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Orban waving at CPAC

Right-wing media spend a week rallying around Viktor Orbán – after he gave what his own aide called a “pure Nazi speech”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán spoke at CPAC about fighting back against progressive values days after giving a speech decrying “mixing” of races in Hungary

Written by Sophie Lawton & Justin Horowitz

Published 08/08/22 10:42 AM EDT

The Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas welcomed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on August 4 after he gave a recent speech disparaging the “mixing” of races in Hungary, which prompted a longtime aide to resign, calling it “pure Nazi speech.”

During his speech on Thursday at CPAC Dallas, which drew praise from right-wing media, Orbán claimed that “a Christian politician cannot be racist” and fearmongered about his longtime foe and fellow Hungarian George Soros, a liberal billionaire philanthropist. Orbán made thinly veiled comparisons of Soros, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, to Nazis, stating, “The horrors of Nazis and communism happened because some western states in continental Europe abandoned their Christian values, and today’s progressives are planning to do the same.”

Video file

Citation

From the August 4, 2022, livestream of CPAC Dallas 2022 uploaded to YouTube

The Prime Minister previously spoke at CPAC Hungary in Budapest, where he praised “friend” and ally Tucker Carlson, disparaged the “mainstream liberal media,” and promoted his aggressive anti-immigrant policies such as building a wall between Hungary and Serbia.

Orbán’s political director, Balázs Orbán (no relation), traveled to the U.S. with the prime minister and made appearances on multiple right-wing shows as part of a blanket propaganda campaign accompanying the speech. Balázs Orbán also published an opinion piece in Newsweek in which he called for conservatives in the U.S. and Hungary to unite in their efforts against “worrying demographic trends” and progressive ideas. 

During a pre-CPAC appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Balázs Orbán defended the prime minister’s anti-migrant policies and Hungary’s “Judeo Christian heritage” while footage of Carlson’s visit to Hungary’s border fence played. Carlson claimed during the interview that Hungary today is “basically America in 2005” and falsely claimed Hungary has a “more balanced, freer press than we have.”

Video file

Citation

From the August 3, 2022, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

Balázs Orbán also made an appearance on far-right conspiracy theorist Glenn Beck’s podcast, where Beck asked about the prime minister’s speech on “mixed races.” Balázs defended the controversial July speech by claiming that Hungary is culturally “an island” in Europe due to its difficult language and implied the translation of the prime minister’s speech into English was misconstrued. Balázs Orbán stated that the prime minister has been “talking about these issues since 2015, when we [Hungary] had the first big migration crisis.” He also repeated Viktor’s talking points that Hungary has no “race issues” and has “zero tolerance on antisemitism.”

Video file

Citation

From the August 4, 2022, edition of The Blaze's Glenn Beck Program

Rod Dreher, an American right-wing blogger who has been at the forefront of promoting Viktor Orbán’s regime to U.S. conservatives, spent time at CPAC tweeting quotes of Orbán’s speech and claiming the prime minister had a “huge” audience watching.  Earlier in the day, Dreher authored a piece for The American Conservative in which he wrote, “I believe American conservatives have a lot to learn from Orbán.” He then promoted the great replacement theory, touted by Orbán and U.S. right-wing pundits alike, stating, “You don't have to believe in the Great Replacement conspiracy -- I do not -- to recognize that this is happening all over western Europe” before describing “this” as “the mass migration of non-European peoples into Europe.” 

Orbán’s anti-migrant CPAC speech appeared to resonate with American right-wing media:

  • Far-right troll and Human Events podcast host Jack Posobiec appeared to support Orbán’s speech, tweeting out quotes. 
  • Posobiec and former Trump aide Steve Bannon posed for a picture with Orbán. 
  • The disinformation outlet The Epoch Times cheered on Orbán’s speech with a post on far-right social media website Gab. Gab is a haven for antisemites and extremists. 
  • Anti-choice outlet LifeSiteNews also celebrated Orbán’s speech with a post on Gab. 
  • RT (formerly Russia Today) published an article touting Orbán’s speech.
  • Conspiracy theory outlet Infowars reprinted the RT article on its website.
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