Interview – Orbán expects 2017 to be “year of revolt”

Budapest (MTI) – The year 2017 will be characterised by a “rebellion” by the middle classes and nations that are “tied by political correctness”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview with news portal 888.hu posted on Thursday.

Orbán said he expected an “intellectual revolt against isolation and stigmatisation”, with upcoming elections in Germany, the Netherlands and France. He said it was because of a “middle class revolt” that in the US the “Clinton clan” lost the presidential election, and insisted that similar reasons were behind Brexit. In France, he said, “the neglected and vulnerable are seeking a way out and their helplessness will translate into political votes”.

Concerning the European Union, Orbán said that senior positions were occupied by “globalist-liberal forces representing a status quo”, seeking to build a European United States. “Christian, nationalist Europeans will have no say,” Orbán said, but added that global tendencies were not favourable for “Brussels dictating to nation states”. He vowed not to allow “Brussels to dictate energy prices or ban (Hungary’s) public utility cuts”. European leaders would not realise that governments “going against the will of the people” are “toppled one after the other”. “It is not the Hungarian government rebelling; it is the people, and the government represents what the people want,” Orbán said and added “this is in our genes; we are a nation of freedom fighters”.

From this time on, a “more distinct, cooler” politics will prevail, with “self-made characters” as politicians of his ruling Fidesz party or incoming US President Donald Trump.