Orban compares Europe project to Hitler’s plans for world domination

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has likened the EU’s European unification project to Adolf Hitler’s plans for world domination. Since the end of the Roman Empire, attempts have been made to restore the empire to its territory, the right-wing populist said Friday in the western Hungarian town of Veszprem. “Byzantium, Charlemagne, (the German Emperor) Otto, Napoleon and Hitler – they all dreamed of European unity, each on different grounds.”

Today is no different, Orban added. “The independent national existence and the idea of ​​empire are present at the same time. National culture and European values. Sovereignty and – as they put it in Brussels – the “ever closer union”. The latter term – in English: the “ever closer union” to create – is in the preamble of the EU basic treaty of Lisbon, which applies to all member states.

Hungary joined the EU in 2004. Orban, who has ruled his country in a more or less authoritarian manner since 2010, has repeatedly opposed the obligations arising from EU membership, for example in the area of ​​asylum policy or the rule of law. At the same time, the Central European country receives significant EU support. Some of these funds are currently frozen because the EU sees their lawful and corruption-free use at risk given a judiciary that in some cases is no longer independent.

As a populist, Orban repeatedly berates the “Brussels bureaucrats”, comparing the EU to the former communist Soviet Union. Hungarian opposition leader Ferenc Gyurcsany said of the head of government’s derailment: “This person is sick.” Calling Hitler with the European idea is “a sick, disgusting thought,” Gyurcsany wrote on his Facebook page. (sda/dpa)