Hungary’s Viktor Orbán faces growing backlash over ‘race mixing’ comments – POLITICO

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán continued to face a backlash Monday from different politicians and non secular teams over his controversial remarks over the weekend denouncing “combined race” nations.

In a speech at a summer time occasion in Romania on Saturday, the Hungarian far-right prime minister stated migration has break up Europe and the West in two, arguing that international locations the place European and non-European individuals mingle “are not nations: they’re nothing greater than a conglomeration of peoples.”

“Within the Carpathian Basin, we’re not combined race,” Orbán stated, referring to a area shared by Romania and Hungary. “We’re prepared to combine with each other, however we don’t need to turn out to be combined race.”

The feedback sparked condemnation from non secular teams, with Hungary’s largest Jewish group saying on Monday it had referred to as for a gathering with Orbán, whereas the Central European department of the American Jewish Committee warned his phrases recalled “harmful ideologies in historical past.”

Romanian Overseas Minister Bogdan Aurescu on Monday slammed Orbán’s statements as “unacceptable.”

“It’s regrettable that such concepts are propagated from the territory of Romania, within the complicated international context that all of us must face, particularly since our official positions are completely different from these theses,” Aurescu instructed information web site Digi24. “It’s clear that we can not agree with them.”

Former Hungarian Prime Minister and opposition chief Ferenc Gyurcsány referred to as Orbán a “tragedy,” whereas Romanian MEP Alin Mituța of the Renew Europe group stated the speech was “purely delusional and dangerous.”

In his speech, Orbán additionally criticized Western international locations’ navy help for Ukraine in opposition to Russia. He referred to as for a renewed give attention to peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow as an alternative of sanctioning Russia and giving weapons to Ukraine.

The Hungarian authorities has developed an in depth relationship with the Kremlin over the previous decade, and whereas Budapest has signed off on successive packages of EU sanctions in opposition to Moscow because the battle began, Hungary additionally blocked a sixth bundle of penalties for weeks in a bid to water down the measures.

Aurescu stated “Romania doesn’t share these inappropriate views [about the war], which we distance ourselves from, as a result of they have an effect on European solidarity relating to motion in help of Ukraine.”