Marine Le Pen held talks with PM Orbán – UPDATE

Ideological pressure within the European Union has become unprecedented, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Tuesday, after meeting Marine Le Pen, President of the French National Rally, in his office.

The European Commission has transformed itself from the guardian of the treaties into an ideological centre, with Poland and Hungary experiencing a “modernised form” of the Brezhnev doctrine in the European Union day by day, Orbán told a joint press conference.

“We were sad to establish that ideological pressure within the European Union has become stronger than ever,” he said, adding that migration and advocacy of open society have been promoted to a degree unseen before.

Under the Brezhnev doctrine, if a member state of the Soviet bloc deviated from the centrally determined ideology, the other member states had the right to intervene in its internal affairs, Orbán said.

Of course, a rule-of-law procedure is much less brutal than an intervention by Soviet tanks but it is still an intervention, he said. And this is what both Poland and Hungary are experiencing day by day, he said.

Over the past few years the European Parliament has made repeated attempts “to crucify” Hungary, Orbán said, expressing thanks to Le Pen and her party for standing up for Hungary on every occassion when it was exposed to such unfair attacks.

• read also: Hungary has defended itself and its culture, says Le Pen in Budapest

Orbán said they agreed that the EU was facing tough challenges, getting less competitive in the global economy and lacking adequate political influence and strength in the international arena. Nor is it able to withstand the pressure of migration, and keep soaring energy prices under control, he said.

Orbán said they opposed the emergence of any kind of European superstate.

Orbán and Le Pen established that traditional European party structures were transforming all over Europe, and that they wanted to cooperate in this process.

He insisted that there is a pressing need for the renewal of the European right wing and that Hungary’s ruling Fidesz has a vested interest in the emergence of a new party group.

Orbán said Fidesz has become “a political bachelor in Europe” because the European People’s Party “has to such an extent become ensnared by the mainstream left-wing ideology” that Fidesz had no longer any business in it.