Hungary's PM calls for 'anti-immigrant forces'
to take over EU and says he'll 'fight' Macron to save his country!
Hungarian PM Viktor Orban warned of two civilisations in Europe
– one Christian, the other mixed Islamic – as he called for an ‘anti-immigrant’
coup in the EU.
Speaking at a news conference
in Budapest, Orban predicted there would be two civilisations, ‘one mixed
Muslim-Christian in the West, and one traditional European-Christian in Central
Europe.’
The
nationalist leader called for ‘anti-immigration forces’
to seize power in May’s European elections and said he would ‘fight’ French
President Emmanuel
Macron, who he claimed was leading a pro-immigration agenda.
He welcomed a ‘Warsaw-Rome
axis’ as he echoed calls for a ‘European Spring’ made by the Italian Deputy
Prime Minister Matteo Salvini who challenged the ‘French-German axis’ on
Wednesday during a visit to Warsaw.
‘The
Polish-Italian or Warsaw-Rome axis is one of the greatest developments that the
year could have begun with,’ Orban said.
Orban called Salvini his ‘hero,’ after the Italian leader said
there would be a ‘new plan for Europe’ at talks with Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the
head of Poland’s governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Orban said Salvini’s stance
was ‘brave.’
‘He was the first politician
in Europe who said that migration can also be stopped at sea, that made him a
hero in my eyes.’ The 55-year-old Hungarian leader said.
Orban, who won a third
consecutive term in April with an electoral campaign based on anti-immigration
policies, also said that he had ‘great hopes’ for cooperation between Italy and
Poland.
He gave full support to an
Italian-Polish initiative to form a right-wing alliance for the European
Parliament where he hopes anti-immigration parties will gain a majority.
The Polish and Italian ruling
nationalist parties currently sit in different European Parliament groupings to
Orban’s Fidesz, which is a member of the centre-right European People’s Party
(EPP).
But Orban said he sees that
‘anti-immigration forces capable of governing are searching for different modes
of cooperation… and that is good news for both us (Fidesz) and the EPP.’
Fidesz’s presence in the EPP
has been controversial, with critics calling for it to be expelled from the
grouping over what they say is Orban’s growing authoritarianism.
Last September the European
Parliament voted to launch unprecedented legal action against Budapest over
alleged ‘breaches of democratic values’.
Orban said that ‘for the
first time the European elections will decide on a question that touches all of
Europe, that is, immigration.’
Orban took aim at Macron,
whom he called the leader of pro-immigration policies in Europe.
‘It
is nothing personal, but a matter of our countries’ future,’ Orban said of
Macron. ‘If what he wants with regards to migration materialises in Europe,
that would be bad for Hungary, therefore I must fight him.'
Orban also said he saw no chance for a compromise with Germany.
He said German politicians and media attack him, often brutally, exerting undue
pressure on him to admit migrants.
Immigration has been the main
political vehicle for Orban since 2015, when he was the first leader on the
continent to take an extreme hard-line on the issue.
He built a razor wire fence
along Hungary’s southern border to stop it as tens of thousands of refugees
fleeing war and poverty reached Europe’s shores and border.
Orban has tightened his grip
on power since 2010, defying EU norms and rising to prominence as the
continent’s voters increasingly respond to populist agendas.
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