Hungary’s Orbán, facing opposition surge, promises crackdown in speech laden with conspiracy theory

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s populist prime minister Saturday vowed to rid his country of those he claims work for the interests of foreign powers, saying in a conspiracy theory-laden speech that his right-wing government will eliminate a global “shadow army” that serves the European Union and a “liberal American empire.”

Meanwhile, tens of thousands gathered in central Budapest in a show of strength against the long-serving prime minister, and in support of a new political force that aims to bring an end to Orbán’s rule and his economic system in elections next year.

The dueling demonstrations, which coincided with a national holiday commemorating Hungary’s 1848 revolution against the Habsburg Empire, came as the Central European country struggles with an inflation and cost of living crisis that have helped fuel growing dissatisfaction with Orbán and his autocratic style of governance.

That dissatisfaction has coalesced around Péter Magyar and his upstart Tisza party, which polls show are neck and neck or even several points ahead of Orbán’s Fidesz party with around a year to go before elections.

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Magyar’s supporters stood in the rain Saturday as the opposition leader pledged to bring an end to what he views as an entrenched system of corruption, and called on Hungarians to form a broad coalition against Orbán’s government.

“They look down on and exploit the Hungarian people, stun and divide them, and turn them against each other. In the meantime, they laugh arrogantly in our faces,” Magyar said.

Earlier in the day, Orbán told a group of several thousand select supporters that his government in the coming weeks will uproot media outlets and other organizations that have received funding from abroad, and compared such groups to insects.

“After today’s festive gathering comes the Easter cleaning. The bugs have overwintered,” Orbán said. “We will dismantle the financial machine that has used corrupt dollars to buy politicians, judges, journalists, pseudo-NGOs and political activists. We will eliminate the entire shadow army.”

Orbán, in power since 2010, has used the March 15 celebration in recent years as a podium from which to launch increasingly hostile harangues against the EU, to which Hungary has belonged since 2004. He has often compared the bloc to the Soviet Union, which occupied and repressed Hungary for nearly five decades in the 20th century, and pledged to “occupy” the halls of power in Europe.

Now, after the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump, the Hungarian leader has accelerated his longstanding efforts to crack down on critics such as media outlets, civil rights and anti-corruption groups, which he says have undermined Hungary’s sovereignty by receiving financial assistance from international donors.

Orbán, a Trump ally, has applauded the U.S. administration’s actions to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, claiming, with no evidence, that it was used to fund liberal causes in Hungary aimed at toppling his government.

He has promised a reckoning for groups that have benefited from funding by USAID, saying they would be eliminated in Hungary and face “legal consequences.”

This week, Orbán’s Fidesz party proposed amendments to Hungary’s constitution that would allow for Hungarian dual citizens to have their citizenship suspended and be deported from the country if they are deemed to threaten Hungary’s sovereignty or national security.

Another amendment appeared to target the LGBTQ+ community. Orbán’s party has said the annual Budapest Pride event would be banned in public starting this year.

On Saturday, Orbán, a firm opponent of immigration, echoed the conspiratorial “great replacement theory,” a baseless, racist hypothesis which suggests there is a global plot to diminish the influence of white people.

“The battle today is actually being fought for the soul of the Western world,” Orbán said. “The empire wants to mix and then replace the indigenous people of Europe with invading masses arriving from foreign civilizations.”

In another baseless assertion, he also claimed “the empire” that has provided economic and military assistance to Ukraine as it fights off Russia’s invasion in fact seeks to “colonize” the embattled country.

“The instrument of colonization is war. The rulers of Europe decided that Ukraine should continue the war, whatever it costs,” he said.

Orbán repeated his call for the EU to abandon the process of eventually bringing Ukraine into the bloc, and said he would issue a poll for Hungarians to decide whether they think Kyiv should gain EU membership.

Magyar, a former Fidesz insider who split with Orbán, has in the last year built an opposition movement that aims to defeat the Hungarian leader in national elections scheduled for next year. He has focused on Hungary’s cost-of-living crisis and what he says is deep-seated corruption among ruling party elites.