Strongman Orbán’s latest publicity stunt: a midnight terror exercise

I start to think that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his inner circle have lost touch with reality. Police forces conduct anti-terror training exercises in other EU countries, but it is unprecedented that a night-time police drill is staged as a propaganda tool for a sitting Prime Minister.

A couple of days ago Mr. Orbán invited journalists and politicians to watch a night mock attack on the platform of a Budapest subway station. TEK (Terrorelhárítási Központ), the national counter-terror police, responded to heavily armed actors playing terrorists.

Viktor Orbán with TEK officers during the simulated terrorist attack in Budapest.

Viktor Orbán with TEK officers during the simulated terrorist attack in Budapest.

Simulated terrorist attack in a Budapest metro station.

Simulated terrorist attack in a Budapest metro station. Photo: MTI

“Today, Hungary is a country strong enough to provide the same security equipment, and the same attention to its soldiers, policemen, and counter-terrorism units, that any other developed Western-European country does.” – stated the beaming Mr. Orbán.

The police actors were swinging AK-style rifles and attacked people as the “terrorists” attempted to behead civilians. To increase the suspense, you can hear shouts of “Allahu Akbar” in the Hungarian government’s promotional video.

Hungary has not experienced terrorism linked to migration, and since Mr. Orbán has sealed the small country’s southern borders there are no migrants at all and Hungary itself has a very small Muslim population. Recently there was an unexplained smaller explosion in Budapest with two injuries, but at this point little is known about the event or the motivation behind it.

Many say that the main purpose of the drill was to instill fear in the Hungarian public and provide a photo op for Mr. Orbán to solidify his image as savior of the nation from the flood of Muslim migrants. Mr. Orbán did not hide the fact that the drill is a publicity event, he gave a stump speech.

Now Hungary is recruiting 3,000 “border hunters” to patrol the razor-wire fence at the southern border. They will wear full riot gear with night-vision googles and use sniffer dogs in an effort to keep out the exhausted migrants. Orbán claims: “Every single migrant poses a public security and terror risk.”

Hungary is turning into the EU’s first police state. Click here to watch the video of the drill.

György Lázár

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