Zsuzsa Hegedus, who served as Orban’s adviser for two decades, quit on Tuesday over what she called Orban’s “illiberal turn” and on Saturday described his comments in Romania as “pure Nazi text, that of the (Nazi propagandist) Goebbels is worthy,” the newspaper said in its letter of resignation, which was published by the Hungarian newspaper HVG.
He was also denounced by the International Auschwitz Committee after comments in the same speech about the use of gas chambers against Jews in Nazi Germany were interpreted as a joke.
Orban told a crowd that Europeans don’t want to mingle with people from outside the continent.
“That’s why we’ve always fought: we’re ready to mix, but we don’t want to become mixed-breed,” Orban said.
He warned that “Islamic civilization” is “constantly moving towards Europe” and that in the future “those we don’t want to let in must be stopped”. [Hungary’s] Western borders”, regardless of the country’s membership in the Schengen area with open borders in 26 European countries.
Hegedus, one of Orban’s closest associates, said the speech contradicted her values and made her position untenable. She added that Orban’s backslide towards authoritarianism during his 12-year tenure as Hungarian prime minister previously eroded her support.
“You can’t seriously accuse me of racism after 20 years of working together. You know better than anyone that my government in Hungary has a zero-tolerance policy towards both anti-Semitism and racism,” Orban replied, according to a letter published on Twitter by his political director, Balazs Orban.
But the leader’s speech has sparked an angry reaction across Europe, with critics of his regime demanding that EU leaders openly condemn the right-wing prime minister.
“Orbán continues to have a seat at the European Council table and veto power to undermine Europe’s sovereignty… Unsustainable, unacceptable, un-European,” Guy Verhofstadt, former Belgian Prime Minister and senior Member of the European Parliament, wrote on Twitter.
“Orban is carefully cultivating a more palatable image in Brussels/abroad. Many conservatives who like to pose with him would never publicly endorse such far-right tirades,” added Katalin Cseh, a Hungarian MEP, in a post on Twitter.
In another segment of the speech, Orban was accused by Cseh and others of downplaying the Nazi regime’s use of gas chambers during the Holocaust.
Discussing the European Commission’s agreed target for its 27 member states to cut their gas needs by 15% between August and March next year, Orban said: “I don’t see how it’s going to be enforced – although, as I understand it, the The past shows us German know-how.”
CNN has reached out to the Hungarian government for comment.
In a statement Tuesday, the International Auschwitz Committee condemned Orban’s comments as “stupid and dangerous.” They said Auschwitz survivors and others were “alarmed and appalled” by his speech.
Throughout his tenure, Orban has overseen a process of democratic backsliding, making comments on migrants and multiculturalism that have been condemned by European peers.
Last year he criticized the anti-racism kneeler gesture by many countries’ football teams and said he agreed with Hungarian fans who booed the act. He has railed against EU migration quotas and put the issue through a referendum in 2016, which international watchdogs dismissed as a stunt.
But Orban has garnered a surge of support from some American conservatives and, despite his remarks on Saturday, will still be speaking at next month’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) meeting in Texas.