Hungary’s Orban bemoans liberal ‘virus’ at CPAC conference

In his inaugural speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Budapest on Thursday, Hungary’s populist prime minister called liberalism a “virus” and described a worldwide right-wing movement fighting “progressive elites.”

At CPAC Hungary, Viktor Orban spoke about “woke culture,” transgender and LGBTQ+ rights, migration, and children’s education.

The two-day conference, Hungary’s second in two years, included “Make Kids Not War” and “No Country for Woke Men” portions. The Danube River meeting hall’s entryway read “No Woke Zone.”

After getting a standing ovation, Orban said Hungary had become “world-famous” for its hard-line migration and cultural policies and gave attendees a formula for right-wing policies at home.

Orban told his international audience to address migration, gender, and war in their own nations.

Hungary is a conservative policy laboratory. “Hungary is where we defeated the progressives and liberals and caused a conservative Christian political turn,” Orban stated.
Orban’s advocacy of “illiberal democracy” has raised fears in the EU and abroad about Hungary’s slide into authoritarianism. He defends European Christendom against Muslim migrants, progressives, and the “LGBTQ lobby.”

His right-wing Fidesz party outlawed media depicting homosexuality or sex reassignment for under-18s in 2021. School sex education programs, films, and ads for minors were prohibited from discussing homosexuality.

On Thursday, Orban claimed that liberalism degraded nations, causing the West to fall behind Asia in economic and demographic metrics.

He stated the awakened movement and gender ideology are just like Communism and Marxism. “They artificially divided the nation into minorities to cause conflict.”

U.S. right-wingers embraced Orban again at CPAC Hungary. He told CPAC’s national convention in Dallas last summer to “take back the institutions in Washington and Brussels” and win next year’s U.S. elections.

Orban was the first European politician to support former President Donald Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns. On Thursday, Orban claimed he was certain that “if President Trump were president now, there would be no war affecting Ukraine and Europe today.”

“Come back, Mr. President, make America great again, and bring us peace!” he urged to loud applause.

Despite months of requests, the Associated Press and other international news organizations were denied accreditation to cover CPAC Hungary in 2022.

In his opening remarks, CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp said that CPAC in the U.S. had decided to “go Hungarian” and decide “who is a journalist and who is not a journalist” when selecting media sources for their events.

Since 2010, Orban has transformed Hungary’s media. His administration has been accused of limiting press freedoms and democratic checks and balances.

After being fired from Fox News in April, Tucker Carlson made a brief video appearance on Thursday.

Carlson wished he were in Budapest. I’ll join you if I’m fired. However, Godspeed.”