Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs This article was originally published in Hungarian
“There is always an empire that is trying to take away the freedom of the Hungarians, and right now it is the one in Brussels,” Viktor Orban said in a speech on Saturday.
Hungary’s prime minister on Saturday vowed to rid his country of those he claims work for the interests of foreign powers, saying his right-wing government will eliminate a global “shadow army” serving the European Union and a “liberal American empire”. In a public address, which coincided with a national holiday commemorating Hungary’s 1848 revolution against Habsburg rule, Viktor Orbán told a group of several thousand supporters that Hungary in the coming weeks will uproot media outlets and other organisations that have received funding from abroad.“After today’s festive gathering comes the Easter cleaning. The bugs have overwintered,” Orbán said. “We will dismantle the financial machine that has used corrupt dollars to buy politicians, judges, journalists, pseudo-NGOs and political activists. We will eliminate the entire shadow army.” Orbán, in power since 2010, has used the 15 March celebration in recent years as a podium from which to launch increasingly hostile words against the EU.”There is always an empire that is trying to take away the freedom of the Hungarians, and right now it is the one in Brussels. Brussels is abusing its power, just as Vienna did in the past. They want to rule over us, just as the governors of the Viennese court did in the past,” he claimed.Hungary and Austria were the two states that formed the Habsburg-led Austro-Hungarian Empire, which ruled significant parts of central, eastern and southeastern Europe between the 18th and early 19th centuries.Orbán said that one task remained, to defend Hungary against Brussels’ attacks. “Brussels” has, he claimed, “jumped headlong into the Russian-Ukrainian war”. “We did not jump into the war with Brussels, the empire does not want to help, but to colonise, the means of this is war, it will cost what it costs, and then Ukraine will gain EU membership.”Orbán said there was only one answer: “European Union, but without Ukraine.” Groups benefitting from USAID funding to ‘face consequences’?Recently, the Hungarian leader has accelerated his longstanding efforts to crack down on critics such as media outlets, civil rights and anti-corruption groups, which he says have undermined Hungary’s sovereignty by receiving financial assistance from international donors. Orbán, an ally of US President Donald Trump, has applauded the US administration’s actions to dismantle the US Agency for International Development, claiming, with no evidence, that it was used to fund liberal causes in Hungary aimed at toppling his government. He has promised that groups that have benefited from funding by USAID would be eliminated in Hungary and face “legal consequences”. This week, Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party proposed amendments to Hungary’s constitution that would allow Hungarian dual citizens to have their citizenship suspended and be deported from the country if they threaten its sovereignty or national security. On Saturday, Orbán, a firm opponent of immigration, also echoed the conspiratorial “great replacement theory,” which suggests there is a global plot to diminish the influence of white people. “The battle today is actually being fought for the soul of the Western world,” Orbán said. “The empire wants to mix and then replace the indigenous people of Europe with invading masses arriving from foreign civilizations.”
