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Hungary’s Prime Minister, who has previously been accused of anti-Semitism, said on Saturday: “We [Hungarians] are not a mixed race… and we do not want to become a mixed race.” The remarks sparked outrage among opposition MPs and other European politicians, triggering the resignation of adviser Zsuzsa Hegedüs.
During his speech at Băile Tuşnad Summer University in central Romania, Mr Orbán claimed “the West is split in two”.
He said one half consists of countries where European and other non-European people mix, adding: “Those countries are no longer nations.”
Such states, he argued, “continue to fight central Europe to change us to be like them”.
The ultraconservative Prime Minister continued: “In a spiritual sense, the West has moved to central Europe.”
Ms Hegedüs has known Mr Orbán since 2002 and described her relations with him as friendly. However, in her resignation letter — published by the national news outlet hvg.hu on Tuesday — she said she had grown uncomfortable with his “illiberal turn” in recent years.
Mr Orbán has made anti-migration rhetoric an increasingly common part of his political narrative since 2015.
Romania, where Mr Orbán delivered the speech, reacted with fury, with Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu describing the comments as “unacceptable”.
Romanian MEP Alin Mituta said on Twitter: “Speaking about race or ethnic ‘purity’, especially in such a mixed region such as central and eastern Europe, is purely delusional and dangerous. And so is Mr Orbán.”
Katalin Cseh, an MEP from Hungary’s opposition Momentum party, said: “To all ‘mixed race’ people in Hungary, whatever this senseless racist outburst means: Your skin colour may be different, you may come from Europe or beyond-you are one of us, we are proud of you.”
Writing on Twitter, she added: “Diversity strengthens the nation, not weakens it.”
Ms Hegedüs said in her letter she had long defended the Prime Minister against accusations of anti-Semitism, but believed his latest speech to be indefensible.
She wrote: “I sincerely regret that such a disgraceful stance has forced me to sever our relationship.”
Within hours, Mr Orbán had published his own letter, stressing to have “a zero-tolerance policy” toward anti-Semitism and racism.
He wrote: “You can’t be serious about accusing me of racism after 20 years of working together.
“You know better than anyone that in Hungary my government follows a zero-tolerance policy on both anti-Semitism and racism.”
Mr Orbán was previously accused of anti-Semitism for negative election campaigning against billionaire Jewish financier George Soros.
Ms Hegedüs responded with a second letter, invoking her parents’ experiences as Hungarian Holocaust survivors. Others died, she recalled, because too many people stayed silent when hate first emerged.
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The head of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities said the Prime Minister’s comments went “against the practice that gave security to the Jewish communities” and called for a meeting with Mr Orbán.
At the same venue of Saturday’s address, Mr Orbán has previously floated major policy ideas or ideological directions. In 2014, he used the platform to say he wanted to build an “illiberal democracy” in Hungary.
His latest speech also saw him bluntly criticise Western military aid for war-torn Ukraine.
He said: “The more modern weapons NATO gives the Ukrainians, the more the Russians will push the frontline forward … What we are doing is prolonging the war.”
Mr Orbán said the role of the West should not be to advocate for a Ukrainian victory but to mediate a peace deal, adding that sanctions on Moscow had not worked.
He said: “We shouldn’t be on Russia’s side, or Ukraine’s side, but between the two.”
Hungary is a member of NATO, but Mr Orbán has long had close relations with President Vladimir Putin and spent five hours in Moscow talking to him in February, shortly before the launch of the full-scale Russian invasion.
Oleg Nikolenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, called Mr Orbán’s claims “Russian propaganda”.
The leader’s extreme speech came just two days after his foreign minister made a surprise trip to the Russian capital for talks, and distantiates him from the EU consensus on the military conflict.
Mr Orbán is due to travel to Dallas next week to open CPAC Texas, a gathering of US conservatives.
The Hungarian leader counts former US President Donald Trump among his many admirers on the American right.
He is also rooting for the return of Mr Trump in 2024.
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