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Hungarian PM Orban Victor apparently spoke pretty strongly about the EU yesterday… here are three reports.

Business Week

BBC

FT

Here are excerpts published in the Financial Times as provided by the Budapest government:

The political and intellectual program of 1848 was this: we will not be a colony! The program and the desire of Hungarians in 2012 goes like this: we will not be a colony!

Hungary could not have stood against the pressure and things dictated from abroad in the winter of 2011-2012 if it were not for those hundreds of thousands of people who stood up to show everyone that Hungarians will not live as foreigners dictate it, will not give up their independence or their freedom, therefore they will not give up their constitution either, which they finally managed to draft after twenty years. Thank you all!

Don’t be misled if tomorrow you will read in the international press that there were only a few hundred people here in the square and even those who were here, rallied against the government.

As things stand, we have not been as strong as we are today for long decades.

As things stand today we are enough in numbers and in our resolve to fight for a free Hungarian life also, after fighting for our liberties.

Freedom for us means that we are not inferior to anyone else. It means that we also deserve respect.

Freedom also means that we[sic] decide about the laws governing our own life, we decide what is important and what isn’t. From the Hungarian perspective, with a Hungarian mindset, following the rhythm of our Hungarian hearts.

Therefore we write our own constitutions. We do not need writing-lines, nor do we require the unsolicited assistance of foreigners wanting to guide our hands.

We are more than familiar with the character of unsolicited comradely assistance, even if it comes wearing a finely tailored suit and not a uniform with shoulder patches. We want Hungary to revolve around its own axis, therefore we are going to protect the constitution, which is the security for our future.

We have to ask and to respond to the biggest question. Will we submit ourselves to being at the mercy of others until death or will we rely on the virtues which make Hungarians Hungarians, which make sovereignty sovereignty and history history. Will we opt for the fate of a colony or for a Hungarian existence made up and made complete according to the best of our knowledge?

There is one thing that no one can question. Our freedom fights always meant a step forward for the world. They meant progress because we were right. We were right even if everyone denied this.

In ’48 we said that we should tear down the walls of feudalism and we were proven right. In ’56, we said we have to crack, we have to break the wheels of communism and we were proven right.

Today also, they look at us with suspicion. They looked at us like this in ’48-’49, when Europe became silent, silent again, but then the feudalist world disintegrated all around Europe and strong nations were born in its place.

They looked at us like this in ’56, but the communist tyranny, that we drove the first nail into, finally collapsed, allowing Europe to reunite again.

European bureaucrats look at us with distrust today because we said: we need new ways. We said we have to break out of the prison of debt and we also declared that Europe can only be made great again with the help of strong nations. You will see my dear friends that we will be proven right yet again.

It was not the feudalist vassals who caused the demise of feudalism, nor was communism destroyed by party secretaries. The rule of speculators will not be terminated by them or by bureaucrats, nor will they come help save the ditched carriage of Europe.

It is not going to be them, but instead it is going to be European citizens living off the fruits of their personal efforts. Because their world has to come. If it doesn’t[sic], then the days of Europe are over.

The Youth of March also saw, what many in Europe today refuse to see, that financial independence is a precondition for freedom. This is why they had to include the indispensable demand for a National Bank on their 12-point list.

Although the Youth of March were not board members or bankers, they fully understood the weight of the issue of a national bank. They knew that an independent national bank is not one that is independent from its nation. An independent national bank is one, which protects the national economy from foreign interests. They knew and we also know well that anyone with common sense will not entrust the neighbours with the keys to the pantry.

Our Lithuanian, Czech, Latvian, Slovenian and Romanian friends have all stood up for us. Not only did they stand up for us, they also came, our Lithuanian and Polish friends are here to celebrate with us.

Glory to Lithuania! God bless Poland!

We also have with us the silently abiding Europe of many tens of millions, who still insist on national sovereignty and still believe in the Christian virtues of courage, honour, fidelity and mercy, which one day made our continent great.

There are people, there are many people who still remember 56 and think that “you Hungarians were right”. We are capable of standing our ground against the injustice of stronger empires. This is why we are respected by those who respect us. This is why we are attacked by those who are against us.

We understand that Europe has a lot of problems. The clog wheels are creaking, muscles and tendons are flexing.

But as a thousand year old European nation we have one demand. We demand equal standards for Hungarians. As a European nation we demand equal treatment. We will not be second class European citizens. Our rightful demand is to have the same standards apply to us, which apply to other countries. We have learnt that the recovery of Europe and Hungary are inseparable from each other. Any time Europe found itself in distress, the fate of Hungary also took a turn for the worse.

We are not happy, but we understand that European unity is not a unity of saints, but we will not sit and watch idly, if any political or intellectual trend tries to force an unholy alliance on Europe.

Europe cannot surrender and give in; the feeling of belonging together may not weaken it any more. This would lead to the defeat and to the demise of Europe. This is why Europe cannot leave whole countries by the roadside.

If we don’t act in time, in the end, the whole of Europe can become a colony of the modern financial system.

 

The website European Voice reported there were hundreds of thousands present to hear the Fidez leader.

“…In most countries this would be an occasion for national unity, a moment to celebrate a common heritage. Not in Hungary…”

– “Eastern Approaches” is an Economist blogj read today’s entry about the land of the Magyars on this important holiday…

Is a big deal; a holiday to remember the uprising of the mid 1840s when Hungarian leaders led people in revolt against the Austrians (a.k.a. Hapsburgs). You can learn a little more about this big day HERE. You can learn a lot more in this (contested for objectivity) article on Wiki (ALL history from the whole region -not just Hungary- that I have read and been told as historical is contestable due to sometimes lack of objectivity – you know, “the South shall rise again” and all that).

Nonetheless, it is an important remembrance and important time for my beloved Hungarian friends to recreate as well as remember.

I love people, not nations.

I love the people, not the countries, certainly not the governments.
The governments should exist for the people, not vice-versa. We can love
people despite their color, their smell, their accent, their religion.

I think of the acquaintance I made on a train from Beograd to Novi
Sad. A veterinary student from Montinego. A serb. He spoke of the
history of the Serbs, of their religion, Serbian Orthodoxy. He spoke
of his saint and his family, of their fight. How he fled Bosnia as a
child because his father had seen the war coming. I listened
to him carefully as I had others and heard his heart come through. I
asked him to think of Jesus. I taught him the Jesus prayer. I asked
him if I could pray for him and he agreed. I prayed the Jesus prayer
with him and told him the stories from the Bible from which the Jesus
prayer comes. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour, have mercy on
me, the sinner” I sensed that he thanked me with a different heart than when he told me of the plight of the his people.

I think of the women I met in Bosnia. But just barely in that country, for the office of their co-op was meters from the river that separated Serbia from them. From this office I could see the border crossing where guards on both sides kept people out who their government said should not come in. It was at this very border that two friends and I were detained, they were questioned and our car searched as we made our way to a memorial service for victims of genocide. Why? Because governments often fear and in turn, instill fear. I was sitting within view of this very border as I listened to these women tell of their efforts to help seventy families eek out a living from the land. They sought to better the lives of these families who gathered and grew herbs and mushrooms for packaging and selling. They were people, not nations. These Serb women worked to help others both Serb and Bosnian earn more for their families. I had been introduced to them by an Asian missionary who had followed God’s calling on her life to leave an up-and-coming country where there was plenty, to bring the message of Jesus to these people, not to a nation, but to people. Through her humility, I am learning to love the people, not the ethnic group and certainly not the country. She lives among them, often in great personal difficulty, because God had cultivated in her a love for people. She did not hide who she was as a follower of Jesus, she taught them English, she showed them the love of Jesus, she demonstrates the faithfulness of God.

I am learning the love people from a man with whom I climbed a treacherous path to a place of prayer on top of a mountain covered in knee deep snow where we stood together and prayed for a city that is populated by Muslims who need the love of Jesus. I learned from this man that his love made him live in a place where he was misunderstood and lived a somewhat lonely existence with his dear wife, teaching English to those who were interested, so as to find those who might, through conversation and reading the Bible, learn to believe in and love Jesus because Jesus first loved them. I learned to love from his wife who was active in the arts and who, through her willingness to teach the performing arts was deepening and cultivating relationships in hope that these relationships would show this love and result in conversations that might just result in people hearing God call them to join us in following Jesus and loving people.

I am learning to love people from a man and his family who have given their lives to living in a rural town at the foot of a mountain on which sits the ruin of a 13th century castle that was a symbol of safety against attack. This family is living the love of Jesus who is the true fortress, among people who have not had the privilege of dwelling deeply with God, but this man and his wife are living in such a way as to disciple people, young and old, single and married, happy and sad.

I am learning to love by talking with a young couple who have left the big city with big education and moved to a small country to teach people how to love the Bible and teach its message. I am learning to love as I watch them struggle with their life in a new place through deep snows, sickness, misunderstanding and living far, far below a standard that their education and intelligence could afford them back home.

I am learning to love people from a man who has given his life and family to the betterment of his own people and others from his region who have looked to him for provision and even safety and provision during war. I am learning to love by seeing him plow ahead toward the great vision that God has given him for a better society which is made up of reconciled enemies.

I learned to love by hearing the stories of a man who brought provision to a war torn country and now lives among these people, doing many things to strengthen the churches and start new fellowships of people who live and share the love of Jesus. Because Jesus loved them – us – first.

I am learning to love as I sat in a car and prayed for women who went out in bitter cold to take hot tea and God’s love to prostitutes. Girls who are caught in the desperation of the sex trade, who stand on the side of an industrial road waiting for men who will pay them money they need to pay their bills. They are told that God loves them and that He wishes for them to know and love Him. I learned to love from the pastor who goes with these women to pray while they serve and who then goes and talks to the pimps, for Jesus died for these men too.

I am learning to love from a family who left behind the comfort of good jobs in industry and the university to dwell among a pessimistic people who don’t understand why Americans would live in their small city and love and teach them and their children English. I learned to love from a man who worked slavishly on a sports field for the benefit of children who may, through sport, see and hear of the love of Jesus.

I am learning to love people from young people who, fresh from their university studies, go to teach children, teenagers and collegians in foreign countries. They receive little appreciation and often live in loneliness and despair, except for the love of Jesus who speaks to them through colleagues who show the love of God. I am learning to love because of the sacrifice these young people are willing to make because they believe in the power of the Gospel of Jesus.

I am learning to love from a doctor who gave up medicine because he discovered abandoned children in the cold unused spaces under an apartment building. He then devoted his life to changing the lot of these children and made a difference in his city and country for God.

I learned to love from a man who at times seemed to be without a country but pushed ahead only by the power of God to take his family to a place that the world has forgotten but was just years ago the focal point of a brutal war. I learned to love from his wife who followed and supported her husband when it seemed almost no one else did.

I am learning to love from a family who give their love and lives to the desperately poor in an African township by teaching people how to grow vegetables to help the AIDS medications work more effectively while showing and telling the story of Jesus.

I am learning to love people as I consider the sacrifice of parents and families of these people who are giving so much because they love.

I am learning to love people as I consider the people who give their prayers and encouragement and their nickles and dimes and dollars and hundred dollars to support all these people.

I am learning to love people because I have met and heard the stories of people who love God because He loved them first. I am learning to love people because of the love that God is cultivating in me.

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13, ESV)