The matter of Hungary is the matter of Europe
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF HUNGARY VIKTOR ORBAN
Dear Prime Minister,
In such a dramatic time for Hungary, in the period of such a disgraceful foreign campaign against your government and your country, we want to express the feeling of great solidarity with your reforms, solidarity which fills up our hearts of all patriotic Poles. We admire courage with which your government is trying to throw off the yoke of addictions to the foreign capital and domination of powerful countries of the European Union, by defending the native Hungarian enterprise and wider Hungarian national interests. We envy Hungary its new, great constitution full of great patriotism and acknowledgement of the great role of religion. We admire the role which you played personally in rebuilding Hungarian patriotism and restoring dignity to Hungary, we admire resoluteness with which you defend the rights of Hungary in the international forum. After many Polish renunciations of the last two decades, we admire the impetus even more with which your government decided to condemn the criminal role of communists and unmask the antinational role of their today’s supporters. Your program and your actions are really an example of a road which is needed for Poland in order to get out of the morass into which it was pulled by different governments of the post-communist Democratic Left Alliance and liberal parties: Democratic Union, Freedom Union and Civic Platform. There is a lack of place to enumerate all of them, such various achievements of your government in destroying the post-communist remains and leftist liberalism, favouring foreign interests. Our best publicists - observers of Hungarian changes admire your government for the fact that it did so much in many areas during nearly one and a half year, starting with the defence of national economic interests, strengthening the Church and patriotism, the position of family and ending with clearing the remains of communism. Hence there is this unusual acknowledgement which Polish patriots express towards the actions of your government and you personally as a leader of reformative changes in the whole Central Europe and a great man of state who appears once in many decades. In the Polish national anthem, created a few decades ago, there are such words: ‘Bonaparte gave us example how we should win’. Today in Poland the words are given a new meaning: ‘Viktor Orban gave us an example how we should win’. Successes of Hungarian changes are a source of hope and great inspiration for us.
Prime Minister, we see you as a person who blends the best traditions of the Hungarian history in himself: the risky heroism of the insurgents of Franciszek II Rakoczy and Hungarian soldiers of the Spring-time of the People with realism and a great program of positive work of ‘the greatest of the Hungarians’ – Count Istvan Szecheny. We remember your consistent and such a close attitude towards Poland, starting with you youth works about the Polish ‘Solidarity’. Therefore, we are more willing to refer to the extremely courageous and difficult reforms of your government and to many matters of the common history, connecting Poles and the Hungarians. We refer to the memory of extremely strong traditions of the cooperation for liberation between the both our nations against the foreign aggressor. We also refer to the memory about the Polish help to the insurgents of Franciszek II Rakoczy and such a high participation of the Polish fighters for freedom in your Great Independence War (szabadsagharc) 1848-49, the role of gen. Jozef Bem and his friendship with your greatest poet Sandor Petofim. We refer to the memory of the Hungarian readiness for sending armies to Poland for defence against the Bolshevik invasion in 1920, and which was blocked by the Czech authorities and the memory about the meaning of big transports of Hungarian ammunition for Poles in the battle at Warsaw for the final Polish victory. We remember the relentless resistance of the Prime Minister Pal Telek against the Nazis insistence that the German armies should go through Hungary against Poland in September 1939 and extremely hospitable shelter given by Hungary to 140 Polish refugees at that time. In Poland we remember well the role played by the sense of solidarity with Poland during the manifestation on 23 October 1956 which began such heroic Hungarian anti-soviet uprising. We remember 300 thousands of the Hungarians chanting during the march at the Budapest monument of the Polish gen. Jozef Bem: ‘Lengyelorszag utat mutat, kovessunk a Lengyel utat’ – Poland shows a road, let’s follow Poles’. Today in Poland so many people give this slogan a new form: ‘Hungary shows a road, let’s follow Hungary’. Therefore, we wish there was a strong voice of most patriotic communities from Poland among the voices of solidarity with great reforms of your government. A great Hungarian leader of independence Lajos Kossuth stated in his pronouncement on 23 June 1831, in the committee Zemplen: ‘The matter of Poland is the matter of Europe’. Paraphrasing these words of the famous Hungarian man, we say today: ‘The matter of Hungary is the matter of Europe’. Today Hungarians express their opinions in the most courageous and loudest way in the defence of the independence of small and medium nations in Europe against dictatorship of powerful countries, transnational consortiums and banks.
And, they deserve understanding and solidarity from all liberal nonconformist communities in Europe. Admiring great merits of your government of raising your country and rescuing Hungary from foreign dependences, we are observing with more resentment the shameful campaign against Hungary, launched by the foreign financers, leftist and liberal environments , in the style of circles of Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Adam Michnik. We believe that your government will survive all storms thanks to devotion and trust of the prevailing part of your nation. The symbolic symptom of this was an enormous and over-million manifestation in front of the Hungarian Parliament on 21 January 2012. Being in solidarity with the efforts of your government and your whole nation, we wish you would victoriously survive the fight with what is vile and indolent.
(AA)
"Niedziela" 06/2012