Hungarian Prime Minister Expresses Support for Donald Trump

Viktor Orban says U.S. presidential candidate’s views on fighting terrorism would help Europe

By MARGIT FEHER
Updated July 23, 2016 11:48 a.m. ET
109 COMMENTS

BUDAPEST—Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday expressed support for U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, citing Mr. Trump’s views on fighting terrorism.

Mr. Orban said Mr. Trump’s proposals for the U.S. would also help Europe solve its security issues in wake of recent terrorist attacks.

The European Union’s current political leadership has failed and should undergo a major revamp to stem the rising fear and insecurity among the European people, Mr. Orban said in Baile Tusnad, a town in Romania’s Transylvania region, which has a large number of ethnic Hungarians.

The Hungarian premier’s annual Baile Tusnad speech gained international interest in 2014, when he rejected liberalism and expressed admiration for “illiberal democracies,” listing Turkey or Russia, among other countries.

Since Mr. Orban came into power with a landslide victory in the 2010 general elections, the Obama administration has criticized Hungary several times for alleged state corruption, failure to observe freedom of religion and shortcomings in following the rule of law.

“The EU is incapable of defending its own citizens, its own external borders, unable to hold together its community—as reflected in the exit of the United Kingdom. What else is needed to state that Europe’s current political leadership has failed?” Mr. Orban said.

The U.K. voted in a referendum last month to leave the bloc.

The EU made mistakes when it increased the powers of the European Parliament, let the EU’s executive, the European Commission, act over the heads of the council of prime ministers, and made decisions without the full agreement of all member states, Mr. Orban said.

Europe has been shaken by a string of recent terrorist attacks in France, Belgium and Germany.

To restore the feeling of security in Europe, the EU should toughen its handling the inflow of migrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan, Mr. Orban said.

“Migration is a threat. It increases terrorism and crime. Massive migration changes Europe’s cultural profile. Massive migration dismantles national cultures. If this standpoint fails to become a European stance, we won’t be able to act,” he said.

Mr. Orban is vastly popular at home due to his tough line on migration. Hungary built a razor-wire fence on parts of its southern border last year to stem the inflow of migrants on their way to the more developed parts of Europe. Since then, the number of migrants entering Hungary has fallen dramatically.

Europe should listen to Mr. Trump’s proposals on fighting terrorism, Mr. Orban said.

“I am not a campaign activist of Donald Trump. I would have never reckoned that I would come to the thought that he would be better for Europe and Hungary among the possibilities available. But I have listened to the candidate and he made three proposals to fight terrorism. As a European, I couldn’t have phrased better what Europe needs,” Mr. Orban said.

The EU must establish the best intelligence service globally through cooperation of member countries’ intelligence services, he said.

“The second thing this decent presidential candidate said is that the export of democracy must be stopped. I myself couldn’t have said that any better,” Mr. Orban said.

The Orban government is trying to foster good relations with the Republicans, said Attila Juhasz, chief political analyst at Political Capital, a Hungarian liberal think tank.

“Should the U.S. become more self-centered [under its new president], its criticism of Hungary would become less open,” Mr. Juhasz said.

In Saturday’s speech, Mr. Orban confirmed his euroskeptic and populist views and was aiming at positioning himself and Hungary as a leader of a group of central European countries also comprising Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Mr. Juhasz said.

“Mr. Orban may be aspiring to fill the euroskeptic spot vacated in the EU by the U.K.’s exit,” Mr. Juhasz added.

As a result of putting the idea of democracy before stability, western countries have destabilized Libya, Syria and Iraq, leading to a mass migration of people from there toward Europe, Mr. Orban said.

The Hungarian leader indicated that Turkey is another region where stability overwrites the issue of democracy.

“The issue of human rights there is not indifferent to us, it’s still a country that wants to join the EU. But the most important is that it stays stable because if it doesn’t, then several tens of millions of people would pour on us,” Mr. Orban said.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/hungaria...ump-1469280755

World | Sat Jul 23, 2016 1:23pm BST

Hungary's Orban likes what he hears of 'valiant' Trump's security plans

BUDAPEST | BY MARTON DUNAI

http://s2.reutersmedia.net/resources...=LYNXNPEC6M0CD
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives on the second day of the EU Summit in Brussels,
Belgium, June 29, 2016.REUTERS/FRANCOIS LENOIR/FILE PHOTO

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday said Donald Trump had proposed security policies that Europe should take to heart to solve a security crisis he blames on uncontrolled immigration.

Speaking at a summer university in Baile Tusnad, Romania, the Hungarian leader tied increased security threats to increased migration and cited Trump's proposals at the Republican National Convention to combat terrorism.

Orban is one of Europe's most outspoken politicians and has in the past upset fellow members of the European Union over policy.

Most recently he has taken a tough stance on Europe's migrant crisis, objecting to EU resettlement plans and calling for a razor wire fence to be built along his country's southern border.

Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president on Thursday with a speech that outlined an increased intelligence effort, an end to a "failed policy of nation-building and regime change" and a total suspension of immigration from states "compromised by terrorism."

He wants a wall to be built along the U.S. border with Mexico.

Orban sought to buttress his own security proposals with Trump's points.

"I am not a Donald Trump campaigner," he said in the televised speech. "I never thought I would ever entertain the thought that, of the open options, he (Trump) would be better for Europe and for Hungary.

"But I listened to the candidate and I must tell you he made three proposals to combat terrorism. And as a European I could have hardly articulated better what Europe needs."

Orban has accused the EU of weakness in the face of a what he sees as a fundamental threat from more than a million migrants who arrived on the continent last year, with hundreds of thousands following them this year.

For the most part, the migrants are fleeing the war in Syria.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has called Orban "Viktator" - a pun on Viktor and dictator - as a way of putting down the Hungarian's views.

But Orban also has supporters. Slovak premier Robert Fico, joined Orban's court challenge of the EU's mandatory migrant resettlement quotas.

EXPORTING DEMOCRACY

Tapping into Trump's proposals to create "the best intelligence-gathering organisation in the world," Orban said that Europe too needs to create a network of national intelligence agencies that ranks with the world's best.

He then took aim at some of his EU colleagues.

"The second thing, said this valiant American presidential candidate, is to abandon the policy of exporting democracy. I could not have said it more precisely."

Orban said Western countries acted recklessly to remove the undemocratic but stable regimes in Libya, Syria and Iraq without guaranteeing stability in the aftermath, exposing Europe to a mass wave of migration.

Worse, he said, instead of supporting the regimes that try to control the civil-war-torn countries in North Africa and the Middle East, Europe criticises them for democratic shortfalls.

"If we keep prioritising democracy over stability in regions where we are unlikely to succeed with that, we will create instability, not democracy."

(Reporting by Marton Dunai Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

Hungary's Orban likes what he hears of 'valiant' Trump's security plans | Reuters