Hungary’s \u2018strong man\u2019 premier Viktor Orban\u2019s sweeping electoral victory heralds deeper confrontation with EU \u2013 and increased anxiety for Christians across Europe who deplore his equating \u2018Christian Europe\u2019 with anti-Muslim and antirefugee sentiment.<\/p>\n
Orban\u2019s ethno-nationalist election campaign centred on antimigrant rhetoric, declaring Islam and EU \u201cenemies of Christian Hungary\u201d. Justifying Hungary\u2019s border fence as a \u201cbulwark of Western Christian civilisation\u201d, Orban poses as \u201cdefender of Christian Europe\u201d against Muslim settlement and what he deems EU imposed multi-culturalism.<\/p>\n
Pledged to build with Poland an anti-Brussels coalition of Central European states, Orban (pictured on the right) sees himself as inheritor of Hungary\u2019s 16th and 17th century resistance to Islamic expansion against Christian Europe. Significantly, Pope Francis I immediately rejected Orban\u2019s \u2018defender of Christian Europe\u2019 claims with a post-election message urging Catholics to care for migrants \u201cas much as caring for the unborn\u201d, and a Vatican video featuring a Muslim refugee from Afghanistan with a message of Christian compassion.<\/p>\n