh just before we go to you actually you're active being a POS politician let's go a little bit through your story H because you are a Hungarian but educated in Britain in in UK uh so how it happened in the times after all when still there was socialism in Hungary we have uh established fides in 198 March uh with some uh University friends like Victor Orban or last Lo here uh so we are uh founding fathers of the present ruling party at that time we were uh bunch of youngsters uh studying uh uh at the University of Economics low faculty uh and in the underground movement uh we had some uh very intensive activity organized summer universities weekend conferences we had semiofficial Publications we had relationship with nzs uh at that time and Poland had always a very important uh impact on the Hungarian opposition in 1956 but in the ' 80s as well so for example uh uh the quite well-known Hungarian politician Victor Orban yes uh was uh studying the history of uh solidarity and uh we had a professor who taught us uh it was uh Professor felak who who was a link between the Hungarian and the uh polish opposition life and also you remember in the war time was a messenger as well I see uh uh between the uh polish refugees in Hungary and the igr uh government uh so uh the our links were always very intensive uh and the creation of fides in March 88 was in a different time uh at that time we had gorbachov we had honer uh uh yanosh Kadar uh so the old days uh uh was and uh we were lucky enough that by the end of the'80s the Hungarian communist system was getting uh liberal similar to the Polish uh there was not much difference in that sense so in a sense that they were a structure in power but the society didn't any any longer believe them exactly exactly so by that time they lost their teeth there was no power uh of them and uh there was a uh quite well-known uh American billionaire George choros yes who supported uh the opposition activity in Eastern Europe and he supported uh the opposition activity in Hungary as well and fidz as an opposition party got the possibility to send um uh one student to Oxford uh every year it was fides and the uh youth movement fides was based upon so first time uh uh H her her fence uh a good philosopher in Hungary conservative philosopher went then uh YF s uh who was uh the author of the Hungarian Constitution then in 8889 I had one year at Oxford University and in 89 90 Victor Orban also had so you all know each other yes so uh and at that time I was so lucky that I could get to know such uh personalities like uh uh Norman Stone who was a professor at Oxford University or uh Professor pinski who was uh head of the shos funded Stefan bori Fund in Oxford and it was Al financing polish uh students studying there uh and uh I got to know also Roger Scruton uh who was uh for us a very important inspiration concerning uh politics philosophy and so on was it a huge change for you or uh when you first time entered oxf for it from after all socialist country I mean because Hungary suffered under being under Russian influence of socialism which was of course imposed on it as well as on as of Poland by force by anyhow for forced a lot of uh few generations of people and living in this grainers and under the under the behind the wall where where they couldn't have their passports couldn't travel easily and were blocked away from the Western World it was a major experience in my life uh partially because uh the West uh was uh not known by us uh in Hungary we could travel only every uh third year once uh to the West so uh the first time my mother uh took me abroad was actually Britain Scotland uh in uh 78 uh and then every third year we had a possibility uh to go abroad but for me 8889 studying one year at Oxford University uh after creation uh and founding fides and when the Hungarian political transition has started it was a major experience it changed my world view uh to look at Hungary from an external perspective and to look at the whole political transition uh from Britain uh it influenced me and uh Those Years anyway uh when we had the political transition were the best part of my life I have to tell you I remember uh very well uh all the details uh it was half a year after the formation of fides uh when I went uh to to Oxford and uh I could get some uh funding uh for the party uh I could be a spokesperson uh for the party uh in Britain in the BBC every month I had an opportunity to give an interview uh and uh to spread uh the development concerning uh FZ at that time uh the voice of America the free Europe and the BBC Hungarian broadcast was a very important uh driving force of the political transition in Hungary and tell me please and you see those all of those fast hand how does transition between uh one system to the other looks like and and what were also original ideas of Fitness uh we were a student movement uh as I said very similar to anes uh we were um uh we had an age limit only young people under 35 uh could enter the party uh and uh shortly uh after my trip uh to Britain it took one year the uh transition process started uh very dynamically so I arrived back to Hungary in the uh summer of 89 and uh 89 uh was uh the election in Poland the semi free elections in June yes uh and in the uh uh September of that month we have been able to finalize the negotiation with the Communist party uh and we decided about uh the uh transitionary process as such uh so the Constitutional Amendments and the free elections uh and the timetable was decided uh and uh as you know in the beginning of of 1990 in the spring of 1990 we had the elections in the Autumn of ' 89 we decided to run for the elections it was a major decision uh most of the youth organizations in in Eastern Europe played an important role in the transition they were demonstrating they were everywhere they were organizing and they were the the Manpower of the transition but only a few of them turned into a political party exactly what I wanted to say that uh interesting that a fish after all is a student movement so academics intellectuals or for example in Poland the main source of changes was actually uh the workers so like Valena was a worker so it w it was them as a major driving uh Power and also those people who were courageous enough it yes you had 10 million people in the solid Aros in 1982 so it was a major uh mass movement in Hungary the transition was more of an intellectual uh character different intellectual circles uh formed the political parties and historical political parties reemerged in uh uh those uh month uh they started in early 89 and by the end of the year a very broad spectrum uh uh was there but for us it was a major decision in October 89 uh to run Fort Parliament uh and uh uh two small elements I would like to uh mention in this process one was that we were uh uh having a rock set song probably you know this Swedish band rock set and uh as Blonde as you are they were and uh they had a song listen to your heart and in Hungarian it was rhy there was a rhyme that U it means that listen to your heart vote FES so this was one very important an element of our uh uh Campaign which gave to the Hungarian Society the feeling that something new must come after communism and another important element was that someone from the street brought us a poster and that poster was a very trendy poster until now my favorite uh but it was not made by our graphic uh Specialists but it was brought to us from the street I repeat and uh there was uh two side of this poster in the upper side honer the German dictator and L brev was kissing each other on the mouth Yes and uh on the lower side of this poster two young stairs a boy and a girl with fidz badges were kissing also each other on the mouth and in the middle we have written please choose uh this poster I have to tell you was the other uh uh component then we got nearly 10% uh the same amount of votes as the Communist party which was a miracle and we got uh into the parliament with 22 fides representatives in the spring of uh 1990 with an average age of 26 if extremely young extremely young uh but that is probably a reason a component why uh uh we still have uh uh fides on stage for 35 years Victor Orban uh uh who had his first political appearance uh in ' 89 when there was a reburial of Imran the victim of the 1956 uh Revolution who was executed by anos Kadar and uh he addressed first time the international public then uh and uh the special character of the Hungarian and fidas story uh can be explained uh that we were extremely young and that probably we are not too old either uh looking at the candidat at the American presidency you are definitely youngsters yes we are 60 years old I have to tell you honestly well then uh then uh Biden's 82 yes so it is also a a funny element right now that major leaders of the western world are actually very early men and there is maybe some looking for the figure of the father but uh so Victor arban became right now for a long time a father in Hungary a conservative father some would say that even a little bit more too strict the other but um but hungarians uh it seems like they want a strong leadership and there is still this resentiment that previously Hangar was a huge country and they needed to give this two3 oneir of the two3 of its territory through the neighboring countries and this is H and I as understand in the SCE of many hungarians is still um still this Nostalgia of the past you know it is not just Nostalgia uh but partially yes but you are right that uh after the first thir War Hungary uh was uh uh destroyed and two3 of our territory and onethird of our ethnic Hungarian population was uh cut down from the Hungarian State uh it was a similar uh tragedy to us as the division of Poland at the end of the 18th century uh and uh that was a very bitter historical experience uh to our polish friends this is a very bitter historical experience to us uh we have still uh around uh two and a half uh 3 million hungarians living in the neighboring countries at less than 10 million country we are so this is a very considerable number and now uh we don't uh talk about territory but we talk about uh people and we are uh trying to represent the fundamental uh rights and interests of these communities because there is only one Hungarian State and the only one Hungarian State uh should uh pay attention uh to the Hungarian minority communities in Romania in Slovakia in the Ukraine in uh Serbia and at the same time uh we are trying to build up a strong uh region a strong Central Europe that's why uh we support the vagad for cooperation or we similarly support the three seas initiative which is a very good polish uh initiative to strengthen the infrastructural link between the central European countries and these two target uh to support the minority communities and to build up a strong region a strong Central Europe uh uh are in our philosophy not against each other but they complement each other very well this uh the need uh of um creating better transportation and in as as it is proposed by the free Seas uh it is also something very often when we look at the card we don't realize that there there were there are very little of rail War roads which connect this part of the uh the the Europe and it could be but because those countries are so close to each other but historically uh it was never in the interest of great Powers before to do those connections uh and to create trade and easy path passage of people and goods among those that truly right now when eventually um all of those states are free and it is not such a long time of freedom and Independence after all when we count it from the in 1989 this is this is a short period uh when when and much shorter than those times under the com and socialist regime and of course a huge influence of Russia which in its geopolitical interest was never to make good connections between our countries sure you know uh in the Middle Ages the Polish the Czech and the Hungarian Kingdom uh had a very uh intensive uh cooperation dynastical uh relations exchange absolutely uh uh sent hedwick sent Kinga uh all these connections B uh the anju house uh we all uh are aware of these uh links but we had a difficult modern history especially communism we were uh separated from each other uh only uh to Moscow uh we were uh responsible to and we were cut away from each other uh I mentioned that it was not possible to travel abroad uh we couldn't even travel to you uh between our countries uh we had uh problems so for this reason I think the pro uh European commitment in our region is strong uh we think that the whole idea of the European Union is very important in its original form uh to bring down the borders uh shenen uh to uh develop our countries the cohesion policy the agricultural policy and building up uh cross border relations there are some successful projects the rail baltica for example uh has been a very good story also we want to have now a highspeed railway relationship between the four vagad capitals uh today it is not easy uh to get from waro to buap on on Highway or on Railway uh and there are similar uh plenty of of projects we need to work on this uh and as you said you are absolutely right that uh this is a historical chance for us we had 35 years of freedom and I think we have exploited uh the period pretty well we know much better each other we have a lot of common links uh between ourselves and the Polish Hungarian friendship is also very strong again and I think we need to nurture it well definitely the Polish Hungarian friendship it it goes beyond any political links it is this uh sort of friendship of Souls and in the in the in the society between people even though there are no links such as language funny thing but but still it makes us much we have all the saying in Polish and you have the same saying in Hungarian about two brothers drinking together and fighting together yeah Bravo it works like this but uh telling looking at the conservatives right now in Hungary what is uh what is what are the what are their uh priorities when it comes to uh we talk discuss a little bit the foreign policy politics but um fish is already a long time in power uh what right now you want to achieve especially that you are in a new Coalition and a new you know we have just had the European elections uh fidz got 45% uh at these elections which means that out of uh uh 20 uh uh two seats Hungary has uh uh now fides has now 11 uh so 2 out of 21 we have 11 uh so this is is a very nice uh result uh in the campaign we had a a slogan that no war no migration no gender it means that we want uh peace we want uh to avoid the illegal migration in our country and uh we don't want the crazy gender propaganda uh to come into our country but when we talk about about the European Union in general probably the most important challenge in front of the Union is that there is a strong left Progressive ideological drive to make the European Union uh a federal state a United States of Europe and uh I think we need to resist this that is a very important task for uh us uh to on the basis of Christian Democratic principles to represent uh national identity National sovereignity and the different constitutional identities uh to respect by uh uh uh Brussels uh because uh we don't believe that Europe will ever become uh uh United States of Europe we don't want that we think that the European Union must serve the nation states uh we need a servicing European Union not a ruling not a dominating European Union with a in spite the fact that right now bureaucracy is still growing in Brussels and there is uh there is still this huge drive to make um to make losss passed by the European Union as hierarchy higher than constitutions of national countries or bills passed by the national um by the separate countries which is of course strange and difficult especially the fact that uh most of the uh those who are elected to the European Parliament okay are elected by the by by by the state but the rest what's Hing on there it's not in the hands of the people and the interest of separate states are after all different even though they want to trade and corporate together but uh indeed this is something which I think unites a lot of Eastern and central European uh countries that this reluctance of looking at as you mentioned the United St the United States of Europe um with all of us speaking different languages and with Hungarian as such a different language an island on on this whole map uh this is again something very different so um it is unlikely definitely that the hunger will um will uh adopt to this um Bend to certain like political uh uh political um policies or like laws of the the European Union how about the famous and the huge problem of climate change and uh all the scary threats that that going to be huge heat huge migration and the change of the scale of Europe you know uh uh there are different uh crazy ideological uh uh Concepts prepared by the progressive left liberal Elite in Europe and in Brussels and we need to fight them uh not only in the field of uh migration or gender but also in the field of this uh so-called green deal uh I I think the competitivity of Europe is in front of a very serious challenge uh this war has shown uh that uh uh in uh what situation we are and we need to reschedule uh these kind of uh plans concerning uh the green uh transition uh obviously we uh care also for nature we think we need to protect uh our nature but I think uh uh we need to uh guarantee that Europe remains competitive and Europe is able to continue the economic uh development so uh now the Hungarian presidency which has started on the 1 of uh July make Europe great again uh is our slogan and we we start this with economic policy but also uh we think that uh in the field of migration we have a challenge uh in the field of cohesion policy we also want to pay attention to the demographic decline of Europe so a very coherent program we have uh prepared and uh parallel we need to manage the institutional transition uh new Parliament new Commission different new positions will have to be uh created and uh F and filled uh so it's not going to be a period uh we will uh have too much relaxation but that's why we are in uh politics and I hope that the cooperation between Poland and Hungary in this period will be even more intensive as after Hungary Poland uh will take over the president of the Council of the European Union I agreed on this jol n on common generation thank you very much for being here thank you very much for sharing this all with with us and um you it is rarely that actually H someone who considered himself as a philosophical of of a intellectual as well is in power so the the rule of philosophers a dream of Plato after all and I think thank you for sharing this and I do hope that you the viewers of K generation um that you liked and enjoyed such conversations rarely that we can talk to a real politician we heard a lot about the the history and the past of fides and their current goals you judge yourself which you think about it but it was this we we got this look inside the Hungarian po politics and I hope you liked it uh and I also thank Polish national foundation for making this video podcast possible this is common sense generation Common Sense generation [Music]