The Budapest bruiser lashed out after his nationalist Fidesz party was suspended by the centre-right the European People’s Party (EPP) over an anti-immigration poster campaign which targeted European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. The campaign had accused Brussels of pushing migration policies that threatened Hungary’s security.
Mr Orbán said: “Brussels politicians live in a bubble. They’re creating a Brussels bureaucratic elite, which has lost touch with reality.
“We are not willing to do what Brussels dictates if it is not good for Hungarians.
“We must not be frightened of Brussels bureaucrats in their offices who in sly ways want to force on us what they conceived above our heads in Brussels.”
Mr Orbán encouraged Hungarians to vote for Fidesz in May’s Euro-elections and “show Brussels that what happens in Hungary is what the Hungarian people want”.
He said the outcome of the May 23 vote would determine whether Fidesz decides to stay in the EPP group or looks to forge new alliances with right-wingers in Brussels.
He said: “People in Brussels are a little cross with us because at the beginning of the election campaign, we carried out an information campaign, which exposed the machinations in Brussels.
“We shouldn’t give in, we shouldn’t be afraid, because the opponent complained and attacked us with the indignation of someone whose agenda was exposed.”
Under the terms of his suspension from the EPP, a three-man panel will judge whether Fidesz is acting in accordance with the group’s rules and values.
To regain full EPP membership, Fidesz will have to end the anti-Juncker campaign, recognise the damage it caused and refrain from similar action and resolve a legal dispute over the status of the Central European University in Budapest.
But there are fears among moderate EPP members that Mr Orban will join forces with Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s anti-immigrant League party or Poland’s governing right-wing PiS party to create a rival group in the European Parliament.