Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán believes that his government is targeted for criticism because the liberal left cannot bear to see a country that promotes a Christian national identity over multiculturalism, strong borders, and traditional values succeeding.
Quizzed by Tucker Carlson on why, as a former anti-Communist dissident once admired in the West, he believes left-liberal politicians such as U.S. President Joe Biden now characterise his government and that of allied conservative countries as “totalitarian”, Orbán said he believes their main problem with him is Hungary’s success.
“[I]t is a real challenge for the liberal thinkers, that what is going on in Central Europe… is going on here is building up a society, which is very successful,” he told the FNC host, putting Poland in the same bracket as Hungary.
“Economically, politically, culturally, even in demography we have some success, family policy – so, what you can see here could be described as a success story,” he said.
“But the fundamentals of this success is totally different than it is wished… by many other Western countries,” he explained.
Indeed, the family policy Orbán refers to, which entails a generous package of tax breaks, government-backed loans for family cars and homes, student debt forgiveness for mothers, grandparental leave, and other policies designed to support natural population growth, flies in the face of the prevailing wisdom in much of the West, which is that Westerners having children exacerbates climate change and mass migration is the only solution to ageing populations — a thesis Orbán’s government categorically rejects.
“[T]he Western liberals cannot accept that inside Western civilization, there is a conservative national alternative, which is more successful at the level of everyday life than the liberal ones. That’s the reason why they criticize us,” Orbán said.
“They are fighting for themselves, not against us. But we are an example, that somebody, or a country, which is based on traditional values, on national identity, based on tradition [and] Christianity could be successful, or sometimes even more successful, than a leftist-liberal government.”
On the question of his forceful termination of the 2015 border crisis sparked by Germany’s Angela Merkel effectively extending an open invitation for migrants to march into Europe, Orbán was clear that, in his view, he had the right to build a wall and put an end to the border crossings.
“Of course. It’s coming from God, the nature, so all arguments [are] with us. Because this is our country. This is our population, this is our history, this is our language,” he said.
“Of course, if you are in trouble, and there is nobody closer to you than the Hungarians, you have to be helpful. But can’t say simply, that ‘okay, it’s a nice country, I would like to come here and live here, because it’s a nicer life’. It is not a human right to come here. No way, because it’s our land. It’s a nation, it’s a community, families, history, tradition, language,” he added.
When Carlson put it to him that his actions had proved “very offensive to a lot of countries in Western Europe, to their leaders”, the Hungarian leader suggested that this was because his border policies were a repudiation of their own worldview.
“[M]any European countries decided to open a new chapter of their own history” and pursue a “post-Christian, post-national society,” Orbán mused.
(Such beliefs are not confined to Europe, either, with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau having declared in 2015 that “There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada… Those qualities are what make us the first postnational state.’’)
“They believe firmly that if different communities, even if a huge number of, let’s say Muslim communities and the original inhabitant — let’s say Christian communities — are mixed up, the outcome of this will be good,” Orbán went on.
“There is no answer whether it will be good or bad, but I think it’s very risky, and the chance that it will be not good, but it will be very bad, is obvious,” he said.
“[E]ach nation has the right to take this risk or to reject this risk. We, Hungarians, decided not to take that risk to mix up our society. That’s the reason why they attack Hungary so harshly, and that’s the reason why my personal reputation is very bad,” he concluded.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.