The former UKIP leader took part in the conference which also featured Hungary’s pro-Putin and authoritarian demagogue Viktor Orban, as part of what are clearly wider efforts to cement bonds between far-right movements both in Europe and America.
Nigel Farage was among a number of right-wing speakers who joined conservatives in Hungary on Thursday in an extraordinary session of America’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
The former UKIP leader took part in the conference which also featured Hungary’s pro-Putin and authoritarian demagogue Viktor Orban, as part of what are clearly wider efforts to cement bonds between far-right movements both in Europe and America.
Orban had days earlier made reference to the ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory which claims that there is a liberal elite plot to replace the white populations of Europe and the US through immigration and demographic growth with non-white people.
The event in Hungary on Thursday marked the first time that CPAC was held in Europe.
During his time as leader of Hungary, Orban has also attacked and undermined democratic institutions and attacked the rights of LGBT and minority communities.
Delivering the opening address on Thursday, Orban called Hungary “the bastion of conservative Christian values in Europe,” and urged U.S. conservatives to defeat “the dominance of progressive liberals in public life”.
He added: “We have to take the institutions back in Washington and Brussels.
“We must find allies in one another and coordinate the movements of our troops.”
Also at the conference were those aligned with President Donald Trump, who himself has spoken of his admiration for autocratic leaders.
It comes after the European Commission also launched a rule-of-law disciplinary procedure against Hungary over the country’s democratic backsliding.
Since coming to power Orban has also cracked down on academics, NGOs and the media, as well as restricting the freedoms of migrants.
The fact that Farage was a speaker at the event is yet more evidence of his support for right-wing demagogues like Orban as well as the contempt in which he holds free, open and democratic societies.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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