Hungarian Prime Minister Orban calls on US conservatives to unite the global right

Right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Thursday that “globalists can drive everyone to hell” as he called on American conservatives to unite in a global fight against progressives.

The nationalist leader was the guest of honor at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas, where his stirring speech was met with thunderous applause.

“We have seen what kind of future the globalist ruling class has to offer, but we have a different future in mind. The globalists can all go to hell,” he told a cheering crowd.

“We have to recapture the institutions in Washington and in Brussels. We must find friends and allies. We must coordinate the movement of our troops because we face the same challenge.”

CPAC, an annual gathering of conservative activists from the United States, is also expected from former US President Donald Trump, who has spoken admiringly of Orban.

Orban’s authoritarian populism ranks with the crowd at CPAC, but resonates less well with NATO and in Europe, where his support for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin puts him at odds with other leaders.

His appearance on Thursday comes after he provoked a storm with a speech that European politicians called “blatantly racist”.

Orban sparked fury after warning against mixing with “non-Europeans” in Romania’s Transylvania region, home to a Hungarian community.

“We don’t want to become mixed-race peoples,” Orban said.

Orban, known for his anti-migrant policies, has made similar remarks in the past but without using the Hungarian term for “race,” according to experts.

Speaking English in Dallas, he avoided the word but returned to a familiar subject that evoked Europe’s religious heritage.

“When you separate Western civilization from its Judeo-Christian heritage, the worst things in history happen,” he told the audience.

“The horrors of Nazism and Communism happened because some western states in continental Europe abandoned their Christian values.”