Hungary has the antidote to liberal virus of migration and gender ideology, says Orban

Hungary has the antidote to liberal virus of migration and gender ideology, says Orban
"We have to say no to migration, gender and war," Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in his opening speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on May 4. / bne IntelliNews
By Tamas Csonka in Budapest May 5, 2023

The Western world is "under attack from a virus developed in progressive liberal laboratories" and Hungary has the antidote: "We have to say no to migration, gender and war," Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in his opening speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in the Hungarian capital on May 4.

Budapest is the host of a gathering of radical right-wing politicians and pundits from 20 countries for the second time in as many years.

Among guests present at the two-day conference were Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Czech ex-prime minister Andrej Babis and the Slovenian former prime minister Janez Jansa, whom Orban called "defenders of the free world".

The conference featured segments titled "Make Kids Not War" and "No Country For Woke Men", and "United We Stand." A sign over the entrance to the venue – a conference hall on the Danube River facing Budapest's iconic Gellert Hotel – read "No Woke Zone".

The conference was organised by the state-funded organisation Centre for Fundamental Rights. Its leader Miklos Szanto said opening the conference: “We are conservatives, we are right-wing, we are populists, we are nationalists, let us not be afraid of these words."

Orban, who began his career as leader of the liberal, radical anti-Communist youth movement before 1990 – supported by among others Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros – shifted to the centre-right to become Hungary’s youngest prime minister in 1998. After the first election defeat in 2002, his Fidesz party spent eight years in opposition,  only to come roaring back with a  supermajority in 2010.

After taking power, Orban began to dismantle checks and balances, rewrite the constitution and election laws, put cronies at the head of institutions and openly embraced an illiberal policy that earned him three more sweeping victories. Without challengers in domestic politics, Hungary’s nationalist leader aspired to become an internationally recognisable player, and his string of electoral success with illiberal policies in Hungary made him a role model among right-wing populists in Europe and the United States.

Orban’s speech focused on the perils facing European nations and the US by the "virus" developed in liberal, progressive laboratories that attacks sovereign nations.

The variant of this virus is woke-ism, gender ideology and migration, but Hungary has developed an antidote. It has become an "incubator" for devising the conservative politics of the future and the place where the defeat of progressive liberals and a conservative, Christian political turnaround not only has been talked about but accomplished

According to Hungary’s strongman, the "woke" movement and "gender propaganda" have the same objectives, Orban said. "Just like communism used to do, they divide the nation into artificial minorities and then incite antagonism between them; this is the basis for their power," he insisted.

Western nations are also jeopardised by progressive foreign policies which "always drag us into war", he said. "The colour revolutions were always triggered by the slogan of freedom, then liberal and progressive indoctrination followed, leaving behind chaos and the shame felt because of nations left unsupported."

Orban said progressive politics had always been imperialistic. "They put nations under diplomatic pressure to declare whether they support migration, gender propaganda, the relativisation of families and the sexualisation of children. Whoever is not willing to do that is viewed as the enemy, and they issue a liberal fatwa against them," he said.

The prime minister said that if Donald Trump were president of the US, Ukraine and Europe would not be affected by war," Orban said. "Return, Mr. President, make America great again, and bring us peace," the prime minister said.

Orban spoke at CPAC's national conference in Texas last year, where he told the crowd in Dallas to "take back the institutions in Washington and Brussels" and focus on winning U.S. elections next year.

Orban’s two regional allies, both voted out last year, focused on other topics. The speech by former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) focused more on criticism of the European Union, saying the Green Deal on the EU's transition to renewable energy "will destroy European industry and plunge people into poverty".

"We must save the European Union for the sake of our children and future generations," he added.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili praised Orban in his speech and spoke about the importance of Christian values and the sanctity of the family unit. False liberty is being promoted through gender propaganda, LGBTQ rights are being pushed, he noted.  The prime minister said his country is ready to meet the criteria for EU membership.

Former Fox News prime time host Tucker Carlson greeted the gathering in a 25-second video message taped before his firing from the channel, as he jokingly noted that he hopes to visit Budapest if he is ever "fired” from Fox.

 

 

News

Dismiss