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Opening remarks by Tanja Gonggrijp, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe

Dear young participants, young in age and young at heart,
Madam Speaker,
Madam President,
Madam Minister,

Thank you, Madam Speaker, for your warm welcome.

This is my fourth visit to Hungary. The first was in 1991.

I played the violin in a youth orchestra and we travelled to Balatonfüred to play with our Hungarian counterparts.

The fall of the Iron Curtain only two years earlier made our visit possible.

Yet I cannot remember speaking about it with the Hungarian musicians.

Mahler and Tchaikovsky were our only common language.

Crossing the former Iron Curtain, I felt I was entering a different world.

I realise now that the young Hungarians were at that time entering a different world as well.

We had not yet found the words to share it.

***

That new world had been a long time coming.

Last week, you marked seventy years since the revolution of 1956.

Young people, students, workers and academics demanded free elections and political reform.

The revolution belongs to Hungary, but it also belongs to all of us, as part of our common European history.

***

Its hopes were fulfilled thirty-three years later.

On 23 October 1989, the anniversary of the revolution, Hungary proclaimed itself a democratic republic.

Many then spoke of a “return to Europe”.

In November 1990, Hungary became the first country of the former Eastern bloc to join the Council of Europe.

And in 1995, the European Youth Centre in Budapest opened its doors to young people from all over Europe.

A common future had begun.

It was a time of optimism.

Europe was becoming more democratic, and that would bring stability and prosperity for all.

***

That optimism feels far away today.

While I was preparing this speech, my phone buzzed with an alert: student protests in Italy.

The day before, students and other citizens had protested across France.

All over Europe, young people are protesting.

They want better education, a lower cost of living, access to healthcare and an end to corruption. They want their voices to be heard.

Many feel democracy has turned away from them.

They lose trust in a system that does not deliver for them.

And many citizens turn to those who offer simple answers and someone else to blame.

***

Some leaders around the world use democratic tools to undermine democracy.

They reduce democracy to elections.

Once in power, they silence critical journalism, limit civic space and undermine the independence of the courts.

They blame minorities for housing shortages, for a tight labour market or for acting against traditional values.

***

The figures confirm it.

For the average citizen in the world, democracy is back to 1978 levels.

Nearly three-quarters of the world’s population now lives in autocracies.
 

Yet democratic decline is not a fate.

Democracy can recover.

On Sunday, young people in Serbia showed how. Two years after the railway canopy collapsed in Novi Sad, the students who took to the streets turned their protest into a majority.

They have sent a message of hope to all of Europe.

Here in Hungary, you sent your own message this spring.

***

Recovery cannot succeed without you, the younger generations.

Your engagement and your critical eye are key to the democratic future of our countries.

You have the power to change their course.

Use it well.

But you are not, and should not be, alone.

You can expect my generation, and those before and after it, to take responsibility, and to find with you a common language and direction.

***

That responsibility begins with how we answer the young people in the streets.

The temptation will be to reply with security alone.

That is how democratic security slides into a democracy run on security.

The better answer is to listen and to act on what we hear.

***

This is what the New Democratic Pact for Europe is for.

It is an open process, not a text for governments alone, and the voices of young people are at its heart.

With the Pact, we do not want to reinvent democracy.

We want to strengthen its foundations, innovate and make it tangible for everyone, especially younger generations.

Today we are here to engage and to listen.

And until 12 November, anyone can take part in our citizens’ consultation and tell us what needs to change for democracy to work better for them.

What you tell us will shape the Pact.

***

A lot has happened in Hungary and in Europe since my first visit in 1991.

While Hungary is again reinforcing the democratic institutions, democracy is under pressure in many countries.

May your history and your lessons, and those of other European countries, help secure our democratic futures, grounded in human rights and the rule of law.

And may they help us find the common language we lacked in 1991, one that delivers for everyone.

Thank you.