Conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has won his third consecutive term in Hungary’s general election on Sunday.
Advertisement
Soon after the election victory, the ruling Fidesz party said it could now push on with legislation to crack down on organizations promoting migrant rights after parliament is formed at the end of April. The Polish and Czech leaders are also critical of the European Union and are taking tough policies against refugees and immigrants. When, in 1988, Orban formed the Fidesz party-which stands for “Alliance for Young Democrats”-Soros was a major backer, even financing Black Box, a group that interviewed Orban in its series of political documentaries”.
The university agreed a deal with a USA college to meet new conditions imposed by Hungary, but the government has yet to sign the agreement.
Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert wouldn’t comment Monday on the tone of Orban’s campaign.
Addressing ecstatic, flag-waving supporters in Budapest late on Sunday, Mr Orban said the “destiny-deciding victory” gave Hungarians “the opportunity to defend themselves and to defend Hungary”. They view the strongman as Europe’s most accomplished progenitor of the type of illiberal democracy to which they aspire.
“During your previous term in office, your steadfast assurances and commitments to protect Hungarian Jewry and their heritage were warmly welcomed, and were an anchor to us in these turbulent political times, ” he added.
In his controversial speech, Orban said that Europe faces a divide between nations of the East and the West, which he called an “immigrant zone, a mixed population world that heads in a direction different from ours”. The critics of Prime Minister Orban say he has pushed the country in an authoritarian way and that it is fueling xenophobia with its anti-immigrant policy and its sharp words towards migrants.
During the worldwide migrant crisis, Orban ordered a double razor wire fence to be built to keep people out of Hungary.
He also warned that the migrants would halt Hungary’s economic development, would weaken government support for rural areas, would threaten the safety of women and girls, and would turn the capital of Budapest into an “unrecognizable” city. “For me, these two relations will be the favoured relations in the future”.
“Just as a democratic society is unimaginable without civil society organisations, human rights defenders are essential for a strong civil society”, said the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which is regularly criticised by the government.
That president’s twin brother, now Poland’s PiS leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, endorsed Orban while attending the ceremony commemorating the plane crash.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and her Dutch counterpart Geert Wilders were quick to tweet their congratulations once results became clear.
In the election campaign, Orban drove home the far right’s xenophobic, anti-immigration pledges about protecting natives from an onslaught of unsafe and impure outsiders, especially Muslims.
Advertisement
The opposition’s campaign had focused on corruption and deteriorating public services, as well as the government’s failure to stem a high level of emigration which has seen the country’s population fall under the symbolic 10 million mark.
