Speeches

Madam President, I'm sorry. Political communication is undergoing a fundamental change today. On social media, you have 5-10 seconds to grab people's attention. I think we need to adapt. The change has never been stopped by prohibition and rigid regulation. But we also know that when politics meets money, it is there that rules and regulations are most needed. Because if they don't, campaigns will be flooded with financially outnumbered people, and politics will be dominated by paid influencers and manipulation machines. In Hungary, we can see and experience this every day. The taxpayers of the government's centralized fake news factory use billions of dollars to build fear and insecurity and smear their opponents. We saw it in the Romanian elections: When foreign influence, power interests and money are behind the manipulation, the whole democratic process is at risk and becomes opaque. One of the main questions, in my view, is how we can regulate the financing of campaigns in such a way that it is transparent and that no one can abuse its financial power. If we act wisely now, we can guarantee that the next elections will be about people's free choice.

Dear Mr President, Academic freedom is an integral part of the cultural heritage of Europe and at the same time of Hungary. Throughout history, however, this legacy has always been attacked by the enemies of Europe. Unfortunately, I have to say that in Hungary today this attack comes primarily from the current populist government against academic freedom. In addition to domestic political influence on academic life, espionage by third countries is also an extremely serious threat. Some governments, such as the current Hungarian government, not only do not protect themselves against such espionage, but they even promote it by not paying attention to it, and sometimes even by actively contributing to it. The current government's pro-China policies are exacerbating the situation. One example of this is that Fudan University in China has launched a project in Budapest, which poses a real interference and security risk. It's not about education, it's about China gaining influence. Dear all of you! This is not just a problem for Hungary, but a pan-European challenge. Europe's sovereignty, competitiveness and R&D performance depend on preventing malicious acts in the academic sphere. If the government of a Member State, such as Hungary, serves foreign interests, it makes the whole Union vulnerable. We therefore welcome, urge and support the establishment of the European Research Security Expertise Centre, which will be able to provide strategic assistance in protecting research institutions and universities, protecting academic freedom and ensuring the security of research. We urge the EU to take concrete action as soon as possible.

Dear Mr President, I, too, came from Budapest as a representative of the Tisza Party, and so we welcome the joint position of the European heads of state and government on enhancing the competitiveness of the European economy. However, we cannot welcome the fact that Viktor Orbán, as the host of the Council of Europe, lied to European prime ministers and citizens. He announced the Budapest Declaration with no small pride, but he did not mention that the Hungarian government is doing everything contrary to it. Some examples include: in terms of energy prices, the construction of a new nuclear power plant, which is key to Hungary's energy security and prices, is delayed due to the government's inability to let go of Comrade Putin's hand. In the same way, the government is lagging behind in the implementation of energy diversification. Similarly, in the field of research and development, the freedom of scientific research has been violated in Hungary, and universities and research institutions are increasingly placed under the political influence of the state party. This is what the most recent bills have done. With regard to the competitiveness of agriculture, the Hungarian government supports large estates close to Fidesz and does not promote higher value-added production. This in turn undermines the competitiveness of agriculture and the future of young people in the sector. The Tisza Party, when it comes to government, will take the Budapest Declaration seriously, and we will exchange corruption for honor, and deprivation for a secure livelihood.

Dear Madam President, Dear colleagues and dear young people, many of you are sitting in the bleachers. We're glad you're here. I think that many of us can agree that new digital technologies, new technologies offer us a lot of good opportunities. I don't want to demonize them. However, we also know that these tools are often used for political manipulation and radicalisation among young people, exacerbated by the spread of fake news and conspiracy theories through these tools. Content producers and platform operators have a huge responsibility in this situation. Their fundamental duty is to monitor the content on their platforms more closely and screen them more responsibly so that young people, who are still here and may be watching us, encounter as little harmful content as possible. The solution, I think, is to increase the conscious use of media in education, not to exclude modern media from schools. Application of existing rules and laws in the Member States and continuous development and monitoring of codes of conduct for large online platforms. We must prevent the spread of hate speech and anti-democratic propaganda and political manipulation among children, and we, as Members, have a great responsibility in this. How we act and what we say is of great importance.

Dear Madam President, Dear Prime Minister, When you responded to the speeches here, you said that you rejected any parallels between 56 and Ukraine's war defence. The fact is that it is you, your colleague sitting behind you, who has brought this parallel, with which you have outraged the people of Hungary, hundreds of thousands of people living in Hungary, but as we have heard, not only the Hungarians, but also those sitting here. Dear fellow Members, Hungary is in big trouble. This is also evidenced by the behaviour of the current Hungarian government in the EU Presidency. Listening to the Hungarian Prime Minister, we can hear that there is no better place on Earth than Hungary, led by the current government. Yet another lost opportunity is this Presidency, which would consciously lead not only my country, but now the whole EU in the wrong direction. Why am I saying all this? It is true that for my critical thinking, evoking communist times, my kidney is not yet kicked off, but with the full agreement of the state party, in April this year I was fired from my state job overnight because I spoke for the separation of church and state. The government has taken the public media hostage, so as a politician, even if it seems that we are free to talk about anything we say, it will not get through because of the crappy propaganda that we still hear in this house today. I am pleased to report that the change in the EP elections has begun at the will of the Hungarian people. The Tisza is the herald of this change, and we will join the European Public Prosecutor's Office, adopt anti-corruption measures and bring home the 8,000 billion forints of EU funds due to the Hungarian people from Brussels.

Dear Madam President, State-sponsored disinformation must be debunked by EU instruments. We already have the Anti-SLAPP Directive and the European Media Regulation in our hands. However, in order to comply with the law, it is also necessary for citizens to be vigilant and active. I come from a country, Hungary, where the current government has perfected its heavy influence over the media with brute force and a lot of money. At the same time, the expectations of the EU show a curved mirror to the Hungarian government's public media, which is lying to the public with noble simplicity. In Hungary, nearly 25,000 Hungarian citizens demanded the impartial operation of the public media over the weekend. The government media ignored us as the largest opposition party for more than 200 days, and in the days when this situation became untenable, they deliberately painted a misleading picture of the position of the Tisza Party. I believe that, while complying with the law, we must educate young people and the whole population, which is a great challenge for the Commission that is now being set up to be prepared for such influences. We must also ensure the freedom of journalists and editors to act according to the values of true journalism.