Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the Századvég Institute was needed as an “intellectual workshop, a civic research centre that supports us”. It was clear for everyone in 1993 that “Fidesz exists and will exist”, but the return of the communists then posed a serious intellectual challenge. “The real twist in the entire story, which also made our lives intellectually more difficult, was that the door where they entered had been opened by freedom-loving liberals,” he added. “Nobody is surprised about that here now because it is natural in western Europe that the liberals are the new communists,” but in 1993-94 it caused “a moral shock” that shook the entire Hungarian political system because “decent people at that time found this odd, to say the least”. “As a result, we had to get strong and there had to be an intellectual workshop, which is why Századvég was created 30 years ago,” he said.
Orbán suggested that back then, they had been on the same side with US financier George Soros, because “he also did not want Hungary to be ruled by communists, and supported anti-communist activities”. “It was not yet clear that he wanted to be the one to rule central Europe instead of the communists and Soviets … we could not be aware of that,” Orbán said. “Now he no longer conceals his plans … he crashed the British pound, he is flooding Europe with migrants, he will openly say that national borders should be abolished and Europe’s countries stripped of their sovereignty,” he added.