Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has praised the victories of the populist Five Star Movement in the Italian referendum and the election of Donald Trump in the United States, claiming these developments are just the beginning of the “rebellion”.
The Hungarian leader, who is known to be outspoken in expressing his opinions on mass migration and the migrant crisis claims a kinship with rising populist leaders and movements across Europe and the United States.
Mr. Orbán said his party Fidesz was a “self-made story … about ten to twenty, or thirty guys coming from somewhere, rising up, fed up with the world that surrounds them” who wanted to change it.
He claimed to see the same attitude in President-Elect Donald J. Trump, saying in an interview with Hungarian news site 888.hu that Trump had what he called a “self-made man mentality.” He went on to add, “Self-made figures are people who themselves are successful, who do not begin a sentence with ‘I know people,’ but say, ‘I’ve done that.’ ”
For the Hungarian prime minister, 2016 isn’t the end of the populist rebellion against globalism and the elites. Asked if he thought the anti-globalist sentiment would spread he said, “I am convinced that 2017 will be a year of rebellion. Whether they [the globalists] put down the rebellion or not, that’s another story.”
Orbán cited the victory of the Italian opposition in the recent referendum and said that despite the defeat for anti-mass migration candidate Norbert Hofer in the Austrian presidential elections, the rebellion was growing.
“Next year will be elections in Germany, the Netherlands, France. A lot of things can happen,” he said. Mr. Orbán said there were two rebellions going on, one was a revolt of the working and middle class which led to Brexit and the victory of Donald Trump and the other “…is a kind of national rebellion.
“The ‘United States of Europe’ advocates, by being stealthy, encroachments on the sovereignty of individual nations using the issue of asylum.
“All of this is surrounded by political correctness, containment, intellectual rebellion against stigma. The rebellion started in 2016, will be even more enhanced in the future. Therefore, I say that 2017 will be a year of rebellion,” he said.
When asked if he thought it was contradictory for a ruling government to declare themselves rebels, he said, “The real freedom fighters are the people.”
He went on to add, “If we believe in Hungary, the Hungarian people, one inside the other, then we are facing a bright future,” adding that children should be taught “not to seek the easy way, but go their own way even when it seems difficult, then the country can be great again.
“America, what is your message? Let’s make Hungary great again!”
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