Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has shocked Brussels with his latest statements.
He told supporters on Saturday that the real threat to Hungary is not Russia but the European Union, as his nationalist party intensifies its anti-EU campaign ahead of national elections.
With just eight weeks until the April 12 vote, Orban and his Fidesz party are facing their most serious challenge since returning to power in 2010.
Most independent polls show Fidesz trailing the center-right Tisza party and its leader, Peter Magyar, even though Orban has campaigned on the unfounded claim that the EU would send Hungarians to their deaths in neighboring Ukraine if his party loses.
In his speech on Saturday, Orban compared the EU to the repressive Soviet regime that dominated Hungary for more than 40 years in the last century, and rejected the belief of many European leaders that Russian President Vladimir Putin poses a threat to the continent's security.
"We must get used to the idea that those who love freedom should not fear the East, but Brussels," he said, referring to the EU's de facto capital in Belgium.
"The spread of fear about Putin is primitive and not serious. Brussels, however, is a tangible reality and a source of imminent danger. This is the bitter truth and we will not tolerate it," he said.
Orban has been a staunch opponent of military and financial aid to Kiev since the launch of Russia's full-scale invasion almost four years ago, and has maintained close relations with Moscow.
In December, he said it was "unclear who attacked whom" when tens of thousands of Russian forces crossed Ukraine's borders in February 2022.
Hungary's government has long been at odds with the EU, which has frozen billions of euros in funding for Budapest over concerns that Orban has dismantled democratic institutions, weakened the independence of the judiciary and overseen widespread official corruption.
In return, Orbán has increasingly acted as an obstructionist in EU decision-making, regularly threatening to veto key policies, such as providing financial support to Ukraine.
As the elections approach, he has portrayed the Tisza party as a puppet created by the EU to overthrow his government and serve foreign interests, claims that Tisza has categorically denied.
Magyar, the party leader, has vowed to mend Hungary's strained relations with its Western allies, revive the stagnant economy and return the country to a more democratic path.
Film Hungarez per ne Shqiptaret eshte sinonim i filmave porno me kurva e rrospie te viteve 70te. Pse? Sepse ne Europe Hungarezet ishin pararoja e degjenerimit moral te njeriut. Thone qe Chengiz Khan mbarsi 2000 femra ne Hungari e cfare mund te prisni nga nje popullate bastarde!? Kam njohur prej tyre, konkluzioni, nuk ka me te pabese e moral. Le qe i ka mbarsur KGB i pushtuan Ruset ne 1956en e tani gezojne nipat e tyre.