On May 18-19 in Budapest, Hungary, the US-based Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) hosted an international event that was live-streamed globally on the internet. The event, organized by the American Conservative Union, featured appearances from leading far-right politicians from around the world, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of fascistic Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and former US President Donald Trump.
In his brief taped remarks, Trump described Orban as “a great leader, a great gentleman,” and congratulated him on his “very big election result.” Trump added that he was “very honored to have endorsed” the far-right prime minister.
Expressing the fear of working class revolution gripping the ruling elite the world over, Trump ended his comments by saying, “We are looking to stop a lot of the problems that are going in the world, including in the Untied States. Socialism and even communism if you look at it really deeply.”
Joining Trump and Orban were several right-wing European politicians who also spoke at the event, including Nigel Farage, formerly of the Brexit and UK Independence Party, Santiago Abascal, president of Spain's far-right Vox party, and Jordan Bardella, acting president of the fascist National Rally, the 2018 rebranding of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front.
In addition to politicians, fascistic journalists spoke at the rally. The Guardian first reported on Saturday the appearance of Hungarian journalist Zsolt Bayer. Bayer is an unofficial adviser to Orban. His anti-Semitic diatribes are frequently reprinted in the Magyar Nemzet newspaper.
During his appearance at CPAC, Bayer presented images from recent Calvin Klein fashion ads as proof that the “Black Lives Matter” agenda was gaining ground and the fall of “Western civilization” was imminent.
Bayer is a long-time political ally of Orban and one of the co-founders of the Fidesz party, which Orban currently leads. In 2016, Orban signed off on awarding Bayer the Knight’s Cross, one of the highest honorifics handed out by the Hungarian state.
Bayer’s history of fascistic commentary includes, according to the Guardian, referring to Jews in England in 2011 as “stinking excrement.” In a 2013 column for the pro-government newspaper Magyar Hírlap, Bayer wrote that a “significant part of the Roma are unfit for coexistence.” He added, “They are not fit to live among people. These Roma are animals and they behave like animals.”
A translation from Spiegel online of Bayer’s 2013 column continues: “They are incapable of human communication. Inarticulate sounds pour out of their bestial skulls... one must retaliate rather than tolerate. These animals shouldn’t be allowed to exist. In no way. That needs to be solved—immediately and regardless of the method.”
In response to criticism from the Biden administration, in a column last year Bayer employed fascistic tropes to attack US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Bayer disputed Blinken’s claim to have “Hungarian roots,” even though Blinken’s mother’s family were Jewish Hungarians who emigrated to the United States. Bayer, wrote: “you [Blinken] are completely a ROOTLESS Hungarian as you are a rootless American.”
The use of the word “rootless” as an anti-Semitic epithet was employed most famously in the 20th century by Adolf Hitler, who branded the Russian Revolution and Marxism a “Jewish conspiracy” spread by a “rootless international clique that incites nations against each other.”
Other US speakers at the two-day rally included far-right commentators Candace Owens, formerly of Turning Point USA, and Fox News Host Tucker Carlson, a vociferous supporter of Orban and leading propagandist of the neo-Nazi “Replacement theory.”
In multiple episodes of his program, Carlson has endorsed the theory while speaking in support of Orban’s anti-immigrant policies. The mutual admiration between the authoritarian leader of Hungary and the bow tie-wearing fascist was on display at CPAC Hungary, with Orban praising Carlson by name.
“Of course the Grand Ole Party has associates in the media, but they do not compete with the dominance of the liberal press,” Orban said. “Only my friend Tucker Carlson places himself on the line without wavering. His new program is the most watched. What does that mean? It means that programs like his should run day and night. As you say, 24/7.”
In a 2019 segment of the Tucker Carlson program, the host defended Orban against criticisms of his fascistic policies by European politicians.
Carlson said, “Instead of helping the native population to have more children, the Hungarian government, [European Union leaders] say, should import a replacement population from the Third World. That’s the George Soros solution.”
In his speech at CPAC Hungary, Orban attacked the Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor Soros in a thinly disguised appeal to anti-Semitism, declaring: “We are dealing with the same people: faceless, ideologically trained bureaucrats sitting in Washington D.C. and Brussels. Progressive liberals, neo-Marxists intoxicated by the dream of wokeness, those in the pay of George Soros, the advocates of the open society. They want to abolish the Western way of life that you and we love so much: what your parents fought for during World War II and the Cold War, and what we fought for when we drove the Soviet communists out of Hungary.”
Other notable speakers at the event included Republican congressmen Andy Harris (Maryland) and Mike Waltz (Florida), as well as Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, presided over the event. In text messages, Meadows turned over to the House January 6 Select Committee investigating Trump’s failed coup, Schlapp instructed Meadows to get “4 or 5 killers” to “torch” local election sites.
In response, Meadows wrote, “I may need to get you and mercy [Mercedes, Schapp’s wife] to go to [Pennsylvania].”