University professor from Cluj publishes analysis comparing Viktor Orban with former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu

Professor Zoltan Tibori-Szabo from Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca says in an analysis published by Haaretz that Hungarian PM “Viktor Orban’s recent racist outbursts sharpen his resemblance to Nicolae Ceausescu, who shared his nativism, ultranationalism and antisemitism, loathing for democracy and penchant for rehabilitating war criminals, but ended up in front of a firing squad”.

Professor Zoltan Tibori-Szabo is the Head of the Institute of Studies on Holocaust and Genocide within the Political Sciences Faculty of the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj, co-author of “The Geographic Encyclopedia of the Holocaust in Hungary” (2013).

The article in Haaretz comments the racist statements made by the Hungarian PM in Baile Tusnad on July 25.

“A closer look at Orbán’s more recent provocative statements and actions bring this comparison between Hungary’s prime minister and the Romanian communist maverick who was deposed and then executed, into particularly sharp relief,” says the Babes-Bolyai professor.

“Ceausescu aggravated the Soviet Union with his nationalism, independence, and sovereignty. Orbán systematically opposes and sabotages freely-chosen partners and allies, in Brussels and Washington, claiming that he is the sole defender of Western civilization against “non-European” migrants, “the mixing of races,” “gender ideology,” and “post-Western values.”

Zoltan Tibori-Szabo says though that most likely “Orbán will not end up like Ceausescu, in front of a firing squad”, but that at some point, “he will have to choose between a Hungarian prison or a nice villa in Brazil, Turkey, or Russia”.

“His legacy will, however, taint Hungary for a long time, but it will also tar the Western world if it does not stand up decisively and urgently against him. At this point Orbán’s Hungary has become the cancer of the EU and of NATO.”