DALLAS (AP) — Hungary’s autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orbán urged cheering American conservatives Thursday to “take back the institutions,” stick to hard-line positions on gay rights and immigration and fight for the next U.S. presidential election as a key moment for their beliefs.
The boos and ovations at the Conservative Political Action Conference for the far-right prime minister, who has been criticized for undermining his own country’s democratic institutions, demonstrated the growing embrace between Orbán and US Republicans
He mocked the media here and in Europe. And in a speech he titled ‘How We Fight’, Orbán told the crowd gathered in the congressional ballroom in Dallas to focus now on the 2024 election, saying they had “two years to prepare”. , although he did not support any candidate or party.
“Victory will never be achieved by taking the path of least resistance,” he said during one of the keynote slots at the three-day CPAC event. “We have to take back the institutions in Washington and Brussels. We must find friends and allies in each other.”
Speaking of liberals, he said, “They hate me and slander me and my country as they hate you and slander you for the America you stand for.”
His entrance elicited a larger welcome than the Texas governor, Republican Greg Abbott, received a few minutes earlier on the same stage. From there, the applause continued as Orbán began to attack LGBTQ rights, brag about the reduction in abortion in Hungary and celebrate tough immigration measures at home.
Other speakers will include former President Donald Trump, who met with Orbán earlier this week and will address the gathering on Saturday, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia and Republican candidates who just won the GOP primary. in Tuesday.
Orbán’s visit to the US came amid backlash at home and in Europe over anti-immigrant remarks in which he condemned Europe becoming a “mixed-race” society. One of his closest aides compared his comments to Nazi rhetoric and resigned in protest. Orban told a crowd in Texas that the media would portray him as a strong racist and dismissed those who would call his government racist as “idiots”.
His invitation to CPAC reflects conservatives’ growing embrace of the Hungarian leader, whose country has a one-party government. Orbán is also seen as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in the European Union.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that President Joe Biden has no plans to speak with Orbán while in the United States. Asked if the administration had any concerns about CPAC inviting such a leader to speak at the high-profile conference, Kirby demurred.
“It comes with a personal invitation,” Kirby said. “Mr. Orbán and CPAC, they can talk about his visit.
Trump praised Orbán, who has been prime minister for 12 years, after their meeting this week in Florida.
“Few people know so much about what is happening in the world today,” the former president said in a statement after the meeting.
For some attending the three-day conference, Orbán is an exemplary leader who makes an impression outside of Hungary because of his policies and personality.
They praised him for his border security measures and for providing financial subsidies to Hungarian women, which Orbán called an effort to counter Hungary’s shrinking population. Lila Vesi, who moved to Dallas from Hungary with her husband Ede in the 1980s, said what she hears in Hungary is that Orbán is not anti-democratic.
“I don’t know how the conservatives somehow found him,” said Ede Vesey, 73. “He supports traditional values. He supports the family.”
Scott Huber, who met with Orbán along with other CPAC attendees at a private event hours before the speech, said the prime minister expressed hope that the US would “moderate the influence of the far left a bit” in November’s midterm elections. The 67-year-old Pennsylvania resident said he disagreed with descriptions of Orbán as autocratic and that he had violated democratic norms, but said he thought that would change over time.
As for why Orbán is winning over so many conservatives, Huber noted Orbán’s attacks on George Soros, the American-Hungarian billionaire and philanthropist who is a staunch critic of Hungary’s government and a supporter of liberal causes.
“That’s why I was so interested to see it,” Huber said.
Through his communications office, Orban declined an interview request from The Associated Press ahead of his speech in Dallas.
The AP and other international news organizations were also barred from covering a CPAC conference held in Budapest in May, the group’s first conference in Europe. During that gathering, Orbán called Hungary “a bastion of conservative Christian values in Europe” and called on conservatives in the US to defeat “the dominance of progressive liberals in public life.”
He presents himself as a defender of what he calls “illiberal democracy.”
Orbán was Hungary’s prime minister between 1998 and 2002, but his record since taking office again in 2010 has sparked controversy and raised concerns about Hungary’s slide toward authoritarian rule. He presents himself as a defender of European Christendom against Muslim migrants, progressives and the “LGBTQ lobby”.
Last year, his right-wing Fidesz party banned the depiction of homosexuality or gender reassignment in media aimed at under-18s. Information about homosexuality was also banned in school sex education programs or in films and advertisements accessible to minors.
Some of the biggest cheers during Orbán’s speech came when he described Hungary’s family framework.
“To sum it up, mother is a woman, father is a man, and leave our children alone, period,” he said.
Orbán has consolidated power over the country’s judiciary and media, and his party has drawn legislative districts in a way that makes it very difficult for opposition parties to win seats — somewhat similar to partisan gerrymandering efforts for state legislative and congressional seats in the US. the process currently favors Republicans because they control more of the state legislatures that create those boundaries.
Orbán’s moves have led international political observers to label him as the face of a new wave of authoritarianism. The European Union has launched numerous legal proceedings against Hungary for breaching EU rules and has withheld billions in refunds and credit for breaches of rule of law standards and insufficient anti-corruption safeguards.
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Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.
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