Hungary DEFIANT against Brussels: Thousands join rally in support of EU rebel Viktor Orban
HUNGARY'S nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has told a huge rally in Budapest that they must fight the “external forces and international powers” who want to allow mass immigration into their country.
Orban demands EU pays back £450m for protecting bloc's borders
Mr Orban addressed tens of thousands of supporters who braved the rain today to back the 54-year-old, who is seeking a third consecutive term when elections take place on April 8.
Many migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa who travelled across southeast Europe in 2015 passed through Hungary, which has responded with a border fence and strong opposition to EU proposals to settle migrants in member states under a quota system.
Mr Orban told the rally: “External forces and international powers want to force all this (immigration) on us ... with the help of their henchmen here in Hungary, and they see the coming election as a good opportunity for this."
“Those who do not stop immigration at their borders will be lost.
“They (external powers) want to take our country ... they want to force us to give it up voluntarily over a few decades to strangers arriving from other continents who do not ... respect our culture, our laws and our way of life.”
Mr Orban’s supporters were joined by tens of thousands of supporters backing Poland’s ruling conservative PiS party - another administration at odds with Brussels over migration and Warsaw’s efforts to tighten controls over courts and media.
The Hungarian Prime Minister told the rally that it was also a demonstration of support for Poland, adding that it had been joined by Slovakia, the Czech Republic, the United States, Austria and Italy in opposition to immigration.
Supporters walked across a bridge spanning the Danube river in Budapest carrying banners with the slogans “Hungary protects Europe” and “We are with you Viktor”.
Imre Csordas, 51, wearing 16th-century Hungarian costume, said: "He (Viktor Orban) is not afraid of EU's big powers and dares to swim against the current.”
Supporters were brought into the Hungarian capital from the countryside in fleets of buses, which coincided with the country’s national holiday commemorating the 1848 revolution.