The Hungarian Prime Minister, the Ultraconservator Viktor Orbán, has celebrated the decision of the US President, Donald Trump, of, and has announced that he will follow his “example” and will do the same in Hungary. “Antifa is a terrorist organization. They hit peaceful people in Hungary and then went to the European Parliament to give us lessons about the rule of law. It is time for Hungary to follow the example of the United States and declare them terrorists,” he said in his usual weekly interview on Fridays. “We applaud President Donald Trump for taking the initiative and calling them for what they are: terrorists,” he added. In the conversation he has also taken the opportunity to load against the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, with which he has hooked this week in an open confrontation in X.
Trump, model and ally of Orbán, announced his decision this Wednesday, a week after the “antifa” serves to define a broad movement of leftist ideology, anti -fascist, which lacks leader or structure, so in the American case, as in the Hungarian, it is not clear against which organizations they plan to act or how.
Orbán, however, has a specific person in the spotlight. By stating: “They hit peaceful people in Hungary and then went to the European Parliament,” he refers, without appointing her, the Italian activist Iilaria Salis, now Eurodiputada. To clear all doubt, Zoltán Kovács, international spokesman for the Hungarian government, has directly mentioned it in a message from the social network X, accompanying his message with a video with the intervention of Orbán and his announcement.
Salis, 41, was accused in 2023 of assaulting three participants of a neo -Nazi march in Hungary and was sent to a preventive detention in a maximum security prison, a decision that caused great rejection and media stir in Italy. His appearance before a court in Budapest, chained with feet and hands, generated tensions even with the government of the Ultra Giorgia Meloni, a natural ally of Orbán in Europe.
In June 2024, the Italian teacher – who denied the accusations – was already in house arrest after the protests of the Italian Executive, when. As Eurodiputada obtained immunity and Hungary he had to leave her free.
The Hungarian government formally asked Eurocamara in October 2024 to raise the immunity of salt. As she explained in her account in X, next Tuesday the Commission of Legal Affairs of the European Parliament will discuss the request of Orbán, which could be voted on October 7 in the plenary of Strasbourg. “I sincerely hope that Parliament decides not to give in to authoritarianism or before the new aggressive nationalisms of Orbán’s style, and that defends democracy and the rule of law,” he has trusted.
Dispute with Sweden
“The Swedish prime minister has been attacking Hungary for some time with their statements. In general, Swedes are pleasant people, with many heroes, beautiful women, music, etc. but, in reality, Swedish policy is extremely aggressive and condescending,” said Orbán also in his radio interview this Friday. The Ultra Prime Minister has painted the Nordic country as a dangerous and violent place, where “minors are used to commit violent crimes, some of which end in murder.” “The Swedish government and the prime minister give lessons to Hungary about the rule of law when they cannot guarantee the safety of their own citizens,” he said.
Orbán has been painting an image of decay of the western world dyed by violence, which he attributes to migrants. In his war against immigration of Muslim origin and against European values, which he considers from the left, he has taken advantage of the Swedish case ,. On Monday he already started sharing messages in the same terms as in the conversation of this Friday, and since then, he has dedicated a good part of his activity in networks to load against his Swedish counterpart, Kristersson, of the moderate party (center -right).
“They are scandalous lies. It is not surprising coming from the man who is dismantling the rule of law in his own country,” the Swedish politician replied to the first orbán envies. On Wednesday, in a more extensive letter, he suggested that the Hungarian leader is nervous because he has elections next year and sees real possibilities of losing power. He also reminded him of Sweden’s solidarity with Hungary in his fight against Soviet oppression and showed his strangeness because the leader now meets “with the leader of the same country that crushed the struggle for the freedom of his compatriots in 1956 and that today attacks his neighboring country, Ukraine”, referring to Vladimir Putin, who has Orbán as an ally in Europe.
“Hungary and the West are not strengthened by closing the doors to their European friends or attacking each other and what really separates us from barbarism: democracy and the rule of law,” Kristerson also replied.
