Viktor Orban Says He Wants to 'Occupy Brussels' in EU Elections

Facts

• During a national holiday speech in Budapest, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told the crowd that if they want 'to preserve Hungary’s freedom and sovereignty,' they have to 'occupy Brussels' in this summer's EU elections.¹
• Orban also contrasted Hungary and the 'Western world,' alleging that those in charge of the latter 'start wars, destroy worlds, redraw countries’ borders, and graze on everything like locusts.'²
• He said the West focuses on what kind of world to leave children. Instead, he said the right question is 'what kind of children we leave to the world,' adding that 'there is only a homeland as long as there is someone to cherish it.'³
• Orban has long disagreed with other EU member states on a wide range of policies, including his decision to delay weapons packages to Ukraine and maintain economic ties with Russia.⁴
• US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman recently criticized Orban for his recent pushback against Sweden's NATO accession, claiming Orban 'labels and treats the [US] as an 'adversary'' and makes 'policy choices that increasingly isolate it from friends and allies.'⁵
• Ahead of the elections, Orban's ruling Fidesz party has met with the eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), which includes Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy Party, though he said he won't make a coalition decision until after the polls.⁶

Sources: ¹Toronto Star, ²North Norfolk News, ³Hungarian Conservative, ⁴Reuters.com, ⁵ABC News and ⁶KELO.

Narratives

• Right narrative, as provided by Europeanconservative. Viktor Orban sees the political winds shifting in Europe and America, so he wants to capitalize on his country's six-month presidency at the EU Council — as well as the likely re-election of Donald Trump in the US — and 'make the West great again.' Europe last year was run by warmongers and climate alarmists who turned Europe into an anti-middle-class, anti-farmer, and anti-peace continent focused on flooding their respective countries with migrants as the quality of life of their current citizens deteriorated. Orban speaks for the regular people, not the elites in Brussels.
• Left narrative, as provided by Voice of America. Orban is an autocrat who has put his self-interests above that of his own people and Europe as a whole. Throughout his career, he has accused Brussels of corruption while simultaneously gutting Hungary's press and political freedoms. Orban and his fellow European right-wing extremists certainly have a chance of gaining power this year, but they won't use that power for good. However optimistic he is for his side, though, Orban has virtually no allies in other European governments — especially now that Poland has voted its far-right regime out of office.

Predictions