Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Japan

Introduction

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. Konyicsivá. I am grateful to be here, in the land of the rising sun, in the wonderful city of Tokyo.

On my way to Japan, I was reading a book on Japanese culture. In one chapter I learned about something that seemed foreign to me as a European, which might sound even less familiar to our American friends: chinmoku (csinmoku). The important role silence plays in communication with the potential for much meaning.

During my meetings in the past days, I both had great conversations and learned to share silence with my Japanese counterparts. But don’t worry. In the next 10 minutes I will not show off this new skill.

Instead, in line with the Japanese respect for discipline, I will do what I was asked to do by the organizers, and discuss what conservatism means in Hungary, and give you four pieces of advice that I hope you find relevant in the Japanese context too. 

Nations

Rule number one: the national interest comes first.

There is an intellectual debate going on in the West. Some say that nationhood and people’s sense of belonging to a nation is a relatively new, made-up concept. They say that it was invented by Western Europeans to address the challenges of the 17th century. They argue that by now it has become an outdated idea and we should come up with a post-national concept that fits the 21st century.

As a Hungarian, one of the oldest nations in Europe, I deeply disagree. For us, our nation is not a coat we put on when the weather turns cold. Our nation is our skin. 

Something non removable. Something undetachable. And I think you, in Japan, might feel similar. 

Us, Hungarians and Japanese share more than we would think. There has been a theory, more like a legend, saying that our peoples are ancestrally related. As it is a CPAC event, if I may be slightly politically incorrect, this is something less obvious when we look at each other.

But they did claim that we all originated in Central Asia, following which your forefathers settled in the islands of Japan, while ours went to the Carpathian Basin, making Hungary the westernmost, while Japan the easternmost astern state.

Regardless of whether this is true or not, we are both old nation states. We both cherish traditional values, the identity of our communities and our cultural heritage. We want to preserve our way of life and sovereignty to decide about it. 

For us, belonging to a nation is not part of the problem. It is absolutely the solution.

We can face the challenges of the 21st century specifically by having representative governments that are based on national sovereignty, supported by a unique culture, tradition, and solid values.

Migration

Rule number two: migration is a problem, and borders are the solution.

Migration is one of the biggest civilizational challenges that threaten our nations. We live in the age of mass migration, where millions and millions are leaving their continents in Africa and Asia to move to another one. The numbers are growing rapidly.

This is an understandable decision from a humanitarian perspective, but letting migrants in is neither a wise, nor a sustainable solution. We do not want our homeland to turn merely into an inhabited territory.

Migration is a problem, and border protection is paramount. 

Borders are not built against those who are outside of it. It is meant to protect the ones that are inside.

Protecting your borders should not be a matter of money. It is a matter of priorities: for politicians, border patrols, policemen, and the average citizens equally.

In 2015 we learned our lesson. The migration crisis hit Europe hard, and Hungary was on the frontline.

Hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants wanted to cross the borders of the EU. While European heads of states and governments said that no one can stop migration and it is our duty to let them in, we, in Hungary, said no. 

We said that we don’t want to lose our national identity. We don’t want a multicultural society. We want to preserve peace, stability, and our way of life. So we built a fence on our Southern border and stopped illegal migration completely.

This was the only right decision to make and our leaders were brave enough to do it. But the pressure has not stopped, on the contrary, it has been growing ever since.

Currently, there are two major migration pressures on our borders. Illegal migrants are trying to cross our Southern borders, we’ve stopped over 250 thousand border crossings this year.  While we welcome over a million refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.

Our lesson from the past years is to never give up your borders. Do everything you can to protect them. And if someone tries to convince you to do it otherwise, push back and send a very clear message that borders do matter.

Family

Many developed countries in the East as well as in the West are facing the challenges of an aging society and falling birth rates. 

Progressives’ response is migration. But what to do if we reject migration? 

For us, Hungarians, it is obvious: families should be the solution as they are the keys to the survival of our nation. 

It would be an obviously fruitless effort to spend our time walking around, trying to convince young people to have more kids. What we do instead is we offer them the financial means enabling them to have as many children as they wish to have.

Instead of bringing in millions of people with different cultural backgrounds, we see traditional families as the fundamental building blocks of a well-functioning society, and a key to the survival of our community.

We see our family policy as a key investment in our future and in the future of our community. 

Since 2010 we have tripled our family policy expenditure, Hungary is spending the most resources in terms of GDP per capita on family policy in the EU.

We provide all sorts of subsidies to families and women. You get tax breaks, the state takes over your student loans after your third child. You get financial support to buy a home. Women are exempt from paying personal income tax for life after the birth of their fourth child. And we are fighting to extend the same zero tax policy for mothers with three children.

And the results speak for themselves: in just a decade we managed to reverse declining fertility, while the number of marriages increased, divorces decreased, and abortion dropped by 50%.

Another topic closely related to family policy is the LGBTQ issue. In these difficult times, we must encourage our children to strengthen their identity instead of questioning it.

As the Hungarian Constitution says, the mother is a woman, the father is a man, and our kids should be left alone. End of discussion.

And believe me, citizens will be on your side. If you have any doubts, just ask them the way we did in Hungary. With one of the highest turnouts in the history of Hungarian referenda, 92 percent of voters claimed that they support the introduction of laws that restrict minors’ exposure to LGBTQ content in public schools.

And now my last advice:

Realist foreign policy

Say no to liberal foreign policy. Say no to the export of progressive ideologies trying to convince people to live their lives otherwise. 

Take the recent example of Qatar. While a number of countries struggle with their energy imports and want to buy it from Qatar, they are also busy lecturing them on LGBTQ rights and other ideologies. As a similar case, while Hungary is hosting over a million refugees fleeing from the war in Ukraine, the EU is punishing us by freezing EU funds based on unfunded ideological claims. 

When it comes to foreign policy, you must avoid idealism at all costs. Be a realist instead, and let your own national interest be your number one guiding principle. Regardless of common beliefs, a national sovereignty-based, realist foreign policy is what is needed for a stable world order. 

Conclusion

The four tips I just gave you are all common sense. But unfortunately they are not that common at all, which is why we are here today.

We are here to meet and share our experiences with each other so that together we can finally bring common sense back to politics.

It is never easy. We have also put a great effort into developing our policies. It often felt like a puzzle that takes years or sometimes even decades to solve. 

Or as an even better example, it felt like “The King of Puzzles”, like Rubik’s Cube, which was invented by a Hungarian architect and professor, Ernő Rubik. 

I was told that the cube is also very popular in Japan. The way you solve the cube is exactly the way you do politics. You start at a random configuration. You cannot focus on only one side of the problem, you must focus on how the combination as a whole affects the desired outcome. You learn that you are often limited in your actions. 

That there are multiple ways to do it right, and even more ways to do it wrong. You go step by step, and quickly realize that it takes an enormous amount of time, effort, and dedication to achieve success. And you mostly learn through trial and error.

And exactly like with the Rubik’s cube, even if you do your best, sometimes you just get stuck. And this is when you reach out to your friends for help.

Please know that if you are ever in need of help or just need an ally in your battle, you can always count on Hungary. And we, Hungarians would be happy to learn from you about the bushido spirit too.

Let’s continue this partnership to solve the Rubik’s Cube of conservatism together.

Thank you for your attention, sayonara.