Hungarian leader Viktor Orban's 'mixed race' speech condemned by ex-aide and Holocaust victims' group
By Rob Picheta and Boglarka Kosztolanyi, CNN
Updated 10:04 AM ET, Wed July 27, 2022
Orban during his election campaign in April, which resulted in a landslide victory.
(CNN)Hungary's hardline nationalist leader Viktor Orban is facing international condemnation after making remarks on race and multiculturalism that were slammed as a "pure Nazi text" by his longtime aide.
Zsuzsa Hegedus, who served as an adviser to Orban for two decades, quit Tuesday over what she called Orban's "illiberal turn," describing his comments in Romania on Saturday as a "pure Nazi text worthy of (Nazi propagandist) Goebbels," according to her resignation letter published by Hungarian outlet HVG.
He was also denounced by the International Auschwitz Committee after comments in the same speech that were interpreted as a joke about the use of gas chambers against Jewish people in Nazi Germany.
Orban told a crowd that Europeans do not want to mix with people from outside of the continent.
"This is why we have always fought: We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed race," Orban said.
He warned that "Islamic civilization" is "constantly moving towards Europe" and that in the future, "those whom we do not want to let in will have to be stopped at [Hungary's] western borders," regardless of the country's membership of the Schengen Area of open borders across 26 European countries.
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Hegedus, one of Orban's closest aides, said the speech contradicted her values and made her position untenable. She added that Orban's lurch toward authoritarianism during his 12-year stint as Hungary's Prime Minister had previously eroded her support.
Orban has received a groundswell of support among some American conservatives, and is still due to speak at next month's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) conference in Texas despite his Saturday remarks.
