Orbán: The European mainstream is surrounded by a ring of protest

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán used a press conference in the European Parliament to rail against what he called against the Brussels “elite.”

The populist leader claimed that European politics was “failing” because centrist parties could not meet voters’ needs.

“What we see is that there is an elite made up of the left, the liberals and the center right, called the mainstream, which runs things. But the European mainstream is surrounded by a ring of protest because the European people do not agree with their actions,” Orbán said, citing migration, agriculture and competitiveness policies as areas where citizens and politicians disagree.

However, he said that “the mainstream could also be part of the change, even the mainstream elite could change their minds. It’s not about ideology, it’s about simple common sense.”

Orbán added that his new far-right group in the Parliament, the Patriots for Europe, wants to be the engine of these changes, but the “mainstream” excludes them because of their will to change the status quo.

As POLITICO reported, the Patriots are furious at being excluded from the Parliament’s top jobs, despite being the third-largest force. They are challenging this exclusion at the Court of Justice of the European Union.

“I have been a member of the [Hungarian] parliament for 34 years, but there has never been a single case where an opposition force was not given a leading position in a parliamentary committee. I have many problems with the opposition at home, but not giving the opposition its rightful place has never occurred,” Orbán said.

Orbán will address the entire Parliament on Wednesday morning.