Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has claimed that bigwigs within the European Union will “end up” facing the same fate as Soviet dictators of old.
Those at the helm of the European Union looking to take on Hungary will face the same fate as the Soviet dictators who came before them, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán claimed on Sunday.
The comments came as part of a speech delivered by the premier to mark the 66th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising, an anti-communist revolution that took place across the country in 1956.
While largely receiving popular support within Hungary, the public revolt was eventually crushed by a Russian invasion, resulting in the deaths of thousands of people.
Speaking on the military defeat, however, Orbán emphasised that even in defeat, his nation often remains victorious, with the Associated Press noting the Prime Minister as claiming that any foreign power wishing to challenge his country would eventually meet its demise.
“The lesson of 1956 is clear. Whoever wants to knee on our neck is doomed to fail” the premier said. “We stood tall when the first conquering empire attacked us, and we will still be here when the last one collapses.”
He is also said to have specifically taken aim at the European Union, drawing comparisons between senior officials within the bloc to the Soviet dictators of old.
“Let’s not bother with those who shoot at Hungary from the shadows or from the heights of Brussels,” Orbán told those gathered. “They will end up where their predecessors did.”
Having long disliked the ruling Orbán administration in Hungary, the European Union has become ever-more hostile to the nation since the general election in the country earlier this year, during which the incumbent Prime Minister won a landslide victory against a technicolour coalition looking to depose him.
Since the win, which occurred despite foreign efforts to boost support for Hungarian opposition parties, officials in Brussels have been keen to denigrate the country, with the European Parliament going so far as to vote through a resolution claiming that Hungary is “no longer a democracy” last month.
The vote has been ridiculed by those within the Orbán government, with the Prime Minister’s international spokesman, Zoltan Kovacs, remarking that the same parliament who described Hungary as now being a “hybrid electoral autocracy” is also of the view that “men can give birth”.
What is less of a laughing matter are the EU sanctions Brussels is looking to push through against the country, with Eurocrats now looking to strip billions of dollars of grants from the country in what appears to be an attempt to undermine Orbán.
The move has been branded “unlawful” by Hungarian ally Poland, with the country’s Prime Minister. Mateusz Morawiecki, vowing that his country will “oppose in the strongest terms” any stripping of funds from Hungary.
EU-focused publication Euroactiv speculates that the statement marks the return of a Poland-Hungary alliance within the union, which has up until now been strained as a result of differing opinions on the war in Ukraine.
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