CPAC Welcoming Orbán at Dallas Summit Days After ‘Pure Nazi’ Speech

With right-wing officials suggesting there is not yet enough evidence of Hungarian authoritarian Viktor Orbán’s racist views despite his recent speech which has drawn comparisons to Nazi propaganda, the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the U.S. is moving forward with plans to host the prime minister next week.

“Let’s listen to the man speak,” Matt Schlapp, chair of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), said Tuesday, ahead of the group’s summit scheduled to take place in Dallas next week. “We’ll see what he says.”

CPAC’s welcoming of Orbán shows that his “racist speech [is] welcomed there,” said MSNBC columnist Ruth Ben-Ghiat.

Speaking to supporters in Romania last weekend, Orbán said Hungarians “do not want to become a mixed race” and that countries where Europeans and non-Europeans live amongst each other are no longer nations. He added that a “flood” of migrants and asylum-seekers is being “forced” on Hungarians.

Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu called Orbán’s comments “unacceptable” and the prime minister’s long-time adviser, Zsuzsa Hegedus, announced her resignation from his government over what she called the “pure Nazi” speech.

“I don’t know how you didn’t notice that the speech you delivered is a purely Nazi diatribe worthy of Joseph Goebbels,” Hegedus wrote in an op-ed directed at Orbán.

Right-wing leaders drew condemnation earlier this month when they invited Orbán to speak at CPAC in Dallas and in May when they held an auxiliary meeting of CPAC in Hungary. At that gathering, the Hungarian leader advised the Americans present to take control of the media in order to hold onto power.

Writer Zack Hunt said conservatives are still welcoming Orbán to CPAC “because” of his speech in Romania, not “despite” his comments.

Orbán gave his speech in Romania “with apparently zero fear that his words would impact his participation at CPAC,” said business consultant Jeff Kemp. “It’s very possible that he said what he did because he reckoned that it might heighten audience anticipation for his CPAC appearance.”