Hungary PM in fresh anti-EU swipe

BUDAPEST: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban again lashed out at “Brussels bureaucrats” Sunday, days after reaching a compromise with conservative allies in the European Parliament who were angered by an anti-EU billboard campaign.

During a public radio interview Orban accused the “elite” in Brussels of “losing touch wih reality” and of punishing Budapest for its hardline anti-immigration policies. “We are not willing to do what Brussels dictates, if it is not good for Hungarians,” said Orban. “We must not be frightened of Brussels bureaucrats in their offices... who in sly ways want to force on us what they conceived above our heads in Brussels,” he said.

The combative remarks follow the indefinite suspension of his Fidesz party from the mainstream conservatve European People’s Party (EPP) Wednesday, the EU’s biggest and most influential political grouping.

Fidesz had faced expulsion from the bloc after a controversial billboard and media campaign by Budapest suggested European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker and liberal US billionaire George Soros were plotting to flood Europe with migrants.