Hungarian PM Orbán Claims EU Plotting to Overthrow His Government

On 23 Octo­ber 2024, the Asso­ci­at­ed Press report­ed that Hun­gar­i­an Prime Min­is­ter Vik­tor Orbán accused the Euro­pean Union of attempt­ing to install a “pup­pet regime” in Hun­gary dur­ing a nation­al­ist speech on Rev­o­lu­tion Day. The arti­cle begins:

Hun­gar­i­an Prime Min­is­ter Vik­tor Orbán claimed in a speech on Wednes­day that the Euro­pean Union seeks to top­ple his gov­ern­ment and install a pup­pet regime in the Cen­tral Euro­pean coun­try, an esca­la­tion of open hos­til­i­ty toward the bloc by the mem­ber con­sid­ered to have the warmest ties with Rus­sia. Speak­ing before thou­sands of sup­port­ers in Budapest, Orbán was mark­ing Hun­gary’s nation­al hol­i­day com­mem­o­rat­ing a 1956 armed upris­ing against Sovi­et repres­sion that began in the cap­i­tal and spread across the coun­try before being crushed by the Red Army…

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Key Points:

1. Orbán used Hun­gary’s 1956 anti-Sovi­et upris­ing com­mem­o­ra­tion to com­pare the EU’s influ­ence to past for­eign occu­piers like the USSR.
2. His gov­ern­ment faces declin­ing sup­port and com­pe­ti­tion from new oppo­si­tion par­ty Tisza, amid eco­nom­ic trou­bles and polit­i­cal scandals.
3. Hun­gary con­tin­ues block­ing EU aid to Ukraine while main­tain­ing close ties with Rus­sia, cre­at­ing ten­sion with oth­er Euro­pean leaders.
4. The EU has with­held bil­lions in fund­ing from Hun­gary over rule of law con­cerns, with its par­lia­ment declar­ing Hun­gary no longer democratic.