2023-05-12 19:02:33
Published: 05/12/2023, 19:02
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has compared the EU’s European unification project with Adolf Hitler’s plans for world domination. Since the end of the Roman Empire, efforts have been made to restore the empire on its territory, the right-wing populist said on Friday in the western Hungarian city of Veszprem. “Byzantium, Charlemagne, (the German Emperor) Otto, Napoleon and Hitler – they all dreamed of European unity, each on different grounds.”
Viktor Orban drew attention with a controversial statement.
Bild: keystone
Today is no different, Orban added. «The independent national existence and the idea of empire are present at the same time. National culture and European values. Sovereignty and – as they put it in Brussels – the »ever closer union«.” The latter term – in English: the “ever closer union” to be created – is in the preamble to the EU’s Basic Treaty of Lisbon, which applies to all member states.
Hungary joined the EU in 2004. Orban, who has governed his country in a more or less authoritarian manner since 2010, has repeatedly fought against the obligations that result from EU membership, for example with regard to asylum policy or the rule of law. At the same time, the Central European country is a recipient of significant EU aid. Some of these funds are currently frozen because the EU sees their lawful and corruption-free use at risk given a judiciary that is no longer independent in some cases.
As a populist, Orban repeatedly scolds the “Brussels bureaucrats”, comparing the EU with the former communist Soviet Union. Hungarian opposition leader Ferenc Gyurcsany commented on the head of government’s derailment: “This person is sick.” Mentioning Hitler with the European idea is “a sick, disgusting thought,” Gyurcsany wrote on his Facebook page. (sda/dpa)
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