This is what stirred up still water and filled Easter Week with uproar,” Orbán told Vasárnapi Ujsag, a Sunday morning programme of public Kossuth Radio, referring to a series of demonstrations over the past few days.

The prime minister called it completely understandable that US billionaire George Soros’s “international and domestic networks” are protesting against the recent amendment to the higher education law.

It is still to be understood, however, why Hungarian academics, scholars and professors take a stand for Soros keeping his privileges instead of other universities in Hungary getting the same rights as the Central European University enjoys, he said.

Orbán called the protests “a peripheral theatre of war” of a crucial conflict, which concerns the ethnic mix of Europe. The Hungarian branches of international NGO networks conceive Europe as a continent letting in foreign ethnicities from other parts of Europe, he said.

An unimpeded immigration of those aspiring for a European standard of living would carry a risk of terrorism and deteriorating public security, and imply the emergence of parallel Muslim and Christian societies in the European countries.

Orbán said “Soros’s network” is angry with Hungary because it has halted the wave of migrants which they had proven in theory to be unstoppable. Asked about when the conflict will escalate, Orbán said that the European Union wanted to close the dispute by June through the approval of new immigration rules that are mandatory for all.

“Some of us are still resisting,” he said, mentioning the Visegrad Four and Romania as countries determined to preserve Europe’s Christian identity.

“A crucial clash is in the offing,” Orbán said, referring to the European parliamentary debate over Hungary scheduled for late April, and the next two EU summit meetings designed to bring the issue of immigration to a head. Orbán admitted that Soros had had some merits in Hungary’s transition to democracy in the late 1980s, including support for many young anti-communists, civil organisations and samizdats.

The prime minister said he could put up with Soros’s financial moves, including speculation against the Hungarian forint and “an attempt to take over OTP”. Orbán said he could even tolerate the existence of the CEU which he said was training liberal activists for the southern Slav and central European countries.

“What has really triggered the fuse is the Soros empire’s decision to support migration,” the prime minister said. As migration is connected with the safety of Hungarian people, border defence, public security and terrorism, “there is no room for compromise,” he said.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Kovács Tamás