{"id":47744,"date":"2025-09-06T18:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T18:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/47744\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T18:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T18:23:09","slug":"let-him-see-what-proper-freedom-looks-like-says-roderic-ogorman-on-viktor-orban-in-dublin-for-aviva-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/47744\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Let him see what proper freedom looks like\u2019 \u2013 says Roderic O\u2019Gorman on Viktor Orban in Dublin for Aviva clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mr Orban\u2019s visit is in a \u2018private capacity\u2019 and no official engagements are planned\n<\/p>\n

The Hungarian prime minister has touched down in Dublin to watch his national team take on Ireland in tonight\u2019s World Cup 2026 qualifier at the Aviva Stadium.<\/p>\n

Supported by Mr Orban and his populist Fidesz Party, the Hungarian parliament passed a constitutional amendment formally banning public gatherings amounting to the \u201cdepiction or promotion\u201d of homosexuality to children, meaning the annual Budapest Pride parade was outlawed.<\/p>\n

“Unlike in Hungary, we don’t try and ban people from participating in culture and sporting events,\u201d said Mr O\u2019Gorman who attended this year\u2019s first outlawed Budapest Pride march in June along with around 200,000 others.<\/p>\n

\"Mr<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Gorman believes that Viktor Orban is trying to ‘chip away’ at the democratic rights of citizens in Hungary. (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n

“He’s certainly not welcome, but legally he’s entitled to be here.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Mr Orban\u2019s visit is in a \u201cprivate capacity\u201d, and that no official engagements are planned.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Gorman claimed that the \u201cvast majority\u201d of Hungarians are against Mr Orban\u2019s attempts to \u201cchip away at the checks and balances\u201d in his country by limiting the ability of trade unions, NGOs and women’s groups to undermine his leadership.<\/p>\n

“I think the vast majority of Irish people would reject his sort of politics, but let him come and like let him see what proper freedom looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attacking Mr Orban\u2019s \u201cabysmal\u201d record of supporting leaders such as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin, Mr O\u2019Gorman said that the EU has done little to limit his actions as the bloc\u2019s primary renegade leader.<\/p>\n

“The EU has been far too lenient with the way in which he has undermined European values, whether it’s on the approach to Gaza, whether it’s on the approach to Ukraine, and indeed, the approach to the treatment of human rights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Social Democrats\u2019 spokesperson on foreign affairs, Patricia Stephenson, described Mr Orban\u2019s association with Mr Netanyahu as \u201catrocious\u201d, but urged the Government to use the Hungarian leader\u2019s presence in Ireland as an opportunity to discuss speak with him about ending the EU\u2019s close trade ties with Israel.<\/p>\n

\"Hungarian<\/p>\n

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has is in Dublin for tonight’s World Cup 2026 qualifier between Ireland and Hungary. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n

Today’s News in 90 seconds – 6th September 2025 <\/p>\n

The EU-Israel Association Agreement, established in 2000, aims to strengthen EU relations with the Middle Eastern state by strengthening ties between both economies.<\/p>\n

\"Social<\/p>\n

Social Democrats spokesperson for foreign affairs and trade, Patricia Stephenson<\/p>\n

Describing Hungary as a \u201claggard\u201d in Europe’s unanimity of approach to Gaza, she said: “Hungary is the reason that we can’t actually end the EU-Israeli trade agreement, which would be fundamental in actually taking some action against Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really a fundamental piece of the puzzle in terms of ending Israel’s impunity and having actual meaningful accountability for what’s happening,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Ms Stephenson returned from the West Bank last week, and she said increasing Jewish settler violence against Palestinians in the region, coupled with the expansion of Jewish settlements that are illegal under international law, are having lasting consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s an apartheid state. The infrastructure of that is visible across the land in the West Bank.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mr Orban\u2019s visit is in a \u2018private capacity\u2019 and no official engagements are planned The Hungarian prime minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,18142,13,14,68,6,19,17,71,125,11,12,1678,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-47744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-fai","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-gaza","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-israel","19":"tag-keith-kelly","20":"tag-latest-news","21":"tag-latestnews","22":"tag-lgbtq","23":"tag-main-news","24":"tag-mainnews","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}