Balázs Orbán argues Hungary's economic revival stems from restoring classical architecture like Buda Castle, rejecting modern concrete to reinforce national identity against progressive ideology. He credits grassroots support for surviving international pressure during the 2015 migration crisis and warns that gender issues dangerously divide nations by overriding shared purposes. Orbán advises American politicians to prioritize public unity over media noise labeling their work fascist, citing Hungary's neo-gothic Parliament as a symbol of sovereignty chosen to differentiate the nation from empires. Ultimately, he suggests true governance requires building safe environments while ignoring external criticism to maintain national cohesion. [Automatically generated summary]
One is that, you know, construction is always a sign of economic success.
So in general, if you have construction sites all over you, you know, probably you don't like them for a short period of time, but for a longer period of time, it's like it shows the economic strength of a country.
And I'm happy to see that here in Budapest and all around Hungary, something is doing.
And the other part, is a reconstruction of the so-called Buda Castle Hill and which was actually demolished in the Second World War.
It was bombed by the Russians and then before that it was used as a for military operation by the Nazis and then the Hungarian communists who obviously occupied the country they also did some serious damage and this used to be Classical, wonderful architectural style buildings and we made the decision to rebuild them.
It's like there is a governmental program so if you come back in two years time you will see the entire castle here fully recovered.
Everything is rebuilding in beautiful classical architectural style.
It's still the best Right now, today is one of the best places of Europe, but it's gonna be really, really gorgeous.
Yeah, and as you know, I'm coming here after a nine-day trip to Israel, and one of the things that I found there is they're constantly in this battle between old and tradition and new and technology and everything else.
It seems like something similar is happening here, that you guys are trying to look back at your past You're not anymore talking about architecture.
to the future, but then also govern in a somewhat sensible way, which is pretty rare for the
No, actually, but you know, this is from the architecture debate, you can understand everything
because what we are doing here is that we try to restore everything which made Hungary
great in the past and it's part of our heritage.
If we are not proud of that, then what makes us Hungarians?
What is the purpose of our life?
So this is the important part.
And the other part is you will see in the city some other modern buildings which were created by Foreigners, very famous architects from all over the world.
I think it gives us pride as well to bring them to Hungary and let them to work here.
And we are fighting against the modern concrete and glass.
I mean, just like nothing special type of buildings.
If there is something Hungarian in that, Obviously it has to be a high quality thing, but it has to add some tiny little Hungarian thing in that.
This is how the things are going to work.
And not only in just architecture and reconstruction, but like policy making, family policy, things like that.
I think the most important thing that you have to be sure and make sure that the people, grassroots voters, are behind you.
And then it doesn't matter whether the media is going against you, whether big corporations are going against you.
In our case, as a small country, international organizations, NGOs, and like Brussels is going against us, but if the people are backing what we are doing, then we are fine.
This will be always the last frontier, the last, you know, just place to stand.
This is based on common sense, not based on party political ideas.
And in Hungary, I think the media and even some Serious opposition parties, they take it seriously because they see if they go to another direction then the voters, they will punish them.
And they will not support them anymore.
They were looking for other alternatives.
Probably they will not vote for Fidesz, but they were looking for new alternatives on the left.
It's interesting because from an American perspective, our left, they can have different policies, obviously, but there's something else where they're, they're angry at the founding of the nation.
That strikes me as much more dangerous where... That's, that's, that's the thing when, when we start When we start talking about the LGBTQ and the gender issues, and the Pope was here two weeks ago, CPAC was here one week ago.
Actually, since the Pope was here, since then we have the good weather.
And everybody was very clear on that, that this kind of gender ideology, It's very dangerous because it divides the nation.
So it wants to override the idea of nationhood and of that all the people, it doesn't matter what color they have, how old are they, where are they from, they belong to the same nation and there is more thing which unites them than brings them separately.
And if you let these ideologies emerge, Then at the end of the day, sooner or later, it takes years, but it will destroy everything which brings the people together.
And then it will be very hard to maintain and to manage even the most basic functions of the society.
Yeah, it was interesting, because when I spoke last night, I mentioned how there should be a separation between the LG and B and T, that the T thing is actually anti-LG and B, and it's anti-women.
And it got a nice round of applause, which I was happy to hear from a conservative audience, because I think that's an important part to note.
It's still a small country, far away from the United States, after many centuries of suffering.
So how, you know, it's the mouse and the elephant.
I don't think that it should be cured.
But our experience is that people want to fix their life and people want to fix their country.
And it's not impossible to bring them together and be united.
Especially in a democracy.
Democracy is still the best form to do so.
And all politicians who want to restore American greatness or do something against what is going on right now there should be aware of the fact that if the people are behind you, you have to convince them to be on board with you.
If the media was supporting you, that's what DeSantis says also.
Yeah, well, it was a pleasure seeing you again, and I look forward to exploring just this absolutely incredible... Tell me, yeah, give me one thing that we should do if we have a little fresh time.
It's a gorgeous, gorgeous thing, but it's about Hungarian sovereignty, because it was built more than 120, 130 years ago, And back at that time, there was a competition among the architects that what kind of building should be built.
And there was a commission which made the final decision.
And as you see, this is the only neo-gothic style of building in town.
All the other ones are just now neo-classical, neo-Renaissance buildings.
And back at that time, the commission was saying that it cannot happen.
that the hungarian parliament building will have the same architectural style as the vienna government buildings because they were neo-renaissance buildings so that's the reason why they went to that direction because they wanted to have an independent a different a sovereign decision so they were choosing this this kind of neo-gothic architecture and there are no other buildings with this style in in the country this is the only one and this is this is like Even 130 years ago the most important thing for Hungarian people was sovereignty.
How they differentiate.
The Hungarians from Vienna, which was the headquarter of the Empire back at that time.
So if you come to Hungary, you will see a lot of tiny little signs, people for like 1,000 years or even more fighting for their sovereignty.
And this is, if you see the result, this is a fight which was to be continued.