Alarm Grows As Orban Prepares To Bring Pure Nazi Rhetoric To Us Viktor Orban

The Hungarian leader provoked reactions at home and abroad with a recent speech in which he spoke out against “race-mixing”. Soon after, Zsuzsa Hegedüs, a sociologist who has known Orbán for 20 years, tendered her resignation, criticizing the prime minister for what she called a “pure Nazi” speech. “I am Jewish. And the job of our generation is to stop something like that because we have seen what happened. Not only with Jews. And in Rwanda. Ethnic hatred leads to genocide,” Hegedüs said in an interview with the Observer. Orbán’s speech came at a showpiece annual rally in Romania last weekend, which the Hungarian leader often uses to make major announcements. During his speech, he said that mixing between Europeans was acceptable, but mixing Europeans with non-Europeans created “mixed-race” people. “We are willing to mix with each other, but we don’t want to become a people of mixed race,” Orban said. He added that Western European countries where this is considered acceptable “are no longer nations”. Orban, who won a fourth consecutive term as prime minister in April, has often used far-right rhetoric, especially since 2015, when he emerged as Europe’s fiercest opponent of welcoming refugees and migrants. His repeated attacks on Hungarian-born Jewish businessman and philanthropist George Soros have also been widely criticized as anti-Semitic. Orbán thrives on controversy and his anti-immigration stance, as well as regressive policies on LGBT rights, have made him a darling of the international right. In the coming days, he is scheduled to travel to Dallas, Texas, and deliver the keynote address at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an influential gathering of the American right. In May, Orbán spoke at a special CPAC meeting in Hungary when his speech referred to the “great replacement,” a conspiracy theory popular on the far right that claims there is a liberal conspiracy to change the ethnic makeup of the US and European countries through immigration . While Orbán’s statements have often drawn criticism from liberals, the reaction to Orbán’s race-mixing words has been more intense than usual. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences condemned the comments, calling them “scientifically unfounded” and “dangerous ideology”, while Hungary’s chief rabbi, Róbert Frölich, also criticized the speech. I told Victor about the things I found objectionable before. I yelled at him sometimes. But Zsuzsa Hegedüs, a former councillor, had never crossed that line Hegedüs said she does not believe Orbán is racist and has defended him in the past against claims of anti-Semitism, she said. For some time, he had been concerned about the prime minister’s “illiberal turn” but felt the recent speech crossed the line. “I told Victor about the things I found unacceptable in the past. I yelled at him sometimes. But he’s never crossed that line before. It was really a Nazi speech,” he said. Many international politicians also spoke in disgust of the speech. “Racism is a poisonous political invention. There should be no place for this in Europe where our strength comes from diversity,” said European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans. US anti-Semitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt criticized Orbán’s “use of rhetoric that clearly evokes Nazi racial ideology”. Dani Dayan, the president of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial center in Jerusalem, also drew parallels with the Nazi past. “The statement made by the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, is very reminiscent of ideologies associated with the horrific atrocities of the Holocaust. The Holocaust teaches us that we must deal with such expressions quickly and directly,” Dayan said. In a sign that the backlash may have blindsided Orbán, he took the unusual step of backtracking somewhat, insisting he was not talking about mixing races, but cultures. “I don’t want Hungary to become a country of immigrants. It’s not about race for us. It’s about cultural differences,” he said during a visit to Vienna last Thursday. “Sometimes I can be ambiguous. We are talking about cultural position. We are proud of what Hungary has achieved in the fight against racism,” he added. As Orbán heads to CPAC, it’s unlikely that many on the American right will have been bothered by his speech. “The far right represents an increasingly present segment of the Republican community. The party has changed so radically. Ideas like the Great Replacement Theory have become mainstream for them,” Rick Wilson, a former Republican general and co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Donald Trump political action committee, said in an interview. Orban had a warm relationship with Trump, and praise for Hungary’s “illiberal democracy” appeared frequently on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight. Carlson spent a week in Hungary last year and painted the country as a conservative paradise. “Orbán is seen as anti-European, anti-immigration, anti-elite and anti-awakening, which appeals to Republicans and conservatives,” said Tim Miller, former political director of Republican Voters Against Trump. Matt Schlapp, president of CPAC, was asked last week if Orbán was still invited to open the rally. “Let us hear the man speak. We’ll see what he says. And if people disagree with something he says, they should bring it up,” he said. In Hungary, Orbán supporters in the pro-government media are working hard to label criticism of the speech as partisan and irrelevant. A recent article in the pro-Orbán Magyar Nemzet accused Hegedüs of “deliberate lies, dishonesty and betrayal”. Other media used offensive language about her or downplayed her importance. Hegedüs said she was unaware of the criticism and claimed she had received many personal messages of support from people within Orbán’s Fidesz party who were also concerned about the speech. “That’s reassuring,” he said. Hegedüs said she had “accepted” Orbán’s clarification that he was referring to the mixing of cultures, not races, and believed the issue was closed. However, she has no plans to withdraw her resignation and said that with a potential economic downturn around the corner, the inflammatory rhetoric was particularly irresponsible. “In times when people are desperate … it’s much easier to mobilize the haters,” he said.

title: “Alarm Grows As Orban Prepares To Bring Pure Nazi Rhetoric To Us Viktor Orban " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-23” author: “Dyan Strickland”

The Hungarian leader provoked reactions at home and abroad with a recent speech in which he spoke out against “race-mixing”. Soon after, Zsuzsa Hegedüs, a sociologist who has known Orbán for 20 years, tendered her resignation, criticizing the prime minister for what she called a “pure Nazi” speech. “I am Jewish. And the job of our generation is to stop something like that because we have seen what happened. Not only with Jews. And in Rwanda. Ethnic hatred leads to genocide,” Hegedüs said in an interview with the Observer. Orbán’s speech came at a showpiece annual rally in Romania last weekend, which the Hungarian leader often uses to make major announcements. During his speech, he said that mixing between Europeans was acceptable, but mixing Europeans with non-Europeans created “mixed-race” people. “We are willing to mix with each other, but we don’t want to become a people of mixed race,” Orban said. He added that Western European countries where this is considered acceptable “are no longer nations”. Orban, who won a fourth consecutive term as prime minister in April, has often used far-right rhetoric, especially since 2015, when he emerged as Europe’s fiercest opponent of welcoming refugees and migrants. His repeated attacks on Hungarian-born Jewish businessman and philanthropist George Soros have also been widely criticized as anti-Semitic. Orbán thrives on controversy and his anti-immigration stance, as well as regressive policies on LGBT rights, have made him a darling of the international right. In the coming days, he is scheduled to travel to Dallas, Texas, and deliver the keynote address at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an influential gathering of the American right. In May, Orbán spoke at a special CPAC meeting in Hungary when his speech referred to the “great replacement,” a conspiracy theory popular on the far right that claims there is a liberal conspiracy to change the ethnic makeup of the US and European countries through immigration . While Orbán’s statements have often drawn criticism from liberals, the reaction to Orbán’s race-mixing words has been more intense than usual. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences condemned the comments, calling them “scientifically unfounded” and “dangerous ideology”, while Hungary’s chief rabbi, Róbert Frölich, also criticized the speech. I told Victor about the things I found objectionable before. I yelled at him sometimes. But Zsuzsa Hegedüs, a former councillor, had never crossed that line Hegedüs said she does not believe Orbán is racist and has defended him in the past against claims of anti-Semitism, she said. For some time, he had been concerned about the prime minister’s “illiberal turn” but felt the recent speech crossed the line. “I told Victor about the things I found unacceptable in the past. I yelled at him sometimes. But he’s never crossed that line before. It was really a Nazi speech,” he said. Many international politicians also spoke in disgust of the speech. “Racism is a poisonous political invention. There should be no place for this in Europe where our strength comes from diversity,” said European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans. US anti-Semitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt criticized Orbán’s “use of rhetoric that clearly evokes Nazi racial ideology”. Dani Dayan, the president of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial center in Jerusalem, also drew parallels with the Nazi past. “The statement made by the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, is very reminiscent of ideologies associated with the horrific atrocities of the Holocaust. The Holocaust teaches us that we must deal with such expressions quickly and directly,” Dayan said. In a sign that the backlash may have blindsided Orbán, he took the unusual step of backtracking somewhat, insisting he was not talking about mixing races, but cultures. “I don’t want Hungary to become a country of immigrants. It’s not about race for us. It’s about cultural differences,” he said during a visit to Vienna last Thursday. “Sometimes I can be ambiguous. We are talking about cultural position. We are proud of what Hungary has achieved in the fight against racism,” he added. As Orbán heads to CPAC, it’s unlikely that many on the American right will have been bothered by his speech. “The far right represents an increasingly present segment of the Republican community. The party has changed so radically. Ideas like the Great Replacement Theory have become mainstream for them,” Rick Wilson, a former Republican general and co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Donald Trump political action committee, said in an interview. Orban had a warm relationship with Trump, and praise for Hungary’s “illiberal democracy” appeared frequently on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight. Carlson spent a week in Hungary last year and painted the country as a conservative paradise. “Orbán is seen as anti-European, anti-immigration, anti-elite and anti-awakening, which appeals to Republicans and conservatives,” said Tim Miller, former political director of Republican Voters Against Trump. Matt Schlapp, president of CPAC, was asked last week if Orbán was still invited to open the rally. “Let us hear the man speak. We’ll see what he says. And if people disagree with something he says, they should bring it up,” he said. In Hungary, Orbán supporters in the pro-government media are working hard to label criticism of the speech as partisan and irrelevant. A recent article in the pro-Orbán Magyar Nemzet accused Hegedüs of “deliberate lies, dishonesty and betrayal”. Other media used offensive language about her or downplayed her importance. Hegedüs said she was unaware of the criticism and claimed she had received many personal messages of support from people within Orbán’s Fidesz party who were also concerned about the speech. “That’s reassuring,” he said. Hegedüs said she had “accepted” Orbán’s clarification that he was referring to the mixing of cultures, not races, and believed the issue was closed. However, she has no plans to withdraw her resignation and said that with a potential economic downturn around the corner, the inflammatory rhetoric was particularly irresponsible. “In times when people are desperate … it’s much easier to mobilize the haters,” he said.