Hungary's Orbán claims the EU seeks to topple his government as his hostility toward it grows
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has claimed in a speech that the European Union seeks to topple his government and install a puppet regime
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán claimed in a speech on Wednesday that the European Union seeks to topple his government and install a puppet regime in the Central European country, an escalation of open hostility toward the bloc by the member considered to have the warmest ties with Russia.
Speaking before thousands of supporters in Budapest, Orbán was marking Hungary’s national holiday commemorating a 1956 armed uprising against Soviet repression that began in the capital and spread across the country before being crushed by the Red Army.
Orbán has often used the holiday, which looms large in Hungarians' memory as a freedom fight against foreign domination, to draw parallels between past occupying forces like the Soviet Union and Ottoman Empire and the EU of today.
“Independent Hungarian politics are unacceptable to Brussels,” Orbán told the crowd, referring to the EU headquarters in Belgium. “That is why they announced in Brussels that they will get rid of Hungary’s national government. They also announced that they wanted to hang a Brussels puppet government around the country’s neck.”
