Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is often praised by conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson, spoke out against racial mixing of Hungarians on Saturday.
“We move, we work elsewhere, we mix within Europe, but we don’t want to be mixed race,” he said during a speech at Romania’s Baile Tusnad Summer University, Radio Free Europe reported, adding that he was against it the idea of a “multi-ethnic” group mixing with “non-Europeans”.
During his speech, he said that the “West is split in two,” with half European countries mixed with non-Europeans, Daily News Hungary reported. “These countries are no longer nations,” he added.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is often praised by conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson, on Saturday spoke out against the mixing of Hungarian communities with other races. Above: Orbán shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a joint news conference in Moscow September 18, 2018. Photo by ALEXEY DRUZHININ/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images
According to Radio Free Europe, which has been repeatedly condemned by the European Court of Justice, the conservative Hungarian leader has curtailed the right to asylum and erected barriers at his country’s borders as he targeted migrants from Africa and the Middle East. He also targeted non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support migrants.
Orbán’s speech was intended to appeal to the local Hungarian minority in Romania, according to Jonathan Eyal, a deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) for defense and security studies.
“Hungary’s Viktor Orban travels to Romania’s Transylvania every year to deliver nationalist speeches aimed at mobilizing the sizeable local ethnic Hungarian minority. Few governments would allow such an open appeal to irredentism, but Romanians have tolerated it,” he tweeted Sunday.
Hungarian Viktor Orban travels to Romanian Transylvania every year to deliver nationalist speeches aimed at mobilizing the sizeable local ethnic Hungarian minority. Few governments would allow such an open appeal to irredentism, but Romanians have tolerated it. A 🧵 1/12
— Jonathan Eyal (@JEyal_RUSI) July 24, 2022
The Hungarian prime minister called refugees “Muslim invaders” in 2018 when he expressed his refusal to participate in the European Union’s resettlement scheme, The Guardian reported. In another case this year, he said: “We have to defend Hungary as it is now. We have to say that we don’t want to be diverse and we don’t want to be mixed: we don’t want to mix our own colour, traditions and national culture with those of others.”
Still, Carlson has long praised Orbán for his anti-immigrant stance, alongside other conservative ideas. Last August, Carlson said he visited the Hungarian border and saw “order and clarity.” He claimed the country’s wall was “working” in fighting illegal immigration and that it was “embarrassing to be an American,” according to The Guardian.
In addition, he expressed his admiration for Hungary, saying it is a “small country with many lessons for the rest of us,” the New York Times reported last year.
Orbán, who was backed by former President Donald Trump before being re-elected to a fourth term in April, was a staunch supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who opposed European sanctions on the country.
In May he accused the EU of dropping “a nuclear bomb” on the Hungarian economy by trying to ban Russian oil imports in response to the war in Ukraine. Hungary relies heavily on Russian natural gas, getting about 85 percent of its needs from Russian company Gazprom, according to Radio Free Europe.
Orbán also dismissed Ukraine’s determination to keep fighting in his speech on Saturday, saying that “the Ukrainians will not be victorious,” according to Radio Free Europe, adding that the Russian military had an “asymmetric dominance.”
The Hungarian leader, whose direction aligns with the ideas of some Republicans, is scheduled to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas on August 4, the Prime Minister’s press secretary, Bertalan Havasi, announced earlier this month.
Newsweek has reached out to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry for comment.