The prime minister and Fidesz leader addressed supporters in Budapest’s Kossuth Lajos Square, urging those who backed the governing parties to renew their anti-war alliance from the previous election.

Speaking from a stage in front of Parliament, Orbán described the gathering as “fantastic”, adding that better company could not be found on this day in Budapest.

No matter how large the crowd, if it was united by “hatred and rage, freedom will never emerge from it”, he declared. A crowd alone, he said, was never enough. “Freedom can only take flight from love, and only unity can strengthen it,” Orbán said. Hungary, he emphasised, would never be governed by hatred and rage.

The prime minister insisted that Brussels had “dressed itself in Hungarian garb today”. Referring to the opposition and its campaign pledges, he said: “Their twelve points are the twelve points of servitude” which delineated Brussels’ demands. “But we, the people of March, will never resign ourselves to … twelve Brussels points. We will not allow what we have built over 16 years to be sold for 30 pieces of Brussels silver,” he said.

He insisted that Hungary would not surrender its national and Christian constitution, its utility bill reductions, the 13th and 14th month pension payments, its “world-beating” family support system, or Europe’s “best tax regime”. “We will protect support for mothers and our children, and we will not allow our national colours to be replaced by Ukrainian or rainbow flags,” he added.

Orban told the crowd that Hungary was commemorating the Rákóczi Uprising, the 1848 Revolution, and the 1956 Uprising — all of which were lost, but not because Hungarians had lost their minds. Those who could have celebrated their victories over Hungary — the Habsburg court, the tsarist empire, the Ottoman Empire after Mohács, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union — were all gone, he noted.

“They are no longer here. We are here, and we will remain here, even if Brussels parachutists rain down from the sky by the hundreds,” he declared. He added: “We will pick them up, dust off their trousers, and send them back — some to Brussels, others to Kyiv.” Hungary, he added, was a thousand-year-old state, “not a place for them.”

Orbán Calls on Zelensky to Stop “Oil Blockade”

Orbán also addressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky directly: “Look, Ukrainians; look, Zelensky! This is the thousand-year-old state of the Hungarians.” “Do you really think you can intimidate us with oil blockades, blackmail, and threats against our leaders? Use your common sense and stop!” he said, insisting that anyone seeking to break the Hungarian nation would have needed to rise up centuries earlier.

“You have enough trouble on your eastern front; why attack us?” He called Hungarians a peace-loving and peace-sustaining people. “Give us back our oil, then take your lorries to the Brussels cash desk for the West’s money, since they can’t say no.”

Meanwhile, “the world’s sad sea is boiling,” he continued, referencing the wars in the East and the Middle East. Ukraine, he said, was blocking oil supplies to Hungary, while another war was blocking oil routes to the oceans.

He recalled that the 2015 “migration invasion” began with the outbreak of war in Syria, sending millions toward Europe. He cautioned that Iran is nine times larger than Syria, with 90 million people and a region of 400 million, and that the Israeli-Muslim conflict had now moved into western Europe because migrants had been allowed in.

“Let us give thanks to God that we had the heart and the courage to say ‘no’, and we did not let them in. I undertake that as long as I am prime minister, this will remain the case.”

Orbán said the ground was shaking beneath the European economy, with one million industrial jobs lost in the West. He acknowledged that Hungary had also faced four difficult years, calling it “unjust” that the country must defend itself against problems caused by others. “But we have defended it: today, Hungary is the safest country in Europe. We have protected jobs, utility reductions, families, and we have not abandoned pensioners,” he declared.

The prime minister insisted that Hungarians were weary of constant danger and longed for years of calm and boredom. “But such times are not coming,” he said. “Instead, trials that test humanity are knocking at our door.”

He said Brussels had taken on the Ukrainian war, was preparing for war, and had already shifted to a war economy. “They do not want to keep trouble at arm’s length; they are marching straight into it: more weapons, more money, more soldiers,” he said, adding that a trial was confronting them the likes of which even “old campaigners” like himself had never seen.

He insisted that while the day and hour were unknown, one thing was certain: the moment would come when the first Brussels soldier set foot on Ukrainian soil. “They boast proudly and eagerly, barely able to wait for EU troops to march into Ukraine. This is what we must avoid, this is what we must defend ourselves against,” he declared.

“I undertake to keep Hungary an island of security and calm in this turbulent world,” he pledged.