On 15 March 2025, Euronews reported that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán delivered a combative speech pledging to eliminate organizations receiving foreign funding and comparing the EU to historical imperial powers. The article begins:
“There is always an empire that is trying to take away the freedom of the Hungarians, and right now it is the one in Brussels,” Viktor Orban said in a speech on Saturday. Hungary’s prime minister on Saturday vowed to rid his country of those he claims work for the interests of foreign powers, saying his right-wing government will eliminate a global “shadow army” serving the European Union and a “liberal American empire”. In a public address, which coincided with a national holiday commemorating Hungary’s 1848 revolution against Habsburg rule, Viktor Orbán told a group of several thousand supporters that Hungary in the coming weeks will uproot media outlets and other organisations that have received funding from abroad.
Key Points:
- Orbán promised an “Easter cleaning” to dismantle what he called a foreign-funded “shadow army” of media and organizations.
- The Hungarian leader compared Brussels to the Habsburg Empire, accusing the EU of trying to “colonize” through war.
- Constitutional amendments have been proposed to allow deportation of dual citizens deemed threats to national security.
- Orbán endorsed conspiracy theories about population replacement while expressing support for Trump’s dismantling of USAID.
Orban and Hungary have figured prominently in a developing alliance between US conservatives and European nationalists, a potential means for Russia to exert covert influence in Europe and the US using Hungary as a platform. GIOR has published a report on this alliance titled “The National Conservatism Alliance: An Opportunity for Russian Influence?” The GIOR report details the role that Viktor Orban and the Hungarian government have been playing in the Global National Conservative Alliance (GNCA).
The full report can be downloaded here.
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