In his annual speech in Băile Tușnad, a Romanian city home to a large Hungarian community, Orbán warned that his country would not become more “mixed race” like in Western nations. He said it was good for the nations in the Carpathian basin to mix with each other, but not with “non-Europeans”. The comments crossed the line for one of his longtime allies, sociologist Zsuzsa Hegedüs, who on Tuesday resigned from her role as adviser on social inclusion, describing Orbán’s speech as “a pure Nazi text worthy of Goebbels.” Hegedüs said she was increasingly uncomfortable with the Hungarian prime minister’s “illiberal turn”, with the latest remarks prompting her to end their nearly 20-year friendship, according to Hungarian media. Orban responded in a statement, saying his government had a “zero tolerance policy for anti-Semitism and racism”. In addition to remarks described as “openly racist” by Hegedüs, Orbán also appeared to be indifferent to Nazi gas chambers when referring to the EU’s gas reduction plans for member states: “I don’t see how it will be implemented — although , as I understand it, the past shows us German know-how in this.” Zsuzsa Hegedüs, longtime ally of Orbán. resigned in protest at his speech, describing it as “a pure Nazi text worthy of Goebbels” © YouTube Orban’s comments were deemed “stupid and dangerous” by the International Auschwitz Committee of Holocaust Survivors, which urged European leaders to distance themselves from the Hungarian prime minister. Romania’s foreign minister also condemned the comments and said it was regrettable that they were made on Romanian soil. European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans, a former Dutch foreign minister, said on Twitter on Wednesday that “we are all different, our skin is different, our languages, our cultures, our beliefs. And yet we are all part of the same race, the human race. Racism is a poisonous political invention. There should be no place for this in Europe where our strength comes from diversity.” The backlash against Orban comes as Hungary, which is struggling with a sharp economic downturn, seeks to mend ties with Brussels in order to unlock €15 billion in EU pandemic recovery funds. Orban in recent weeks had agreed to concessions to fight corruption and wean the country off Russian energy imports. “I can’t imagine this helps Orbán’s case,” an EU diplomat said on Wednesday. “Hungary is increasingly isolated among the 27”. A Hungarian government spokesman tried to downplay the scandal, saying in a tweet that “the mainstream media elite is hyperventilating over some of Prime Minister Orbán’s hard lines on immigration and assimilation.” Orban is expected to speak next week at a rally of US conservatives in Texas. “Let’s hear the man speak,” Matt Schlapp, president of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), told Bloomberg. “We’ll see what he says. And if people disagree with something he says, they should say so.”
