Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that Europeans are “asserting their will” by supporting leaders who reject mass migration and support Christian foundations, and gave a warning to politicians who deny the “natural order of democracy”.
The conservative Fidesz party leader told Kossuth Radio’s listeners that 2.3 million Hungarians took part in the national consultation against the George Soros-backed pro-mass migration plan, and Mr. Orbán now intends to spend the next few months convincing his opponents that Europe is right to protect her borders and her culture.
Asked by the 180 Minutes host what made him think that after two years, since the migrant crisis, progressive leaders would listen now, Mr. Orbán said: “Because in the meantime elections are being held in Europe.”
Those who argue for a “mixed population” and to “abolish societies based on national and Christian foundations” in favour of living in multicultural societies “are continually losing ground in national elections”, he observed.
“European people… will assert their will. Look at the elections that have been held in Europe over the last few months. And I think that this process will intensify.
“So we must hold out until Western Europeans follow the Central Europeans by becoming strong enough to use their democratic institutions, their elections, to force their leaders to pursue a policy which people favour and support a policy which rejects immigration,” said the prime minister.
Predicting in 2016 that the following year would be the ‘year of rebellion‘ when citizens would vote against the establishment, the conservative noted that even the elections of progressive EU federalists Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel showed evidence of the disruption to the system.
In France, “the entire political elite was swept away” and likewise in Germany, which he noted is three months without a government post-election, “immigration has changed the balance of political power”.
Elsewhere in Europe, the growth of populism and resurgence of conservatism – both celebrated as on the wane by the mainstream media – has been witnessed in 2017 with rising support for the Dutch Party for Freedom; the Czech Republic electing Eurosceptic Andrej Babiš as prime minister; the collapse in the polls of the establishment PD party in Italy; and Poland and Hungary’s conservative governments seeing record support.
Notably, the establishment Austrian People’s Party moved to the right resulting in a conservative-populist coalition with the Freedom Party of Austria.
“In Austria this is the new reality,” the Hungarian prime minister told listeners, adding that he was “counting on” Austria aligning herself with the Visegrád Group.
Saying that Europe’s leaders cannot remain far from the will of the people, Prime Minister Orbán said: “The people have not moved closer to their leaders, but those leaders have been forced to acknowledge that if they persist in the approach they’ve been following they’ll be forced to up sticks and hit the road.
“This process is now taking place as we watch. I am sure that sooner or later the will of European people and the policy of their leaders must come together and once more align with each other.
“This is the natural order of democracy. At times, perhaps, there can be a certain gap between the will of the people and the aims of their leaders, but in the long run, a wide gap will be unsustainable.”
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