Hungary's Orban says EU elections are decisive for migration

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban waves to the audience after delivering his address on the national holiday marking the 62nd anniversary of the outbreak of the Hungarian revolution and war of independence against communist rule and the Soviet Union in 1956 at the House of Terror in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018. (Tamas Kovacs/MTI via AP)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban delivers his address on the national holiday marking the 62nd anniversary of the outbreak of the Hungarian revolution and war of independence against the Soviet Union in 1956, at the House of Terror in Budapest, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018. Hungary's prime minister has repeated his claims that the leadership of the European Union wants to create a "European empire" which would subjugate the continent's nation-states. Viktor Orban, speaking Tuesday during commemorations of the brief 1956 anti-Soviet revolution, called on voters to reject globalism and support "the culture of patriotism" in the 2019 European Parliament elections. Orban said that if immigration continues, "autochthonous Europeans" will become a minority. (Szilard Koszticsak/MTI via AP)

BUDAPEST, Hungary – Hungary's prime minister on Tuesday repeated claims that the leadership of the European Union wants to create a "European empire" which would subjugate the continent's nation-states. He also accused European leaders of deliberately failing to stop the flows of migrants into the continent.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, speaking during commemorations of a short-lived 1956 anti-Soviet revolution, called on voters to reject globalism and support "the culture of patriotism" in the May 2019 European Parliament elections.

"The European Parliament elections in May will decide in which direction Europe's wagon will turn," Orban told a large crowd outside the House of Terror Museum. "We should reject the ideology of globalism and support instead the culture of patriotism."

Orban also said that if immigration continues, "autochthonous Europeans" would become a minority and "terror will become part of life in large cities."

"Those who want to knead a European empire out of the European Union are all, without exception, pro-immigration," Orban said. "They deliberately failed to use their huge military and police might, they deliberately failed to defend Europe from the masses of migrants."

Since 2015, Orban has made increasingly strict anti-immigration policies his principal political focus, which helped his Fidesz party win a third consecutive two-thirds majority in April's elections.

Opposition parties, at their own commemorative event, called on Hungary to join the European Public Prosecutor's Office to better fight state corruption.

"The current Hungarian government is not sustained by an armed power with limitless replacements or by the endless line of Russian tanks," said Akos Hadhazy, an independent opposition lawmaker. "It is sustained by a practically unimaginable amount of money, the European Union funds which can be stolen without limits."

Hungary and Poland are among the few EU members who reject joining the EU prosecutor's office, calling it a matter of national sovereignty. Hadhazy said that he was confident that the one million signatures he aims to gather on a petition plus pressure from the EU will compel Orban's government to join the office.

The brief but bloody 1956 uprising began on the afternoon of Oct. 23 with a student march in Budapest in solidarity with reforms in Poland. Over 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet troops were killed and 200,000 Hungarian refugees fled the country, most toward Austria. Hundreds of revolutionaries, including Prime Minister Imre Nagy, were executed in the wake of the uprising and the establishment of a Soviet-backed government led by Janos Kadar.