Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s political director hit back against CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Wednesday for a segment the host did on Hungary he said was “yet another example of the Western liberal media’s deliberate efforts to spread misinformation about Hungary.”
(Article by Leah Barkoukis republished from
TownHall.com)
Zakaria took issue with the prime minister being invited to CPAC Texas this week and said conservatives should “distance themselves from his poisonous message.”
In particular, the CNN host focused on a recent speech Orban gave in Romania warning against mass migration and reportedly denouncing “mixed race” nations.
“It is clear-cut fake news to say that Prime Minister Orban talked about a ‘pure Hungarian race,’” Balazs Orban wrote in a letter to the CNN host. “He said the exact opposite by wittily explaining how we Hungarians are a mixture of different peoples, merged together in a ‘Hungaro-Pannonian sauce,’ creating a multiethnic environment. The Hungarian nation survived the past thousand years by successfully integrating different people who have been living in and outside the Carpathian Basin. What has always connected these people is their willingness to adapt to our customs, learn out language, adopt our religion, and have a firm support for the Judeo-Christian values on which our Western civilization is based. These values are the ones we aim to protect and fight for, and this is the reason our government rejects mass migration. We do this exclusively on a cultural and civilizational, and never a biological-racial basis.”
He also pushed back on Zakaria’s suggestion that Orban’s rhetoric is what “led to some of the harshest laws against Jews” in the past.
“The Hungarian government has zero tolerance for racism and anti-Semitism, which has been our firm policy for all of the past twelve years,” he said.
And as for the aide who reportedly quit over Orban’s Romania speech, the political director said there had been an update to the story CNN failed to include.
While he thanked Zakaria for drawing attention to Hungary, Balazs Orban said he wished it had been done in a more accurate manner.
“We are a small country, proud of our history and our national identity, and we care about liberty and national sovereignty,” he wrote. “Given our landlocked geographic position, we cannot afford to be ideologically driven in our foreign policy. We are a pragmatic nation with a strong common sense that rejects progressive ideologies. We want a society that is based on work, not government benefits. We oppose tax increases, we stand firm against mass migration and open borders, and we put family support at the heart of our policies to shape demographic trends. We are a freedom-loving people who are ready to fight for the values we hold dear. I understand why the Left would take issue with us, but if you disagree with our position, we should engage in debates instead of spreading false information on air.”
Fox News's Tucker Carlson explained the prime minister is "the most hated leader in the world" because
he has embraced strong families, national sovereignty, the principles upon which all thriving countries are based."
The host said the smears against Orban from Zakaria, who argued Hungary "is on its way to becoming Nazi Germany," were done "in the laziest possible terms."
"It's almost unbelievable that they aired something like that," he said.
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