Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has declared the end of his country’s European Union presidency as the beginning of a new era for Europe, marked by a global ideological and geopolitical struggle. He announced that the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House brings a new dawn, and that a “grand offensive can now begin” by patriotic forces in Europe to “occupy Brussels.”
Speaking at a conference in Budapest on Monday, January 20th, the conservative prime minister sharply criticised the EU for its woke ideology, claiming that liberal Western leaders have prioritised propaganda over economic productivity.
❗️@PM_ViktorOrban: Liberal politicians in the West have exchanged competitiveness and performance for the propaganda of diversity. They put competition and performance after being perceived to be on the right side of history and seemingly working for the right order in the world.… pic.twitter.com/IJgV9Oh05N
— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) January 20, 2025
Orbán argued that the European Union is “the sick man of Europe today,” unable to guarantee peace, security, and prosperity for its citizens, and struggles with illegal migration.
The prime minister linked the EU’s failures to what he described as hypocrisy and the dominance of a Brussels-based oligarchy. Brussels is detached from European citizens and hostile to national sovereignty, he said:
Brussels is kept under occupation by an oligarchy coordinated by the leftist-liberal and transatlantic elite. It is a power system. This is a regime which is not European but global. It is not a democracy but an oligarchy, and it is federal rather than based on the sovereignty of nation states. Even the blind can see that there is a united progressive liberal front stuffed with George Soros’s money facing us.
Sadly, while the EU is piling failure upon failure, Brussels institutions are constantly strengthening, and are attempting to take away further competences from member states. Orbán warned that “today, the goal of European integration is integration itself,” the creation of a supranational bureaucracy, and that sovereigntist and patriotic forces will continue to be attacked.
Orbán added that while the European Union is consumed by ideological distractions, it will be left behind in the global race for technological and economic dominance. He said that the global “big players” were already securing their spheres of influence, and cited the Ukraine war, the tensions in the South China Sea, and debates over Greenland and Taiwan as evidence of geopolitical realignment.
They want to assert their rights over the spheres of influence they deem necessary for their security. This is why the Russia-Ukraine war centers on Ukraine’s NATO membership, which the Russians are determined to—and will—prevent at all cost. This is why places like Greenland, Canada, and Panama are popping up on the international political sphere’s agenda, and this is why the South China Sea and the fate of Taiwan is in the daily news.
🌍 @PM_ViktorOrban: We are living in the years of a changing of world order, the years of the rise of the East, of Asia. The world order as we have known it, the Western, or more precisely the Anglo-Saxon-dominated world order, is over.
❗️The world's major powers and centers of… pic.twitter.com/4ZSuwdPnYK— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) January 20, 2025
Orbán derided Brussels for isolating itself from its key partners: alienating the United States by demonising Donald Trump, creating tensions with China by declaring it a systemic rival, and severing ties with Russia without securing viable alternatives for energy security.
The PM’s vision for the future involves a more confrontational approach to the EU, utilising all available means to challenge the “system in Brussels.” He believes that Hungary, as a champion of national sovereignty, will play a key role in this struggle for the future of Europe, the “offensive that aims to occupy Brussels.” He emphasised that his party had played a role in establishing the Patriots for Europe political group—the third largest in the European Parliament (EP)—to represent sovereignty-focused nations. In conclusion, Hungary’s PM declared:
The Western world now has a patriotic, pro-peace, anti-migration, pro-family president in Washington. In just a few hours, even the sun will shine differently over Brussels. A new president in America, a large EP group of patriots in Brussels, great enthusiasm, and seasoned patriots who love their homeland. The grand offensive can now begin. I hereby launch the second phase of the operation to occupy Brussels.
