“There is always an empire that is trying to take away the freedom of the Hungarians, and right now it is the one in Brussels,” Viktor Orban claimed.
Hungary’s populist prime minister on Saturday vowed to rid his country of those he claims work for the interests of foreign powers, saying his right-wing government will eliminate a global “shadow army” serving the European Union and a “liberal American empire.”
In a conspiracy theory-laden address, which coincided with a national holiday commemorating Hungary’s 1848 revolution against Habsburg rule, Viktor Orbán told a group of several thousand select supporters that Hungary in the coming weeks will uproot media outlets and other organisations that have received funding from abroad, comparing such groups to insects.
“After today’s festive gathering comes the Easter cleaning. The bugs have overwintered,” Orbán said. “We will dismantle the financial machine that has used corrupt dollars to buy politicians, judges, journalists, pseudo-NGOs and political activists. We will eliminate the entire shadow army.”
Orbán, in power since 2010, has used the March 15 celebration in recent years as a podium from which to launch increasingly hostile harangues against the EU.
“There is always an empire that is trying to take away the freedom of the Hungarians, and right now it is the one in Brussels. Brussels is abusing its power, just as Vienna did in the past. They want to rule over us, just as the governors of the Viennese court did in the past,” he claimed.
Hungary and Austria were the two states that formed the Habsburg empire which ruled much of central Europe between 1867 and 1918.
Orbán said that one task remained, to defend Hungary against Brussels’ attacks. “Brussels” has, he claimed, “jumped headlong into the Russian-Ukrainian war”.
“We did not jump into the war with Brussels, the Empire does not want to help, but to colonise, the means of this is war, it will cost what it costs, and then Ukraine will gain EU membership.”
Viktor Orbán, said there was only one answer: “Union, but without Ukraine.”
Orban cracks down on the media and civil society
Now, after the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump, the Hungarian leader has accelerated his longstanding efforts to crack down on critics such as media outlets, civil rights and anti-corruption groups, which he says have undermined Hungary’s sovereignty by receiving financial assistance from international donors.
Orbán, a Trump ally, has applauded the U.S. administration’s actions to dismantle the US Agency for International Development, claiming, with no evidence, that it was used to fund liberal causes in Hungary aimed at toppling his government.
He has promised that groups that have benefited from funding by USAID would be eliminated in Hungary and face “legal consequences.”
This week, Orbán’s Fidesz party proposed amendments to Hungary’s constitution that would allow for Hungarian dual citizens to have their citizenship suspended and be deported from the country if they are deemed to threaten Hungary’s sovereignty or national security.
Another amendment appeared to target the LGBTQ+ community. Orbán’s party has said the annual Budapest Pride carnival would be banned in public starting this year.
On Saturday, Orbán, a firm opponent of immigration, also echoed the conspiratorial “great replacement theory,” which suggests there is a global plot to diminish the influence of white people.
“The battle today is actually being fought for the soul of the Western world,” Orbán said. “The empire wants to mix and then replace the indigenous people of Europe with invading masses arriving from foreign civilizations.”
He also claimed “the empire” that has provided economic and military assistance to Ukraine as it fights off Russia’s invasion seeks to “colonise” the embattled country.
And he repeated his call for the EU to abandon the process of eventually bringing Ukraine into the bloc, and said he would issue a poll for Hungarians on decide whether they think Kyiv should gain EU membership.
