#viktor orbán

[gwydionmisha]

As with the similar folks in Türkiye. i believe people who come out for these protests are heroes.

#Viktor Orbán #Budapest #Pride #Hungary #News

[gregor-samsung]

“ La Guerra fredda aveva un senso. Fu una guerra ideologica in cui il vincitore, verosimilmente, avrebbe imposto al nemico sconfitto, per usare parole ormai screditate dal troppo uso, la propria filosofia e i propri valori. Può sembrare retorico, ma vi era in quello scontro fra giganti una certa nobiltà. Due grandi idee – la dittatura del proletariato e il capitalismo democratico – offrivano al mondo due strade diverse verso un futuro migliore. Le due diverse prospettive hanno creato speranze, attese, impegno e sacrifici che non sarebbe giusto ignorare. Oggi ogni traccia di nobiltà è scomparsa. Il comunismo è fallito e, come accade sempre in queste circostanze, la memoria collettiva ricorda soltanto le sue pagine peggiori: i massacri della fase rivoluzionaria, la fame ucraina, la persecuzione del clero, le purghe, i gulag, il lavoro coatto, i popoli trasferiti con la forza da una regione all’altra. La democrazia capitalista non è in migliori condizioni. Il trasferimento del potere economico dai produttori di beni ai produttori di denaro ha enormemente allargato il divario fra gli immensamente ricchi e i drammaticamente poveri. Il denaro governa le campagne elettorali. Le grandi piaghe della prima metà del Novecento – nazionalismo, militarismo, razzismo – si sono nuovamente aperte. Il linguaggio della competizione politica è diventato becero e volgare. Le convention americane sono diventate un circo equestre in cui i candidati esibiscono i muscoli della loro retorica. Il meritato riposo e un busto nel Pantheon della nazione, che attendevano gli uomini di Stato alla fine della loro carriera politica, sono stati sostituiti da posti nei consigli d’amministrazione, laute consulenze e conferenze generosamente retribuite (come i 225.000 dollari pagati da Goldman Sachs a Hillary Clinton per un dibattito dopo i suoi quattro anni al Dipartimento di Stato). Anziché affidarsi a leader saggi e prudenti, molti popoli sembrano preferire i demagoghi, i tribuni della plebe, i caudillos. Anche Putin appartiene per molti aspetti a un club frequentato da Erdoğan, Al Sisi, Orbán, Jaroslaw Kaczyński, Bibi Netanyahu, Xi Jinping, Lukašenko, per non parlare dei loro numerosi cugini in Africa e in Asia. Ma ha anche altre caratteristiche.

Deve governare un enorme spazio geografico popolato da una moltitudine di gruppi nazionali e religiosi. È il leader di un grande Paese che ha interessi legittimi e ambizioni comprensibili. È responsabile di una potenza che è anche un tassello indispensabile per l’amministrazione di un mondo caotico e pericoloso. Possiamo deplorare molti aspetti del suo carattere e della sua politica. Ma vedo sempre meno persone in Occidente che abbiano il diritto di impartirgli lezioni di democrazia. Occorrono 541 giorni per formare un governo in Belgio. Occorrono due elezioni politiche a distanza di sei mesi per formare un governo in Spagna. Occorrono tre commissioni bicamerali e due riforme costituzionali approvate dal Parlamento, ma sottoposte a referendum popolare, per cercare di modificare la costituzione in Italia. Nell’Unione Europea sono sempre più numerosi i cittadini che invocano il ritorno alle sovranità nazionali, ma in alcuni Stati nazionali (Belgio, Gran Bretagna, Spagna) la sovranità nazionale è contestata da regioni che chiedono il diritto di secessione. Mi chiedo: la democrazia è ancora un modello virtuoso che l’Europa delle democrazie malate e gli Stati Uniti delle sciagurate avventure mediorientali e del nuovo razzismo hanno il diritto di proporre alla Russia? “

Sergio Romano, Putin e la ricostruzione della grande Russia, Longanesi, 2016¹. [Libro elettronico]

#Vladimir Putin #Russia #leggere #citazioni #Putin e la ricostruzione della grande Russia #saggistica #saggi #Recep Tayyip Erdoğan #Viktor Orbán #Xi Jinping #Lukašenko #Aljaksandr Lukašėnka #Bibi Netanyahu #ideologia #democrazie #Abdel Fattah al-Sisi #Jaroslaw Kaczynski #Europa #Stati Uniti #dittatura del proletariato #Guerra fredda #demagogia #retorica #capitalismo democratico #Hillary Clinton #Ucraina #militarismo #nazionalismo #razzismo #Sergio Romano

[dadsinsuits]

Viktor Orbán

#suitdaddy #suiteddaddy #suit and tie #men in suits #silverfox #suitfetish #suit chub #bear chub #suited grandpa #suitedman #suit daddy #buisness suit #suitedmen #Hungarian man #Hungarian men #magyar #Magyarország #orbán viktor #Viktor Orbán #viktor orban

[older-is-better]

Viktor Orbán.

#viktor orbán

[tomorrowusa]

Thanks to Ukrainian drones, the Russian guided missile corvette Ivanovets is now sleeping with the fishes. BTW, great vid above! 🇺🇦❤️

Ukraine thought to have sunk Russian warship near occupied Crimea

Ukrainian forces are believed to have sunk the Russian Ivanovets warship near occupied Crimea in a sophisticated overnight attack by multiple sea drones, demonstrating Kyiv’s expanding power in the Black Sea. Ukraine’s military intelligence published a grainy video showing several sea drones attacking the Russian corvette, ending with three dramatic images showing it listing, exploding and sinking into the water. Ukraine said the boat had been sunk, as did leading Russian military bloggers. Hours later, western officials said they believed the warship had been destroyed in an attack that used long range uncrewed drones. [ ... ] Russia did not immediately comment on the incident, but a number of pro-Kremlin military bloggers close to Moscow confirmed that the Ivanovets warship was hit. [ ... ] Although Ukraine began the war with no navy, scuttling its only frigate to prevent it from falling into Russian hands, Kyiv has gradually pushed back on Moscow’s early dominance of the Black Sea through long range missile attacks and the innovative use of sea drones.

Considering that the Vermont National Guard probably has more military ships than Ukraine, the Ukrainian Navy now terrifies the Russian Black Sea fleet. There's little Russian presence in the western part of the sea these days.

The Ivanovets probably thought it was safe where it was anchored. It was in a body of water called Lake Donuzlav in occupied Crimea. Though it is more like a bay with a narrow opening to the Black Sea.

^^^ That opening is just 435 meters wide, a little over 4.5 US football fields. But Ukrainian sea drone pilots managed to navigate several of their kamikaze vessels into the bay without being detected up to that point.

The sinking of the Ivanovets is just one of several bits of good news for Ukraine in the past few days.

Putin toady Viktor Orbán, the homophobic leader of Turkey Hungary, was forced to back down from his threat to block €50 billion in aid to Ukraine.

EU agrees €50bn package for Ukraine as Viktor Orbán bows to pressure

A robust and united position among EU member states convinced Viktor Orbán to end his “blackmail” and support a €50bn (£43bn) funding package for Ukraine, European prime ministers have said. The Hungarian prime minister, who had been vowing to block the funds since December, performed one of the fastest U-turns seen at a leaders’ summit after six weeks of brinkmanship. There was relief that the deal was finally done but also a sense of fury among leaders who had been dragged to Brussels for the second time in as many months to try to get the package over the line after Orbán blocked the aid in December. The Finnish prime minister, Petteri Orpo, said: “Nobody can blackmail 26 countries of the EU. Our values were not for sale.” Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, who said he had “nothing nice” to say to the Hungarian prime minister, warned there would be no reward for Orbán or anyone who had tried to solicit “rotten compromises”.

Also, Dark Brandon strikes again! President Biden is using his discretionary powers as commander-in-chief to get some military aid to Ukraine while the House Putin Caucus at the direction of sex offender Donald Trump continues to block Biden's $61 billion aid package.

First Ecuador, Now Greece: Joe Biden Is Finding More And More Countries To Help Him Arm Ukraine

“Ring-trade.” Remember that term. Increasingly, it’s how U.S. president Joe Biden is arming Ukraine. He did it with Ecuador. Now he’s doing it with Greece, too. A ring-trade is, in essence, a circular swap. One country pays or arms a second country so the second country can arm a third country. Germany pioneered the ring-trade—Ringtausch—for supporting Ukraine, most notably giving to... The Czech Republic: 14 Leopard 2 tanks and an engineering vehicle in exchange for the Czech Republic having given to Ukraine potentially dozens of T-72 tanks; Greece: 40 Marder fighting vehicles so that Greece could donate to Ukraine 40 BMP-1 fighting vehicles; Slovakia: 15 Leopard 2A4s to compensate for 30 BVP-1 fighting vehicles Slovakia donated to Ukraine. Slovenia: 45 military-grade heavy trucks so that Slovenia would give to Ukraine 28 M-55S tanks. The United States with its greater stocks of old weapons eventually could surpass Germany as a ring-trader. And it has every reason to do so. For four months now, a small contingent of pro-Russia Republican lawmakers, led by the extremist speaker of the U.S. House Mike Johnson, has blocked $61 billion in new U.S. government funding for Ukraine’s war effort. In early January, Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa revealed in a radio interview that Ecuador would give to the United States “scrap” weapons in exchange for new weapons—worth $200 million—that the United States would provide at a later date. The United States then would donate the “scrap” to Ukraine. Some of that old hardware apparently shipped aboard an Antonov An-124 airlifter on Jan. 25. [ ... ] According to Greek newspaper Kathimerini and other media, the Biden administration offered the government in Athens three 87-foot Protector-class patrol boats, two Lockheed Martin C-130H airlifters, 10 Allison T56 turboprop engines for Lockheed P-3 patrol planes plus 60 M-2 Bradley fighting vehicles and a consignment of transport trucks. In exchange for this largess, the Americans want the Greeks to donate more weapons to the Ukrainians. “We continue to be interested in the defense capabilities that Greece could transfer or sell to Ukraine,” Blinken wrote. The Greek government reportedly already has earmarked old weapons for onward transfer to the government in Kyiv. As with Ecuador, the trade could involve air-defense equipment: S-300 and Hawk long-range missiles and launchers and Tor and Osa short-range missiles and launchers. This indirect U.S. support of Ukraine via ring-trades is necessary because, starting in October, Republicans in the U.S. Congress made it clear they probably never will approve additional direct military aid to Ukraine. [ ... ] [L]ook for Biden to get more creative as Republican intransigence persists. The president even could donate excess defense articles directly to Ukraine, and in large quantities, assuming Ukraine or some other country pays for shipping.

#invasion of ukraine #ivanovets #sea drones #russia's shrinking black sea fleet #lake donuzlav #group 13 #eu aid to ukraine #viktor orbán #joe biden #ring-trade #greece #ecuador #germany #stand with ukraine #russia's war of aggression #us house of representatives #house putin caucus #donald trump #vladimir putin #ивановец #владимир путин #путин хуйло #россия проигрывает войну #сокращающийся черноморский флот россии #геть з україни #головне управління розвідки #деокупація #україна переможе #слава україні! #героям слава!

[sugarpallos]

#viktor orbán #i had to do it to em

[partisan-by-default]

Like other autocrats and tyrants, Trump is engaging in an act of obvious psychological projection. He imagines himself to be the victim of some vast conspiracy, and this imagined victimhood becomes the justification for violence and other crimes against human decency and society.

Trump is actually threatening — or, more precisely, promising — to put his political opponents and others who dare to oppose him in prison, or to subject them to some even worse fate, if he manages to regain the presidency. These are themes that Trump and his acolytes have repeated during his presidency and beyond. The Jan. 6 insurrection and Trump's coup attempt were those evil desires partly translated into reality.

Trump has gone further of late, even telling his audiences where he would imprison these "enemies of the people". In a recent speech at the America First Agenda Summit, he promised to put "homeless people" and "drug addicts" in special camps as a way of removing them from the country's major cities. Once such camps were created, they would in all likelihood soon be used for political enemies as well. Fascists and other authoritarians find ways to disappear people as a matter of routine.

#viktor orbán

[kp777]

#viktor orbán #hungary #russia #vladimir putin

[cultml]

#viktor orbán

[quotesfrommyreading]

Unlike many other bigotries, anti-Semitism is not merely a social prejudice; it is a conspiracy theory about how the world operates. This addled outlook is what united the Texas gunman, a Muslim, with the 2018 shooter at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, a white supremacist who sought to stanch the flow of Muslims into America. It is a worldview shared by Louis Farrakhan, the Black hate preacher, and David Duke, the former KKK grand wizard. And it is a political orientation that has been expressed by the self-styled Christian conservative leader of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, and Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran’s Islamic theocracy.

The fevered fantasy of Jewish domination is incredibly malleable, which makes it incredibly attractive. If Jews are responsible for every perceived problem, then people with entirely opposite ideals can adopt it. And thanks to centuries of material blaming the world’s ills on the world’s Jews, conspiracy theorists seeking a scapegoat for their sorrows inevitably discover that the invisible hand of their oppressor belongs to an invisible Jew.

  —  Colleyville Crisis: We're All Hostages to Anti-Semitism

#yair rosenberg #colleyville crisis: we're all hostages to anti-semitism #antisemitism #politics #sociology #psychology #history #conspiracy theories #colleyville synagogue hostage crisis #malik akram #louis farrakhan #david duke #viktor orbán #ali khamenei

[gwydionmisha]

US ambassador to host Pride party in defiance of Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ+ PM

#Pride #Hungary #Viktor Orbán #David Pressman #News

[posttexasstressdisorder]

#hungary #donald trump #viktor orbán #europe #world news

[frenchpsychiatrymuderedmycnut]

Italy Set to Elect Right-Wing Euroskeptic Prime Minister

OF COURSE NONE OF US HAVE TO BOTHER CARING ANYMORE ABOUT ANYTHING…IF THERE IS A RECIPROCAL LAUNCH OF NUKES…IT’S OVER…AND ALL OVER BLOODY ZELENSKY AND THE UKRAINE…JUST SAYING…

A LOT OF THE HATE IS ANTI-LGBT. POLAND HAS GONE DRACONIAN ON LGBT POPULATION.

EUROPE IS A CONTINENT WITH CENTURIES OF BLOOD ON ITS HANDS.

THIS HATE WILL CANCEL OUT EVERYONE FUCKING WITH POPULIST AGENDAS.

FOREIGN BORN POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, WOKE CULTURES AND CANCEL CULTURES LOOSING GROUND IN EUROPE

OF COURSE NONE OF US HAVE TO BOTHER CARING ANYMORE ABOUT ANYTHING…IF THERE IS A RECIPROCAL LAUNCH OF NUKES…IT’S OVER…AND ALL OVER BLOODY ZELENSKY AND THE UKRAINE…JUST SAYING…

————

Adolf Hitler

Joseph Stalin

Francisco Franco

OF COURSE NONE OF US HAVE TO BOTHER CARING ANYMORE ABOUT ANYTHING…IF THERE IS A RECIPROCAL LAUNCH OF NUKES…IT’S OVER…AND ALL OVER BLOODY ZELENSKY AND THE UKRAINE…JUST SAYING…

—————

Giorgia Meloni

Viktor Orbán

Jarosław Kaczyński

Marine Le Pen

Jimmie Åkesson

Santiago Abascal

Geert Wilders

OF COURSE NONE OF US HAVE TO BOTHER CARING ANYMORE ABOUT ANYTHING…IF THERE IS A RECIPROCAL LAUNCH OF NUKES…IT’S OVER…AND ALL OVER BLOODY ZELENSKY AND THE UKRAINE…JUST SAYING…

#frenchpsychiatrymuderedmycnut #Viktor Orbán #Jarosław Kaczyński #Marine Le Pen #Jimmie Åkesson #Santiago Abascal #Geert Wilders #Giorgia Meloni

[tomorrowusa]

If a candidate says he wants to be a dictator, pals around with dictators, and quotes dictators – don't be surprised when he acts like a dictator if elected.

It's not some "woke liberal" who is blowing the whistle on Trump's dictator lust but retired General John Kelly – Trump’s former chief of staff.

To Donald Trump, Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán is “fantastic,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping is “brilliant,” North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is “an OK guy,” and, most alarmingly, he allegedly said Adolf Hitler “did some good things,” a worldview that would reverse decades-old US foreign policy in a second term should he win November’s presidential election, multiple former senior advisers told CNN. “He thought Putin was an OK guy and Kim was an OK guy — that we had pushed North Korea into a corner,” retired Gen. John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff, told me. “To him, it was like we were goading these guys. ‘If we didn’t have NATO, then Putin wouldn’t be doing these things.’” Trump’s lavish praise for Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán while hosting him at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, just days after all but sealing the Republican nomination on Super Tuesday, shows it’s a worldview he’s doubling down on. “There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orbán,” Trump said, adding, “He’s the boss and he’s a great leader, fantastic leader. In Europe and around the world, they respect him.” The former president’s admiration for autocrats has been reported on before, but in comments by Trump recounted to me for my new book, “The Return of Great Powers,” out Tuesday, Kelly and others who served under Trump give new insight into why they warn that a man who consistently praises autocratic leaders opposed to US interests is ill-suited to lead the country in the Great Power clashes that could be coming, telling me they believe that the root of his admiration for these figures is that he envies their power. [ ... ] “He’s not a tough guy by any means, but in fact quite the opposite,” Kelly said. “But that’s how he envisions himself.”

Trump REALLY admires Hitler.

“It’s pretty hard to believe he missed the Holocaust, though, and pretty hard to understand how he missed the 400,000 American GIs that were killed in the European theater,” Kelly told me. “But I think it’s more, again, the tough guy thing.” Trump’s admiration for Hitler went further than the German leader’s economic policies, according to Kelly. Trump also expressed admiration for Hitler’s hold on senior Nazi officers. Trump lamented that Hitler, as Kelly recounted, maintained his senior staff’s “loyalty,” while Trump himself often did not. “He would ask about the loyalty issues and about how, when I pointed out to him the German generals as a group were not loyal to him, and in fact tried to assassinate him a few times, and he didn’t know that,” Kelly recalled. “He truly believed, when he brought us generals in, that we would be loyal — that we would do anything he wanted us to do,” Kelly told me.

Trump apparently thought being around generals would make him look strong and that his strength would ensure their loyalty to him.

But all of those generals except Mike Flynn, the QAnon nut who lasted 24 days, were more loyal to the US Constitution than many of Trump's staff with no military background.

Our senior military officers who grew up and were trained in a constitutional democracy have a radically different background from Hitler's generals who mostly were commissioned under the Kaiser and often came from Junker families.

Among other things, Trump just doesn't get constitutionalism.

Trump’s former advisers say he most consistently lavished praise on Russian President Vladimir Putin. (John) Bolton recalled a comment from Trump during the 2018 NATO summit. Following sometimes tense encounters with NATO leaders, Trump said his meeting with Putin, the leader of America’s great power adversary, “may be the easiest of them all. Who would think?” “He says to the press as he goes out to the helicopter, ‘I think the easiest meeting might be with Vladimir Putin. Who would ever think that?’” recalled Bolton. “There’s an answer to that question. Only one person. You. You are the only person who would think that. The shrinks can make of that what they will, but I think it was ‘I’m a big guy. They’re big guys. I wish I could act like they do.’” “My theory on why he likes the dictators so much is that’s who he is,” Kelly said. “Every incoming president is shocked that they actually have so little power without going to the Congress, which is a good thing. It’s Civics 101, separation of powers, three equal branches of government. But in his case, he was shocked that he didn’t have dictatorial-type powers to send US forces places or to move money around within the budget. And he looked at Putin and Xi and that nutcase in North Korea as people who were like him in terms of being a tough guy.”

Donald Trump and Joe Biden have now won enough delegates to secure their parties' nominations. But you can count only on the latter to leave office when his term is over if elected.

#donald trump #trump's dictator love #dictators #adolph hitler #nazis #viktor orbán #vladimir putin #xi jinping #kim jong-un #john kelly #john bolton #constitutional democracy #jim sciutto #election 2024 #vote blue no matter who

[filosofablogger]

Orbán Is Teaching, Republicans Are All Ears

Orbán Is Teaching, Republicans Are All Ears

On Thursday, the Republicans began their annual CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) meeting … in the nation of Hungary, not here in the U.S.  Not even in a democratic nation, but in one ruled by an authoritarian, Viktor Orbán.  One might ask why they would go to the extra trouble, extra expense, and spend the extra time holding their meetings more than 4,000 miles away.  And I might…

View On WordPress

#CPAC #fascism #Matt Schlapp #the former guy #Tucker Carlson #Viktor Orbán

[warningsine]

BRUSSELS — A gathering of Europe’s hard-right elite in Brussels descended into chaos on Tuesday as police moved to shut down the conference, barricading the venue’s entrance and causing widespread outrage.

The National Conservatism Conference had been set to welcome Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán and U.K. politician Nigel Farage over the next two days, but law enforcement arrived two hours into the event at the Claridge venue, near the European Quarter, to inform organizers that the shindig would be terminated.

“The authorities decided to shut the event due to possibility of public disorder,” a police officer heard by POLITICO told one of the organizers. The shutters had already come down on the venue where Brexit architect Farage was due to give a keynote speech at 11 a.m.

When he got on stage, as drama continue to unfold outside the venue, Farage lambasted the Brussels authorities as “simply monstrous” for attempting to cancel the event. “I knew I wouldn’t be welcome back in Brussels,” the former MEP chafed.

The Brexit champion wasn’t alone in his stinging critiques of the city’s bureaucracy.

“It’s really something out of a tinpot dictatorship,” Frank Füredi, one of the organizers from right-wing think tank MCC Brussels, which is co-sponsoring the event, told POLITICO. “They’re trying to use a technical reason to make a political point. They told the owner that if it doesn’t get shut down they’re gonna cut the electricity.”

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, a Flemish liberal, also said: “What happened at the Claridge today is unacceptable. Municipal autonomy is a cornerstone of our democracy but can never overrule the Belgian constitution guaranteeing the freedom of speech and peaceful assembly since 1830. Banning political meetings is unconstitutional. Full stop.”

Food smuggled in

About an hour after they initially arrived, the police returned at 12:45 p.m. to hand an official order to the event’s local organizer, Anthony Gilland, chief of staff at MCC Brussels. The police gave him 15 minutes to read and sign the three-page document.

“One of the reasons that we’ve been given, it’s not the only reason, is that there will be a counterprotest this afternoon around about 5 p.m. and the idea is that the police are not able to protect free speech at this event,” he said.

By 2 p.m. the standoff had lasted for nearly three hours. Some attendees had left, but most stuck around to listen to the remaining panelists.

The Claridge event space was already the conference’s third venue, after its first space — Concert Noble — turned them away under pressure from the socialist mayor of Brussels, Philippe Close, while the liberal mayor of Etterbeek pressured the luxury Sofitel hotel to cancel it on the second attempt.

Emir Kir, the mayor of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode where the Claridge is situated, told POLITICO earlier by email that he would “immediately take measures to ban” the event.

At one point the Belgian-Tunisian owner of the venue, Lassaad Ben Yaghlane, 59, said a compromise had been reached with the local mayor and the police to allow the event to continue.

Police said they would stop new arrivals from entering the venue, but promised not to stop the conference by force or remove people already inside.

Speakers including French provocateur Eric Zemmour, who was slated to give a keynote speech at 4 p.m., and French MEP Patricia Chagnon were among those whom police stopped from entering the venue. 

While police created a barricade outside the venue, conference-goers took a break to enjoy appetizers including carpaccio with asparagus, smoked salmon and guacamole bowls.

According to Füredi, the conference organizers had to contact a new catering service after the original one was prevented from coming to the venue.

Organizers were eventually able to “smuggle in” food for dinner, after lunch plans were thwarted by the police siege.

Orbán rages

Farage paid tribute to the Claridge owner, calling him a “brave Tunisian man” who stood up to the “bullyboys” that wanted to shut down the conference.

Ben Yaghlane defended the right of the conference organizers to hold their event, even though he said he did not share their values.

“Today we are in front of a classic dilemma, it repeats in every decade: whether we choose to speak to each other and not to judge each other, or we decide to … widen conflicts and the reasons to separate,” he said.

The police told organizers there was a risk of protesters causing civil disorder at the venue later in the afternoon. Gilland told the police they would challenge the mayor’s decision in court to keep the show on the road.

Orbán, who is scheduled to speak at the conference on Wednesday, criticized the “leftist liberal leadership” of Brussels during a press conference at the European Parliament. 

“The plan is that we come and occupy Brussels,” he said.

A spokesperson for the U.K.’s conservative prime minister, Rishi Sunak, also seized on the dispute, saying “these reports are extremely disturbing.”

“The prime minister is a strong supporter and advocate for free speech. He is very clear that canceling events or no-platforming speakers is damaging to free speech and democracy,” the spokesperson said. “He is an advocate of free speech even when you may disagree.”

Guests had started pouring into the venue early Tuesday, lining up for coffee, croissants and seats ahead of the packed conference. The venue was crammed with blue and black suits, a blend of academics, students and officials from around the world.

Organizers boasted of their victory over woke leaders in Brussels, but their exhilaration was short-lived. Around 11 a.m., shortly before Farage was scheduled to speak, word of the police presence began to spread through the venue.

Other scheduled attendees included right-wing darlings Suella Braverman, the former U.K. home secretary, and Eric Zemmour, a far-right firebrand who ran to be president of France in 2022.

The NatCon conference is organized by the Edmund Burke Foundation, a right-wing think tank.

“I understand the police are very, very keen to close this down. If they’re going to close it down they can do it with me on stage,” Farage said in his final remarks. The audience cheered and hollered.

#Viktor Orbán #brussels #belgium #news tag