(Veszprém) Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban mocked Brussels’ “diktats” on Monday, calling them a pale imitation of Soviet rule, while seeing a glimmer of hope in the 2024 European elections.
“Sometimes history repeats itself,” the leader told a thousand of his supporters gathered in Veszprem (west) on this day of commemoration of Hungary’s uprising against the USSR in 1956.
Soviet repression was followed by “sermons” from Brussels, but “fortunately the tragedy of yesteryear has become a farce,” he said. “Moscow was a tragedy. Brussels is just a bad contemporary parody.”
“We had to dance to the whistles of Moscow. Brussels also whistles, but we only dance if we want to.”
Regularly accused by his Western partners of authoritarian drift, Viktor Orban has numerous disputes with Brussels, from migration to the rights of LGBT+ people, including the independence of the judiciary.
Last year, the EU decided to freeze the disbursement of billions of euros in funds intended for Budapest, citing concerns about corruption in Hungary and possible misuse of the money.
“The (communist) party’s reprimand has been replaced by what Brussels calls the rule of law procedure,” Mr. Orban quipped.
However, the situation “is not hopeless. Moscow was beyond repair, but Brussels and the European Union can be,” he added, referring to the June 2024 European election that he hopes to win with his allies.
The good form of nationalist parties – in power in Italy, Poland or Finland; in strong growth in Austria or Spain – suggests a massive contingent of MEPs from this movement in the Strasbourg hemicycle.
In the capital Budapest, a few thousand demonstrators marched to “defend democracy” and demand better conditions in the education sector, noted an AFP journalist.
Among them, Teri Magos, a 47-year-old former teacher who is looking for work abroad, accused Viktor Orban of “betraying European values by licking the boots” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Those who revolted in 1956 would spit on Orban if they saw him submit to this dictator,” she asserted, referring to the meeting of the two men last week in Beijing.