Hungarian PM Orban Controversially Claims EU Aims to Overthrow His Government

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed that the European Union is seeking to overthrow his government and install its own ‘puppet regime’ amid Hungary's warmest ties with Russia, AP reports.

He made the remarks publicly the day before, addressing thousands of people in Budapest during Hungary's national holiday commemorating the 1956 armed uprising against Soviet repression that began in the capital and spread across the country before being brutally crushed by the Red Army.

Prime Minister Orbán has often used the holiday, which is remembered by Hungarians as a struggle for freedom against foreign domination, to draw parallels between past occupying forces such as the Soviet Union and the Ottoman Empire and the current European Union.

‘An independent Hungarian policy is unacceptable to Brussels,’ Orban told the crowd.

He was referring to the EU headquarters in Belgium.

‘That is why Brussels has announced that they will get rid of the Hungarian national government. They also announced that they want to hang the Brussels puppet government around the country's neck.’

As usual, Orban did not provide any evidence to support his claims. There was no immediate public reaction from the EU.

Orban broke with other EU leaders in calling for an immediate ceasefire and peace talks in Ukraine, prompting critics to suggest that he was protecting Russian interests and turning his back on his EU and NATO partners.

He said, without providing evidence, that the EU plans to allow Ukrainian troops to be stationed in Hungary after a future victory ‘to guarantee the security of the whole of Europe’.

The Hungarian prime minister has had many quarrels with the bloc in the past, especially over the war in Ukraine. Hungary has regularly blocked, postponed or weakened EU efforts to assist Ukraine and slowed down sanctions against Russia, as well as taking a hostile stance towards Ukraine while rapprochement with official Russia.

As a result, the EU has denied billions in financial support to Hungary over its alleged violations of the rule of law, while some bloc lawmakers have repeatedly proposed to strip Hungary of its voting rights due to its backsliding on democracy. In 2022, the EU Parliament declared that Hungary could no longer be considered a democratic country.