Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday told a conference of US conservatives that the path to power required having their own media outlets, calling for shows like Tucker Carlson’s to be broadcast “24/7.”
Orban, recently elected to a fourth term, laid out a 12-point blueprint to achieving and consolidating power to a special meeting of the US Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), under the slogan “God, Homeland, Family,” held in Budapest.
Orban said that with his fourth electoral victory on April 3, Hungary had been “completely healed” of “progressive dominance.”
Photo: AFP
He suggested it was time for the right to join forces.
“We have to take back the institutions in Washington and Brussels. We must find allies in one another and coordinate the movements of our troops,” Orban said on the first day of the two-day conference.
He told Republicans in the Balna conference center on the banks of the Danube that media influence was one of the keys to success.
In Hungary, the prime minister and his allies have effective control of most media outlets in the nation, including state TV.
“Have your own media. It’s the only way to point out the insanity of the progressive left,” he said. “The problem is that the Western media is adjusted to the leftist viewpoint. Those who taught reporters in universities already had progressive leftist principles.”
He portrayed the US media as being dominated by Democrats, who he claimed were being “served” by CNN, the New York Times and others.
“Of course, the GOP has its media allies, but they can’t compete with the mainstream liberal media. My friend Tucker Carlson is the only one who puts himself out there,” he said. “His show is the most popular. What does it mean? It means programs like his should be broadcast day and night, or as you say, 24/7.”
Carlson had been billed as a key speaker at the CPAC conference, but the Fox News talk show host sent only a 38-second video message, in which he extolled Hungary under the Orban government as a model for the US.
“I can’t believe that you’re in Budapest and I am not,” he said. “What a wonderful country. And you know why you can tell it’s a wonderful country? Because the people who turned our country into a much less good place are hysterical when you point it out,” he said.
“The last thing they want is any kind of signpost to a better way, and Hungary certainly provides that,” Carlson added. “A free and decent and beautiful country that cares about its people, their families and the physical landscape.”
Journalists from international media outlets were denied access to the event, including the New Yorker, Vox Media, Vice News, Rolling Stone and the Associated Press, despite months of requests. The organizers either ignored their requests for accreditation or told them to “watch the event online.”
Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union that runs CPAC, said the Central-European country is the right place to start a conversation about Europe.
Orban’s 12-point action plan also included points on faith, “because the absence of faith is dangerous” and the importance in countering “LGBT-propaganda.” which was “still new in our country, but we have already destroyed it.”
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