Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban provoked a seething response from his fellow European Union members when he decided to close Hungary’s borders and passed legislation to ban foreign influence peddling funded by billionaire financier George Soros. And earlier this month, the European Parliament voted to trigger Article 7 proceedings against Hungary for “undermining democratic values and the rule of law.” Indeed, because he’s steadfastly refused to accept migrants in according with the policies of unelected bureaucrats in Brussels, Orban has been labeled a tyrant, despite Orban’s Fidesz Party securing a majority in the country’s most recent Parliamentary elections.
Despite the “extreme bullying” to which Orban has been subjected by his European colleagues, he traveled to Brussels earlier this month to face his accusers ahead of the European Parliament vote. After Orban delivered his address to the room, MEP Nigel Farage, who famously helped orchestrate the UK’s vote to leave the EU back in 2016, stepped up to say a few words in Orban’s defense.
“Thank God there’s at least one European leader who is willing to stand up for his principles, his nation, his culture and his people in the face of such extreme bullying.”
Farage argued that the vote conjured memories of Soviet-era show trials, and likened the EU Parliament to a bunch of unelected bureaucrats hypocritically lecturing Orban – whose party holds an outright majority – about democratic principles. Specifically, Farage targeted Frans Timmermans, the unelected Dutch diplomat serving as first Vice President of the European Commission. Timmermans and the rest of the Commission backed the EU Parliament in condemning Hungary for allegedly mistreating migrants and Roma communities, arguing that “democracy and the rule of law cannot exist without the protection of fundamental human rights.”
“All I can say, and I’m sure for Hungarians of a certain age, today will have brought back many dark memories. You’re here at a show trial where a bunch of political nonentities get up and point the finger and scream enjoying themselves with their afternoon hate, and the chief prosecutor, the commissar that comes from the unelected government, he has the audacity he has the audacity to lecture you on democracy. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Farage then compared Article 7 to an updated version of the Brezhnev Doctrine – the Cold War-era policy of overweening Soviet influence that led to the USSR’s brutal repression of the Hungarian Spring uprising.
“What is really happening here, Mr. Orban, is they’re just updating the Brezhnev Doctrine of limited sovereignty there’s no point pretending in this union you’re independent there’s no point pretending you’ve run your own country. An Article 7 is the new method of adopting that. They want to strip you of your voting rights. They want to stop giving you European funding and all of it because you have the audacity to stand up to George Soros, the man who was poured $15 billion all over the world in trying to break down the nation-states to get rid of our traditional forms of democracy.”
The authorization of Article 7 proceedings isn’t just an insult to Hungary – it is a direct insult to Orban personally, Farage said. He then suggested that Hungary follow in the UK’s footsteps and abandon the Union entirely.
“Mr. Orban you keep saying you want to stay a member of this European Union but it’s not just your country that’s been insulted today – you’ve been insulted. Come and join the Brexit club – you’ll love it.”
Watch the full speech below:
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