Hungarian nationalist leader warns of EU demise, backs Trump in anti-Western rhetoric

BAILE TUSNADE, Romania (AFP) – Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Saturday the European Union was sliding into oblivion in an anti-Western speech in which he warned of a new “world order” oriented towards Asia while declaring his support for Donald Trump’s candidacy for the US presidency.

“Europe has given up defending its own interests,” Orban said in Baile Tusnad, an ethnically Hungarian town in central Romania. “All Europe is doing today is following the pro-democracy American foreign policy unconditionally… even at the cost of self-destruction.”

“Change is coming and we haven’t seen it in 500 years. What we are actually facing is a change in the global order,” he added, citing China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia as having become the “dominant center” of the world.

Orbán also alleged that the United States was behind the 2022 explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipeline built to carry gas from Russia to Germany, calling it an “act of terrorism carried out under the clear direction of the Americans.” He provided no evidence to support the claim.

The far-right leader’s comments come amid growing criticism from his European partners after he embarked on illegal “peace mission” trips to Moscow and Beijing earlier this month aimed at brokering an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Orban is widely seen as having the warmest relations with the Kremlin of any EU leader.

On Ukraine, Orban expressed doubts about the possibility of the war-torn country joining NATO or the European Union. “We Europeans do not have the money for that. Ukraine will return to the status of a buffer state,” he said, adding that international security guarantees “will be enshrined in an agreement between the United States and Russia.”

Throughout Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, Orbán has severed ties with other EU leaders by refusing to provide Kyiv with weapons to defend against Russian forces, and has routinely delayed, diluted, or obstructed efforts to send financial aid to Kyiv and impose sanctions on Moscow.

Orban often uses the platform of the annual Tusvanius Summer University in Romania to point out the ideological direction of his national government and mock the norms of the European Union bloc, which Hungary joined in 2004.

Hungary currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, during which time Orban gave a speech. Trump era Orbán is a proponent of “Make Europe Great Again” and has publicly endorsed Trump’s candidacy in this year’s US presidential election. Visited Trump has visited twice this year at the former president’s beachfront compound at Mar-a-Lago.

Orban said Saturday that Trump’s re-election bid aims to “drag the American people from a post-national liberal state to a national state” and rehashed a series of conservative tropes that say Trump is being unfairly punished to block his election bid.

“That’s why they want to put him in jail. That’s why they want to seize his assets. And if that doesn’t work, that’s why they want to kill him,” Urban said, referring to an assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania this month.

The US ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman, responded to Orban’s comments on Saturday in a post on social media platform X, saying such rhetoric “risks changing Hungary’s relationship with America.”

“We have no other ally or partner… who campaigns so openly, so tirelessly for a particular candidate in the US elections, apparently convinced that whatever it is, it only helps Hungary – or at least helps him personally,” Bryceman said, going on to accuse Orbán of promoting “Kremlin conspiracy theories about the US. This is not what we expect from an ally.”

Orban’s comments on Saturday were not the first time the festival in Transylvania has been used to stir controversy. In 2014, Orban first announced his intention to build “Illiberal State” In Hungary, in 2022, he sparked international outrage after condemn against Europe is becoming a “mixed-race” society. He reinforced his long-held anti-immigration stance on Saturday, saying it was not the solution to his country’s ageing population.

“There can be no room for population to decrease with immigration,” he said in his speech on Saturday, adding: “Western experience says that if the number of guests is greater than the number of homeowners, the house is no longer a home. This is a risk we should not take.”

Orban, the EU’s longest-serving leader, icon To some conservative populists for his strong opposition to Immigration And gay rightsHe also took strict measures against the press The judiciary in Hungary has been accused by the European Union of violating the rule of law and democratic standards.

___

McGrath reported from Sighisoara, Romania. Balint Domotor contributed from London.