On 10 March, the Hungarian parliament elected the ruling Fidesz party's candidate for president. Katalin Novak, 44, won 137 of the 188 valid votes cast. The vote required a two-thirds majority. The candidate of the united opposition, economist Peter Rona, won 51 votes.
Speech
Dear Sirs, Dear Members of Parliament, Dear guests!
The country elects a president today. For most Hungarians today is an average Thursday. They wake up, take their children to kindergarten or school, do their daily work, study, take care of the sick, take care of their family's safety. At most, they will learn from the evening news that Hungary will have a new head of state. Today, the country will elect a new president through you, democratically elected parliamentary deputies with the power to make decisions.
You have the right to know who the person is for whom you can cast your vote and what that person has to say to Hungarians today. With this I would have continued if war had not invaded our lives. A war started by Russia, a war that is unjustified and inexplicable.
We had just begun to regain the security and freedom we enjoyed before the coronavirus pandemic. While mourning our losses, we were able to enjoy ourselves again. And then another devastating virus spread.
There has been war in our neighbourhood for fourteen days. In a country where, on the other side of the border, Hungarians are also worried about their lives and their future.
Last week, as an Aid Ambassador of the Hungarian Reformed Church, I visited Transcarpathia with four bishops. I came there to express: the Hungarians who will remain in their homes are just as important as those who have left their homes and as all other refugees from Ukraine.
We see unity in difficulty. We need it in times of peace, too. Many people take days off from work to go to the border as volunteers, thousands open their homes to refugees, churches and organizations help those in need with the love and care they have been taught for centuries. The government, which has years of experience in crisis management, is providing all the necessary human and material resources to mitigate the disaster.
Teachers help, engineers help, manual workers help, nurses help, soldiers help, police officers help, young and old help. We help each other in times of need. Thank you!
There is nothing worse than war. It sets fire to everything that is precious to us. It attacks the tranquility, the security of daily life, the predictability of today and the peace of tomorrow. Our National Confession of Faith states: "... after decades of moral breakdown in the 20th century, we have an unquenchable need for spiritual and intellectual renewal. This is also true now, after the worldwide moral upheavals of the early 21st century. We need spiritual and intellectual renewal now, too.
Hungarians want peace. Because in peace we can prosper, build, plan and smile at each other. Mother Teresa said: "Peace begins with a smile."
For most, today is no more than what yesterday was. But for me, honourable Members, today is a day of distinction.
When I said "I do" to my husband István twenty years ago, I knew, but only partially understood, what it meant to enter into a lifelong alliance. For better or for worse, in health and in sickness, affluence and poverty. Since the birth of my now eighteen-year-old son, I have been learning what it means to decide for the children I brought into the world, Ádám, Tamás, and Kata. They were the most important decisions of my life and ours.
I also made important decisions when I chose the economics profession and later a diplomatic career and service in public life.
Thank you János Martonyi, from whom I learned the meanderings of classical diplomacy! This knowledge will be useful. I thank Zoltán Balog, that in his ministry he opened a professional path for me, that he taught: the most important resource is the work of God: man.
I consider it a gift that for eight years my government job was to ensure the future of families. I am grateful for the two hundred thousand children who were able to be born because we were able to provide extra help for them. I am also grateful for those seven hundred thousand children who would have been born without that assistance as well. If we look beyond the borders of the country, we can see that in the last ten years we have been able to enjoy the birth of over one million Hungarian beings.
Mr. Speaker, thank you for being able to participate in nation building!
Today, one of us will return home with a heavy and sweet burden on our shoulders, so that for the next five years we can show the true and beautiful face of this country through our lives, work, attitude, words, deeds and, if necessary, silence. Help to find in us what unites us and learn to strive for what is ours.
If I am to answer the question of who Katalin Novák is, I must first tell you where I come from.
I feel Segedynian, even though I have lived in Budapest's 11th district since I was eighteen. Without the stories of my grandparents, I would not be who I am. I wish I could listen again to my grandmother tell the story of how she got food for her six-month-old baby while a Russian soldier pointed a machine gun at her. How the duty party secretary sprawled behind the desk confiscated from them! How the family's possessions of a lifetime were taken away. Their stories of war captivity, escape, finding themselves, still live in me. I remember the heat of the sand from Dorozsma, the taste of freshly picked raspberries from Ágas, the security of my grandfather's strong hands. My brothers and I learned from Mom and Dad what they also received from their parents: the ability to rise, honor and integrity. They enriched this legacy with entrepreneurship, knowledge and diligence.
Many of my family are here with me today. Thank you for coming!
We are able to move on at any time, and we can also begin again. We are able to build, we are able to strengthen what is ours. As long as we have hands, as long as we have free will, they cannot subdue us. That is the basis of our sovereignty. And the cradle of sovereignty is the family.
I will never give up my sovereignty in national terms.
I am willing to make it at most in the family, but also only from a certain part of it - in favor of István Veres, who supposedly should carry the title of First Mister. However, he will remain István Veres.
We women raise children, care for the sick, cook, can do a job for two if need be, earn money, teach, win Nobel Prizes, wash windows. We know the power of words, but we can also step back and listen when needed. With true manly courage we defend our families when danger threatens.
Not in spite of the fact that I am a woman, but also because of that I want to be a good president of Hungary.
I am preparing myself for action. I am ready to take on all the burdens that this office brings. At the same time, we will keep our marriage peaceful and our family safe.
As a mother and wife, I strive for that peace, understanding, security. As president, I want to be a man of peace.
I belong to a generation for whom national independence was a matter of course, a generation that could grow up in Hungary in peace. We did not have to risk our lives and future for our principles, for freedom of thought and action. We will not allow anyone to play Russian roulette with our dearly bought independence!
Our generation is a proud generation. It has the courage to walk with its head held high. He does not delight in hearing someone speak English, he can handle foreign languages himself, even abroad. And if his heart longs for his homeland, he has the courage to return home.
We no longer had to learn how to live under Russian occupation; we had the opportunity to understand what it meant to be part of Europe "in nerves, in blood, in thoughts, in agonies, in thirst." Many of us have studied and lived in Western Europe. We don't want to imitate that world, but there are good things we can assimilate. It is worth trying to unravel the mystery of the English lawn, even if a Hungarian flower meadow is closer to our hearts.
Hungary will never be Switzerland. For us, Balaton is the Riviera, Mount Kékes the peak, water the mineral resource, educated minds the natural wealth, Hungarian our secret language, Bartók and Kodály our brand in music, and our neighbors are given to us. We belong to Europe, and Europe belongs to us. This is something we cannot change and therefore we do not want to change it.
This is the homeland of Hungarians. This is the only place where every good recipe starts with the words: chop the onion finely and then simmer it until it is not glazed.
Honourable Members!
Here I stand before Hungary. I know where I come from, who I am, what my task is. I am prepared for the difficult task before me.
I had time to think about what was waiting for me.
I would like to thank János Áder and his wife, Anita Herczegh, for generously and with the intention to be helpful, sharing with me their experiences of the past ten years and even earlier.
Mr President, dear László! Minister, dear Gergő! Thank you for your friendship and for everything I have received from you!
My task will be to elevate my fellow Hungarians to the heights where the unity of the Hungarian people is evident. There, in that highland, there is understanding, peace and security. I know that I will have to represent this community first and foremost. Primarily, but not exclusively.
My job will be to represent all Hungarians. But how could I be every Hungarian? We cannot be everything and everyone. I will remain who I am, and I will use the talents I have been given to reach out to those who need the message of peace and understanding.
It is not then that I can represent those who have a different faith if I take the cross off my neck, but if I put it to my heart and draw strength from my faith to understand others.
In this way I want to go to families, to single parents and to caregivers of sick children.
I will support those who care for life from the moment of conception. As a Christian, I am and will continue to be present in faith communities.
I will go to the talented youth, to Hungarians living abroad and in the diaspora, I will also be present in New York, Brussels, as in any capital, if it is necessary to defend our interests.
I will participate in the life of nationalities living in Hungary.
I will visit Hungarians-Romans in Gypsy settlements under villages, go to towns and villages.
I'm not preparing to tour the country. I will simply be where I belong. I will be with the people to whom I belong: the Hungarians.
Where will I go for my first visit? Home to our family.
And of course I want to go to Warsaw as soon as possible, to our Polish friends.
There will be a general election and referendum on April 3. It will be a decisive moment. For you, for me, for all Hungarians. I trust that neither the voters who will cast their vote for the first time, nor those who have voted many times before will lose sight of the national interest and the future of our children.
One thing is certain: if I am elected, I will stand on the foundation that the Constitution provides. I will uphold it and make sure that others uphold it as well.
I will not seek to dismantle the existing legal order, as the guardian of constitutionality I will seek to maintain it.
I consider the cautions of our first king, St. Stephen, to be a model.
"Be merciful to all who suffer violence. Be lenient to all, not only to the powerful, but also to those without power. Be humble, be gentle, be modest."
Thank you for your attention.
May there be peace, freedoms and understanding!
fot. https://twitter.com/KatalinNovakMP/status/1501887811473051653?s=20
