EU Parliament says Orbán's remarks go against bloc's values

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's racist remarks have met with strong criticism in the European Parliament.

"We, the leaders of the political groups of the European Parliament, strongly condemn the recent openly racist declaration by Prime Minister Orbán about not wanting to become 'peoples of mixed race,'" a statement published on Saturday said.

"Such unacceptable statements, which clearly constitute a breach of our values, also enshrined in the EU treaties, have no place in our societies."

Orbán had said last weekend during a speech in Romania: "There is the world in which the European peoples mix with the arrivals from outside Europe. That is a mixed-race world." In contrast, he said, there is the Carpathian Basin, for example, where European peoples such as Hungarians, Romanians, Slovaks mix with each other. "We are ready to mix with each other, but we don't want to become mixed-race."

A few days later, Orbán tried to put his remarks into context.

"Racism and discrimination, in all forms, must be unequivocally condemned and effectively tackled at all levels," the Conference of Presidents of the EU Parliament, which includes the President of the Parliament as well as the leaders of the political groups, stresses in its statement.

Orbán's Fidesz party no longer belongs to any political group in the parliament, after having long been part of the Christian Democratic European People's Party (EPP).