We are capable of much more than others believe us to be

We are able to combine forces much better in trouble than in peacetime; we are capable of much more than we believe ourselves to be, and much more than others believe us to be, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated in a video made to mark the fifth anniversary of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and uploaded onto his YouTube channel on Sunday evening.

In the film entitled 'This is how we defeated the Covid pandemic,' the Prime Minister recalled the defence effort, the hard and intense work of the government, health care, epidemiology experts, law enforcement and state administration as a whole.

At the beginning, he drew the conclusion that "we need an all-out defence effort, it's about human lives, we must prepare for a worst-case scenario," he recalled.

He said "this is not a cowards' club; this is a fighters' club. It doesn't matter if it's red sludge, a flood, a pandemic or a war, you have to be there, being present in the defence effort, standing with those in trouble is loyalty itself."

In the 37-minute-long video, the most memorable events of the defence effort - all the way from the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic until the number of vaccinated persons reached five million - are presented through archive footage provided by the Hungarian news agency MTI, the Hungarian public service broadcasting company MTVA and Semmelweis University. Members of the government, epidemiological experts and members of the operational group were interviewed for the documentary.

Mr Orbán recalled that the defence effort had been built around the Ministry of the Interior. They were required to free up a certain number of hospital beds for the event that the number of patients should increase significantly. "Not a single person can die in this country because there is no ventilator available, and so I ordered procurements," he said. In many places, there was physical fighting about which consignment would be loaded onto which aircraft, and so we were required to send out "scouts and advance guards." Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó had a flawless team, and acquired everything we needed, he added.

In this regard, Mr Szijjártó observed that they were required to find out where there were production capacities in China "that only we know about," companies which have available aircraft. It was an exciting period, but full of fears and doubts because human lives had to be saved, he added.

The Prime Minister said he thought at the time that they had to prove to the people that the Hungarian State was loyal to them. "The country's leaders are aware of the seriousness of the situation, rather than following events from the well-protected Carmelite Monastery or Parliament, we will do it together, we laugh together and cry together," he said.

He also said the most dramatic part was when nurses contracted the Covid infection from patients. Their personal heroism was of the most powerful kind; nurses and physicians who were with patients day after day took the greatest risk, he added.

There is a scene in the documentary when Mr Orbán is tested before his visit to a hospital, and the nurse tells the symptom-free leader that he is a "superman". The footage also shows the Prime Minister receiving the vaccine.

"The country has borders, the nation doesn't, when there is trouble, we count on every Hungarian and we must take care of every Hungarian," the Prime Minister said, adding that the government was in ongoing contact with Hungarians beyond the borders and actively sought out ways to help them.

Interior Minister Sándor Pintér said, among others, that the people had faith in and trusted the decisions of the operational group; for instance, when they designated shopping hours reserved exclusively for the elderly, the people always observed the rules. State Secretary for Public Education Zoltán Maruzsa spoke about the difficulties of digital education.

The documentary also included footage of the Prime Minister meeting with Nobel Prize winner biochemist Katalin Karikó. Regarding the discoverer of the technology of the mRNS-based vaccine, he said even in times of trouble, we must not give up on innovation, and Ms Karikó showed us a kind of intellectual courage.

Mr Orbán cited St. Stephen's admonitions, saying 'What Greek would rule Latins with Greek customs? Or what Latin would rule Greeks with Latin customs?' In his view, this draws attention to the fact that each nation has its own character. "You can't manage the fight against a virus […] or lead a country in peacetime if you don't know, if you don't precisely understand the character of your own nation; it's something that you can decipher from its history, its culture," he stressed.

The video is concluded with the following sentence: 'When there is great trouble, there is no shortage of heroes in Hungary - respect to our everyday heroes.'