Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Hungary’s new constitution is what distinguishes the country the most from the other European Union member states, arguing that whereas the other countries had “I-centric liberal constitutions”, Hungary had a “we-centric” constitution.
Speaking at the “Tusványos” summer university at Băile Tușnad (Tusnádfürdő), in central Romania, the prime minister said the Hungarian constitution is predicated on the idea that “there is a place that is ours, our home, a community that is our nation and a way of life that is our own, which is our culture and language”. This means that the fundamental idea in the constitution is that “the most important things in life are those that can’t be attained alone,” PM Orbán said. Peace, family, friendship, the law, the spirit of community and freedom are all things that cannot be attained alone because “someone who is alone isn’t free but lonely”, he said. “All good things in life are based on cooperation with others, and if these are the most important things in our life then these are what need to be protected by society and the legal system,” the prime minister added. Individuals experience those things as an attachment, and so “Hungary’s constitution is a constitution of attachment, aiming to strengthen those bonds and is founded in reinforcement,” he said. Liberal constitutions, on the other hand, want to reject things in the name of individual freedom rather than strengthen them, he said. Hungary’s constitution “strengthens the place our children are going to live in, our homeland, our identity as men and women, our concept of family, and our boundaries, by allowing us to determine who we want to live with”. The “Hungarian national Christian constitution, which is unlike other European constitutions” created in 2011 was a good decision, Orbán said. “Since then, we have a migration crisis on our hands, which is obviously not manageable with a liberal approach, and LGBTQ-gender warfare, which can only be vanquished in the community, in child protection.” Liberal states expected new communities to flourish in the place of old ones, but “there is only a peculiar kind of alienation everywhere”, he added. The leftist, internationalist and liberally minded intellectuals and political leaders of the Enlightenment expected that the rejection of religion would bring about an ideal, enlightened community based on a communal insight on the common good. By now, this has been proven an illusion, “and by rejecting Christianity, we become hedonistic pagans,” he said.