In his speech, the prime minister added that it had taken “years to clear up the havoc the left-wing government left behind, but we have succeeded in putting Hungary back on its feet”.

Speaking at a ceremony held at the intersection of Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street and Andrássy Street, the prime minister said: “Fifteen years ago, at this very time, here on the corner of Andrassy and Bajcsy-Zsilinszky streets, the past and the present confronted one another.”

“On one side were tear gas grenades, rubber bullets, plain-clothed unidentified police and water cannons,” Orbán said. “On the other side stood a cheated and humiliated nation which … was yet again forced to listen to the fact that they had been lied to morning and night.”

“On one side was a power that had cheated with hundreds of tricks … and on the other were desperate people lined up behind the giant letters of Freedom.”

Participants at Viktor Orbán’s October 23 speech.

Orbán: ‘We have put Hungary back on its feet’

“Mercifully, in the meantime, national unity has endured and workers, engineers, farmers, small and medium-sized firms, scientists, teachers, nurses and doctors have cleared the ruins,” Orbán said in his speech.

“We have created a million new jobs, got rid of foreign currency loans, cut taxes, and next year the minimum wage will be higher than the average wage during the time of the [former governing] Socialists.”

The national wealth, he added, had grown one and a half times since Fidesz’s time in power. “We taxed multinationals, protected families, and now utility bills are the lowest in Europe,” he said.

The prime minister said Hungary was now giving both the elderly and young people their due, with the phasing in of the 13-month pension and the tax break for young workers being introduced next year. Further, families raising children are getting this year’s taxes returned to them, he noted.

Orbán: ‘We’re saluting the day we showed the world who we really are’

“There are moments in the life of nations when everybody suddenly feels that enough is enough; things can’t go on the way they have done,” Orbán said.

“We have to decide, and that decision will show who we really are. It will transpire for a whole nation what that nation is worth. Whether a nation remains silent or goes out to protest, whether it reconciles itself with the situation or rises up against it, whether it looks to one side or stands up straight, or whether it retreats or takes up the fight,” Orbán said.

Viktor Orbán speaks at Erzsébet Square on the 65th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian revolution.

Referring to 1956, Orbán said: “We Hungarians took the right decision: we protested; we stood up straight and rose up and fought [against Soviet rule]”. That meant taking a stand for freedom against captivity, independence against occupation, and Hungarian patriots standing against Communists, Orbán said.

Orbán: ‘We’re stopping overbearing LGBTQ propaganda at the school gate’

“We’re stopping overbearing LGBTQ propaganda at the school gate” the prime minister continued. Orbán said it was high time for Brussels to understand that in the end “not even the communists got far with us.”

“We’re the sand in the machinery, the spanner in the works …” “We’re David who Goliath is best off steering clear of,” he said.

“We’re the ones who in ’56 poked global communism in the eye and the ones who knocked the first brick out of the Berlin Wall,” Orbán added.

The prime minister said Hungarians were still confronting those who insisted that Hungarians had been wrong, only to be proven right in the end. He said Hungarians would be proven right “a third time” following their stance on the issues of public utility bills and migration.

“There will be a referendum and we will protect our children,” Orbán declared. “Hungary will be the first country in Europe to stop overbearing LGBTQ propaganda at the school gate.”

Orbán: ‘However they disguise themselves, they’re still the left wing’

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said: “The left wing, however they disguises themselves, are still the same left wing”.

Quoting from the Gospel of Matthew, Orbán said: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing … by their fruit ye shall know them. The good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the bad tree bringeth forth evil fruit.”

He said the left wing “starts off by telling lies, carries on with violence and then leaves everyone bankrupt.”

Orbán insisted that Hungary’s left wing was backed by international forces so massive that “only millions of Hungarians joining together can defeat it”.

“The real challenge, and even a threat, is the international forces — the money, media and the network behind them,” Orbán added.

The prime minister urged the crowd to count on each other. “This is our strength … no amount of dollars or euros in the world can take this away from us,” he said.

The prime minister concluded: “We have come, we have seen and we will win again. The Lord looks upon us and Hungary above all! Go Hungary! Go Hungarians!”