The French-language news portal Breizh-Info has published a long interview in French with Hungarian Member of Parliament László Toroczkai, who is the leader of the opposition nationalist parliamentary group Mi Hazánk Mozgalom. The following is an English translation.
László Toroczkai has been a leading figure in Hungarian nationalism for 25 years. His biography has few equals in this political milieu. He began as a young parliamentary assistant working with the Hungarian Justice and Life Party, or MIÉP, in the late 1990s, which was a nationalist party that had parliamentary representation between 1998 and 2002. He was then a war reporter in Kosovo in 1999. After that he founded the nationalist Sixty-Four Counties Youth Movement (HVIM), which was established across Hungary as well as in those countries bordering Hungary where there are large Hungarian communities. He then established the weekly newspaper Magyar Jelen and served as its Editor-in-Chief for many years, and inaugurated the Magyar Sziget series of nationalist music festivals. Most notably he was one of the leaders of the anti-government riots in the autumn of 2006. He was elected the Mayor of the town of Ásotthalom for three terms between 2013 and his resignation in 2022. As Ásotthalom lies along the Balkan migration route into the European Union’s Schengen Zone on the Serbian-Hungarian border, he faced the hordes of migrants that were attempting to cross there during the 2010s and first proposed the famous fence that was eventually built. He then served as Vice President of the Jobbik party from 2016 until 2018 before leaving it following its change of political orientation, leading him to found the nationalist Mi Hazánk party in June 2018. He became the leader of his party’s parliamentary group in May 2022.
Toroczkai has been completely banned from Facebook since 2019 (the platform censors any content featuring his name or face), which has prompted him to take his vlogging activities to YouTube and, more recently, TikTok. He has taken legal action against Facebook for this censorship.
Breizh-Info: Your party, Mi Hazánk, which was created as a result of Jobbik’s political shift from radical nationalism to forming an alliance with the liberal Left, was elected to the Hungarian Parliament in the spring 2022 national elections with nearly 6% of the votes. With one year to go until the European parliamentary and Hungarian municipal elections in June 2024, how are you doing?
László Toroczkai: According to the polls, we have doubled the number of our supporters over the last year, and we are now at around 10%. But one of the things I am most pleased about is that we are already the most popular party among young voters, between the ages of 18 and 29. If I take this into consideration, then I would say that we are the party of the future. Moreover, we have achieved all this in the midst of unprecedented censorship, not only in Hungary but also internationally, over the last four years. I have even been banned from Facebook and Instagram by the global giant Meta, which has even banned users merely for writing my name or sharing my picture. We were also barely allowed to appear in the print press and on television. I know of no other party in Europe that has been elected to parliament despite such brutal censorship. We did, and I have just won a case against Meta, which was obliged by the Hungarian court to reinstate my Instagram page. We have fought hard, but we are getting stronger.
You first won international recognition as the Mayor of the border town of Ásotthalom when the Hungarian-Serbian border was swamped by migrants in 2015 and the years thereafter. You were the first to call for the construction of a border fence. Has illegal immigration into Hungary now been stopped?
László Toroczkai: The 175-kilometre-long fence along the Hungarian-Serbian border, which also lies on the European Union’s Schengen border, has been built, much to my delight. But since the accompanying legislation is inadequate, it makes little difference at the moment. Illegal migrants who are caught crossing the border by the police are simply returned to the Serbian side and can try again a few hours later. They persist until they finally manage to reach the European Union. Not to mention the fact that the Hungarian government has just released hundreds of human traffickers from Hungary’s prisons, citing overcrowding, given that one in four of Hungary’s prison inmates are traffickers.
Illegal migration is a huge business for organised crime, and this entire criminal enterprise is supported by the European Union’s leadership – which is likewise putting pressure on the Hungarian government. Thus, the globalist leadership in Brussels, in tandem with the human-trafficking mafia, is completely changing Europe and turning it into a multi-ethnic colonial empire instead of a Europe of nations. The Hungarian government, for its part, is putting on a show. It pretends to protect the border, but in fact all the illegal migrants end up entering the European Union through Hungary.
When you were the Mayor of Ásotthalom, you adopted a number of measures that were criticised by many. For example, you banned the wearing of the burqa and LGBT symbols in your municipality. Some media even claimed that you had “launched a crusade against Islam.” Now that you are a Member of Parliament, you can be seen representing Hungary in many international institutions, including Bahrain, where Sharia law is in force. Are you therefore no longer on a crusade against Islam?
László Toroczkai: I have never said that I am fighting against Islam. That is a lie from the media. I am fighting against mass migration and extreme liberalism, not against religions and traditions. During the great invasion of 2015-16, many foreign journalists appeared in my Ásotthalom, because at that time, along the entire European Union’s continental border, there was nowhere as much illegal migration as in Ásotthalom. Tens of thousands of migrants had entered our municipality. I responded to this by setting up the Field Police [a private security team that patrols the border in Ásotthalom], by demanding a border fence, and also by passing local regulations. My aim was to draw attention to the fact that the Holy Crown, which symbolises Hungarian statehood, is topped by a cross; that Hungary is a Christian state; that Hungarians eat pork and drink pálinka [a Hungarian fruit liquor]; and that these customs are certainly not compatible with Islam.
But just as I expect a foreigner to understand and respect all this, I also respect the fact that Turkey, Saudi Arabia, or Bahrain are Muslim countries, and when I go there I respect and follow their customs and rules. I respect all historical religions, including Islam, and I said this to journalists in 2015-2016, but it was almost never reported. I am actually fighting against godless liberalism and globalism, defending religions and traditions all over the world. I am not attacking any historical religion or church in Hungary, either. I am happy and supportive if, in wonderful Bahrain, it is Islam that is strong and not the atheistic, globalist liberal approach.
In the same way, I would be happy if Christianity and the ancient European traditions were to become strong in Europe again, but here unfortunately the trends towards blaspheming against religion and promoting deviancy and nihilism are gaining strength. I reject the way in which so-called Western democracy – which is in fact a form of extreme liberalism rather than democracy – is being imposed on the whole world.
You are also the President of the Rwanda-Hungarian Friendship Group in the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Does this mean that you do not see yourself as only defending Europeans?
László Toroczkai: The best way to protect Europe would be to have an asylum treaty similar to the one that was signed between the Rwandan and British governments. Under this agreement, Rwanda would take in illegal immigrants who are being deported from the United Kingdom, while the two countries would enjoy mutual economic cooperation. A whole new relationship between Europe and Africa needs to be built. We must recognise where colonialism has led us. It has done nothing but harm to the peoples of Europe and Africa, while multinational corporations and financiers are benefitting from it. They have made – and are making – a lot of money, while ordinary people are suffering as a result of the problems caused by mass migration. The anti-democratic institutions that currently control Europe are in the hands of these financiers, who have now likewise blocked the implementation of the Rwanda-UK treaty, preventing the first plane from taking off that was supposed to take some illegal migrants from Europe back to Africa.
Rwanda is the best example of how times are changing – not only because of this exemplary agreement, but also because Rwanda is known as the Switzerland of Africa. Rwanda’s leaders have built a stable, steadily developing country since the bloody 1990s. What the government there has done is a model for the whole of Africa.
There is another type of immigration as well that isn’t talked about as much in the media, but which has become very prominent in Hungary in recent years: legal immigration. How do you explain the fact that Viktor Orbán is allowing tens of thousands of non-European migrant workers into Hungary every year?
László Toroczkai: A new law boosting so-called legal migration has just been passed in the Hungarian Parliament. This shows that the Orbán government is looking for an influx of cheap labour, just as other European governments. We firmly reject this, because it only serves the interests of the large multinational corporations. There is no need for investments where the big corporations pay no or very little tax due to benefits they receive from governments, while they are at the same time replacing these countries’ native populations, all because the multinationals need cheap labour to keep wages low. Millions suffer and nations disappear so that these capitalists can make billions of euros or dollars more on top of the billions of euros or dollars they are already making.
What is the current demographic situation in Hungary? Was there a demographic decline after Covid? Do you consider the family policy that has been pursued by the Fidesz government for a decade to be a failure?
László Toroczkai: At the moment, just as in other European countries, our demographic prospects are disastrous. 155,000 Hungarians died in Hungary in 2021, which is more than in the bloodiest year of the Second World War, so perhaps never before have so many Hungarians died in one year, except during the Tatar invasion of the thirteenth century or the years of the Ottoman conquest. But we can say that these are unprecedented losses during peacetime. This was mainly a consequence of the Covid phenomenon. But what is interesting is that although no one talks about Covid anymore, these deaths did not stop rising even after the massive vaccination campaign. It makes you wonder.
But it must be conceded that the Orbán government is helping families with much more money, subsidies, and tax relief than the previous left-liberal government, and this has led to visible results over the last ten years. Our population decline has slowed a little and, most importantly, fertility rates have increased. Although unfortunately, this has begun dropping again since Covid.
Where do your own party and the Hungarian government agree and disagree concerning the war in Ukraine? A few weeks ago you went public with the fact that you are receiving threats from Ukraine. What is the situation now?
László Toroczkai: There are many similarities between our messages regarding this, because we also want an immediate ceasefire and peace negotiations. We also rejected the sanctions policy from the very beginning, since it is not harming Russia but is in fact harming Europe, and furthermore favours multinational corporations and American financiers. At the same time, it is no use for Fidesz to say all of this in Hungary, given that in Brussels it supports most of the sanctions packages – which could not be adopted if there was no unanimity among the member states.
There is also a serious difference in that we are more firmly in favour of autonomy for Subcarpathia and the Hungarian community of Subcarpathia. Only Mi Hazánk talks about the fact that the 1991 referendum which established today’s Ukraine and defined its borders also stipulated that Subcarpathia should have the status of an autonomous republic similar to Crimea, and that within Subcarpathia those territories where there is a Hungarian majority should likewise have territorial autonomy. But this has never been enforced by the Kiev government since 1991. Thus, according to the 1991 referendum recognizing Ukraine is out of the question if Subcarpathia does not receive this status. Fidesz does not dare to talk about this, while the Kiev government is brutally oppressing and harassing the ethnic Hungarians living in Ukraine, in Subcarpathia. Moreover, they are also sending Hungarians to the battlefront, where they must fight and die on the front lines for a country that is simultaneously removing Hungarian inscriptions as well as the Hungarian flag from some buildings in Subcarpathia. The Hungarian minority is indigenous to this region, but these areas were unfortunately annexed from Hungary after the First and Second world wars. These Hungarians are therefore not immigrants. Their ancestors were the ones who founded the Subcarpathian towns, and they have lived there for at least a thousand years.
As for the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, let’s not forget that it started with the coup that overthrew the legitimate Ukrainian government in 2014 in order to bring Ukraine closer to NATO and the European Union, and to move it further away Russia. Western embassies were also involved in that coup. The war actually started then, not in 2022. It merely escalated last year. It is appalling that hundreds of thousands of European people are dying in an extremely bloody and brutal war between two great superpowers, while billionaire financiers are the sole beneficiaries.
The war is also going on in cyberspace, and after my name was put on the so-called Ukrainian death list on the Myrotvorets website, Ukrainian hackers, who are also connected to Ukraine’s state security and police, threatened me and posted my whereabouts online. This made it clear that they are trying to monitor me. Moreover, the Ukrainian hacker who wrote to me is in Budapest. I filed a police report, and of course I passed the information along to the Hungarian counter-intelligence service. The investigation is ongoing, and the Ukrainian hackers must know this, because they have not contacted me since then. I cannot be intimidated. But this case shows that the Ukrainians are not innocent.
Your party also deals with the practical issues of everyday life in Hungarian society which are less known to the international audience. Examples include what you call the ‘bailiff mafia’, or more recently your opposition to the Orbán government’s desire to subject wells drilled on private land to notification and registration procedures. In your videos you often refer to the activities of the World Economic Forum, which is led by Klaus Schwab, as well as his vision of the ‘Great Reset’. Your party is further the only one in the Hungarian parliament that opposed the forced vaccination program. How do you see the rest of this decade playing out?
László Toroczkai: This is a new era. There are still only a few people who are aware that the World Economic Forum is actually a foundation, an NGO, of the multinational corporations which jointly control most of the world economy. The leaders of the European Union, as if hypnotised, are following the thoughts and ideas of the World Economic Forum’s leaders. The aims that we hear from these leaders, as for example at the Davos summits, are being turned into reality – such as through the European Commission’s legislation. This is no coincidence, of course, and it is not merely ideological agreement, given that these politicians are either loyal to these financiers or have business links to them. It is enough to remember that Ursula von der Leyen negotiated the European Union’s EUR 35 billion Covid vaccine purchase via text messages with the CEO of Pfizer – and her husband, Heiko von der Leyen, is the medical director of a US pharmaceutical company who has business interests in Big Pharma.
What the World Economic Forum suggests, however crazy it may seem, therefore ends up being implemented by governments. This is why it was very important that the new water policy favoured by the World Economic Forum, which would have allowed governments and big business to get their hands on Europe’s water resources and even people’s private wells, was stopped in Hungary at the initiative and under the pressure of our party. We are addressing many economic issues because this is the basis of everything. The bailiff mafia is a mafia network that reaches all the way up to the Hungarian government and seizes working people’s property, which is why many Hungarians who have been trapped in foreign currency mortgages, for example, have simply fled Hungary to escape the banks and bailiffs. That is why we are also fighting against this network, and I am proud that we have now been able to put the bailiffs’ wealthy leader, whom we have pursued for four years, in prison. But the fight must continue, because this system is still in place.
What do you think about the situation in France?
László Toroczkai: The situation seems catastrophic, given that there are now fewer native French people than immigrants in French cities. French culture and identity are clearly in serious danger. The demographic situation in France is also clearly two-sided, with many more children being born to immigrants, mainly among the second and third generations from Africa and South Asia, than to native French people who have Christian roots. Rising migration and declining demographics could mean the end of France in any traditional sense.
The French government’s abuse of personal liberties is also brutal. It is perhaps the most ruthless regime in the whole of Europe, setting the police and armed forces on people who are demonstrating and inflicting very serious injuries on them. The last time I saw this was in 2006 in Hungary, when the liberal government attacked Hungarian demonstrators. It is typical that in the EU, it is the globalist governments which are serving the bankers and financiers that most blatantly violate people’s rights.
In the West, we see many conservative or ‘far-right’ politicians abandoning their core values as soon as they come to power. Giorgia Meloni is a crucial example, as mass immigration to Italy is continuing. As for the Italian government’s ally, Matteo Salvini, after very clearly showing his sympathies for Russian President Vladimir Putin, he is now voting in the European Parliament in favour of all the anti-Russia resolutions, including the one labelling Russia as a terrorist state. How do you explain this? Who can the people of Europe trust when even the leaders who were supposed to bring change are not keeping their promises?
László Toroczkai: There are, and there were, such politicians in Hungary. I have a simple answer to this: You have to look at whether a politician’s political career has been consistent or whether there are fundamental ideological twists in it. I am not of course referring to when one has adapted to the times or broadened one’s horizons, but rather to occasions when he has changed the very foundations of his beliefs from time to time out of weakness. Meloni did this, but Salvini in particular has always been characterised by these ideological twists. We need to elect a leader who will consistently move towards the goal of serving his country.
—
Translation: Visegrád Post
