Friday, August 30, that post Communist Hungary and Europe need Christianity more than ever.
Speaking at a conference on ‘Hungarians and Calvinism in the 21th Century’, Orban rejected "Western calls for a neutral Europe," the Hungarian News Agency MTI reported.
He made the announcement just hours before a Parliamentary Committee published a list of 10 former and current Ministers who allegedly had ties with the controversial Communist Secret Service.
Most of them served in the conservative Governments of Orban and Hungary’s first Prime Minister, Jozsef Antall. Some of them have rejected the allegations, others said they were forced into working for the service, which was feared by active Christians and dissidents.
COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIP
Orban, who was not on the list, did not address this controversial issue directly during his speech at the conference in the Budapest Church of the German Calvinist (or Reformed) community.
But he made clear that after decades of Communist dictatorship it was time for Christian values, and he stressed that Western secularization was not the answer for today’s troubles.
"Over the past 12 years (since the collapse of Communism) we have learned that an ideologically neutral Europe is a fiction. We would like to see a Christian Europe," MTI quoted the former Prime Minister as saying.
CHRISTIAN STATE
Orban added that Hungary’s "survival as an independent state can only be based on historical traditions and Christianity." About 60 percent of Hungary’s ten million citizens consider themselves Catholics and around 20 percent are Protestants, according to official figures.
Orban warned that although Western Europe "might be somewhat ahead" of Hungary in everyday’s moral attitudes, Westerners "seem to be retreating in terms of organized religion and religious life."
The 39-year old politician suggested that Hungary, which hopes to join the European Union in 2004, must be part of a Christian continent.
MEDIA CONTROLLED
Following the meeting in the Calvinist Church, Orban was due to address a mass rally in front of the state run Hungarian television.
Orban supporters say that former Communists now in power control the media and that centre right and Christian values are not enough represented in "left-wing liberal news papers" and tv programs.
Hungarian Socialist Prime Peter Medgyessy has rejected these these accusations, and recently contacted several church leaders to discuss the state of the nation as well and family issues.
