Hungary PM says Trump win ends 'politically correct' era
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of the EU's biggest supporters of Donald Trump, said Thursday that the US billionaire's election victory sounded the death knell for political correctness.
"We can return to true democracy, to honest talk, away from the crippling restraints of political correctness. We are living in great days and great times," the rightwinger said in Budapest.
"Western civilisation has managed to free itself from the captivity of an ideology," he said.
"The era of what we call 'liberal non-democracy', that we have been living in for the last 20 years, is over," he told a conference organised by the European Bank for Research and Development.
In July, Orban, 53, came out in favour of Trump, praising his policy proposals on immigration and security. Most of Europe's other leaders were highly sceptical and in some cases outright alarmed about the Republican.
Orban, who has long been accused of eroding democratic norms in EU and NATO member Hungary, was also one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump after his victory was confirmed on Wednesday.
"Congratulations. What a great news. Democracy is still alive," Orban wrote on his Facebook page in English.
By contrast, the combative Hungarian crossed swords several times with the administration of outgoing President Barack Obama over Washington's criticisms of his policies since coming to power in 2010.
In a 2014 speech, Obama included Hungary among countries where "endless regulations and overt intimidation increasingly target civil society" in a remark that prompted a government complaint to the US envoy in Budapest.
- 'A new start' -
Relations between Budapest and Washington soured again soon after when several unnamed Hungarian government officials were denied entry to the US over alleged corruption.
In 2011 while on a trip to Budapest as secretary of state Hillary Clinton -- later Trump's election rival -- also expressed concern over Hungary and warned Orban against dismantling democratic "checks and balances".
Orban has also clashed with Brussels over his refusal to accept any of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who arrived in Europe in 2015, seeing them as security threats and a danger to European Christian culture.
"Hungary has had its debates with the US, but with the Democratic Party not its people," Orban's chief of staff Janos Lazar told reporters Thursday.
"Hungary considers the new presidency as a new start, which can also be full of hope for the world," he said.