Orban defends Trump and warns of “the evil that afflicts Western democracies” | outside

“We see strange things today in the Western democratic world,” Orban said during the press conference. “We have to be careful, because there is a large Western democracy that – if I understand correctly – wants to obstruct a presidential candidate by putting judicial obstacles in his way,” the nationalist leader said, referring to his American ally Donald Trump.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Trump cannot run for president because of his actions during the 2020 election.

Orban also spoke about Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party. “I see another equally important country where a party with significant parliamentary representation is under scrutiny,” he said.

In addition, the Hungarian Prime Minister expressed his reservations about the new Polish government’s decision to dismiss the entire management team of Polish Public Radio. The public media, controlled by the nationalist and populist PiS government (to which Orbán was close), was regularly accused of carrying partisan information and government propaganda and launching attacks on the opposition.

The Hungarian Prime Minister noted that if something like this happened in Hungary, “NATO forces may have already intervened.” Ironically, many independent Hungarian media outlets were also not invited to Orbán’s press conference.

The authoritarian policies of Orban, who has been in power continuously since 2010, are regularly criticized. The European Commission even froze €21 billion in funds allocated to Hungary last year because the country did not meet a number of basic rights conditions. Earlier this month, the Commission re-released €10 billion in cohesion funds to Hungary.