Orbán to Brussels: Time to shake up ‘bad’ EU
leadership
“If the leadership proves to be bad, it must be
replaced. It’s that simple,” Hungarian leader says.
"I think freedom in Europe, and especially in
Brussels, is in danger, as yesterday it was shown," Viktor Orbán said,
triggering a round of applause from the crowd. "Whether we call it
communism or not, we are living on the verge of [...] oppression in
Europe." |
APRIL 17,
2024 2:37 PM CET
BY CLAUDIA
CHIAPPA AND EDDY WAX
BRUSSELS —
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Wednesday called for a change of
leadership in Brussels as he blasted the European Union’s policies on migration
and Ukraine.
“The sense
of this European election is to change the leadership,” the Hungarian leader
said during a gathering of prominent right-wingers in Brussels. “If the
leadership proves to be bad, it must be replaced. It’s that simple.”
Orbán is
bidding to tilt the EU in his direction after June’s European election, for
which polls currently forecast a right-wing surge. A rightward swing could
drastically shift EU policies on key issues from climate to the war in Ukraine.
The
Hungarian leader’s blunt remarks took place at the National Conservatism
Conference, a two-day gathering of right-wing leaders that caused uproar in
Brussels when local municipalities tried to stop it from happening due to what
authorities said were safety concerns.
Addressing
a room of hundreds of academics, officials and journalists, Orbán likened the
police intervention at the conference to “oppression” in communist Hungary
during the 1980s.
“I think
freedom in Europe, and especially in Brussels, is in danger, as yesterday it
was shown,” Orbán said, triggering a round of applause from the crowd. “Whether
we call it communism or not, we are living on the verge of […] oppression in
Europe.”
Orbán,
never shy of attacking the EU despite being a member, sharply criticized the
bloc’s migration policy during his conversation with conference chairman Yoram
Hazony. He said that living “in a Christian society” is “an amazing thing. Why
should we give it up?”
Orbán is
widely regarded as the closest EU ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and
he said he does not want to give up Budapest’s long-standing “economic
relations” with Moscow, despite the Kremlin’s ongoing war against Ukraine.
While he
recognizes Ukraine’s right to defend itself, Orbán said this is “not the war of
the Hungarians.”
“What the
Europeans are doing is bad, it’s not targeting on cease-fire and we don’t
confront seriously with all the consequences of supporting a country who is in
a war which cannot be [won],” he said.
Ukraine is
now merely a “protectorare” of the West, he added, as without money and weapons
from the EU and the U.S., Ukraine “as a state will cease to exist,” Orbán said.
Echoing one
of Putin’s favorite justifications for his full-scale invasion of Ukraine,
Orbán said the conflict is about Kyiv’s potential NATO membership and that the
Russian leader will never give in on this.
“They will
always do everything they can to have something between the Russian border and
NATO countries’ border,” he said. “A buffer zone must exist.”
The
conference, which includes leading conservatives such as the U.K.’s Nigel
Farage and former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, kicked off Tuesday
at the Claridge, a venue close to the European Quarter. But the gathering
turned chaotic when local police showed up, at the behest of the local mayor,
to shut down the jamboree.
Organizers
were able to continue the conference on Tuesday, although police stood by the
door and prevented new arrivals from entering.
A Belgian
court eventually struck down the local mayor’s order and allowed the conference
to move ahead on Wednesday with no interference.
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