The country wants more rangers, not genders, Viktor Orban told a Texas rally
Viktor Orban © Aurelien Meunier / Getty Images
Hungarians have decided they do not need any more genders, but would like to see “more Chuck Norris,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a US crowd on Thursday.
Addressing this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held in Dallas, Texas, Orban touched upon a range of his signature issues, including immigration, globalism, and woke culture. “[Hungarians] decided we don’t need more genders — we need more rangers,” Orban said.
“Less drag queens and more Chuck Norris!” he added, referring to the famous American martial artist and actor.
The Hungarian prime minister delivered his remarks to rally the crowd ahead of the upcoming speech of former US President Donald Trump scheduled for Saturday. On Tuesday, Orban visited Trump at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Describing himself as an “old-fashioned freedom fighter,” Orban urged his largely Republican audience to “unite forces” against globalists, especially the “army” of Hungarian-born businessman George Soros, adding that progressive liberals did not want him to deliver this message.
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The Hungarian PM also derided what he called the “leftish media.”
“I can already see tomorrow’s headlines: far-right European racist, anti-Semite strongman, the Trojan horse of Putin holds speech at the conservative conference,” he said, adding that his adversaries would do everything “to drive a wedge” between him and other people. “They hate me and slander me and my country as they hate you and slander you,” Orban declared.
Amid the EU states, Hungary is a vocal critic of the bloc’s policy of reducing or banning imports of Russian fossil fuel. Hungary was the only one of the EU’s 27 members to oppose the plan. Declaring it “simply impossible” to go without Russian energy, Budapest agreed to purchase an extra 700 million cubic meters of Russian gas.
Orban also commented on the recent controversy over his speech in Romania, in which he had said that Hungarians did not want to become a mixed race. The PM reiterated that he had always pursued a “zero-tolerance policy on racism and anti-Semitism,” castigating the people who accuse Hungarians of embracing this mindset as “idiots.” Orban added that a “Christian politician cannot be racist.”
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Staying on the subject of Christianity, he noted that Americans and Hungarians share the same values, which may be a solution to many global problems.
“The horrors of Nazis and communists happened because some Western states in continental Europe abandoned that Christian values, and today’s progressives are planning to do the same. They want to give up on Western values and create a new world, a post-Western world. Who is going to stop them if we don’t?” he asked.
Orban’s promises to build an “illiberal” democracy in the middle of Europe, as well as his anti-LGBTQ and anti-immigrant rhetoric, have drawn a lot of public criticism. Earlier this month, he lashed out at the European Union, arguing Brussels does not dictate European affairs.
“Brussels is not our boss. We are an independent, sovereign Hungarian nation. We make decisions together. If they’re not good for us, we’ll tell them. If they are not good and we can prevent them, the common decision will not be made,” he reiterated at the time.
