Hungary's Orban defends 'mixed race' remark, rebuked by adviser
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Loading... - Jude Baker
- 29 Jul 2022
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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday defended his weekend comments against creating "peoples of mixed-race," saying they represented a "cultural, civilizational standpoint."
"It sometimes happens that I speak in a way that can be misunderstood ... the position that I represent is a cultural, civilizational standpoint," Orban told a joint press conference with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer during a one-day visit to neighboring Austria.
Orban sparked a storm of criticism after he warned against mixing with "non-Europeans" in a speech in Romania's Transylvania region, home to a Hungarian community, last Saturday.
Nehammer said the issue had been "resolved ... amicably and in all clarity," adding his country "strongly condemned... any form of racism or anti-Semitism."
The International Auschwitz Committee has urged the European Union and Nehammer to distance themselves from "Orban's racist undertones."
Austria is the first EU country to host Orban for talks since he won a fourth straight mandate in an April landslide.
Besides the race row, the two leaders discussed migration and energy security amid tensions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Vienna sees itself "as an honest broker" and is anxious not to sideline Hungary, an Austrian official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on condition of anonymity. Read More…
