Hungary prime minister: 'Christianity is Europe's last hope'
Hungary's right-wing prime minister has said "Christianity is Europe's last hope" while accusing political leaders in Brussels, Berlin and Paris of paving the way for the "advance of Islam."
Viktor Orban made clear in his 20th annual state of the nation speech at the Royal Castle in Budapest that he was not prepared to fall in line with the UN and EU approach to migration.
Instead, he said Europe's leaders had "opened the way to the decline of Christian culture and the advance of Islam."
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Orban has been Hungary's prime minister since 2010 and is seeking a third consecutive term in the April elections.
His anti-immigration, anti-Islam message has put him at odds with other European leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has allowed large numbers of refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan into her country.
Europe has been largely divided between a more compassionate open door policy like Merkel's and the more defensive closed door approach seen with Orban.
As the migrant crisis made its way across the Mediterranean to Europe, Orban acted swiftly to erect a border barrier to stop them streaming over the Hungarian border and he has sought to crack down on civil society groups helping any migrants in the country.
In his address on Sunday, he claimed that Germany was being overwhelmed by migrants.
"Born Germans are being forced back from most large German cities, as migrants always occupy big cities first," he alleged, adding that Islam will soon "knock on Central Europe's door."
While his rhetoric and his policies may be putting him vastly at odds with western European countries, they are being well received at home and he is expected to maintain power when the April elections come round.
"Migration fits into a wider agenda about the protection of the Hungarian people," Andras Biro-Nagy, a politics lecturer at Corvinus University of Budapest, told The New York Times. "He's protecting us from everything."
