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Jan-Werner Müller, a professor of politics at Princeton University, described Mr Orban as an “anti-liberal” who campaigns against the EU while his country benefits financially from membership of the bloc. Mr Orban is a member of the European People’s Party (EPP), the EU’s centre-right group which represents mostly Christian Democrats - the original architects of European integration in the 1950s. Writing in the Financial Times, Prof Müller said: “Not only are the EPP now tolerating a far-right populist such as Mr Orban in their midst, they are also blind to the fact that the Hungarian leader is making a bid for European leadership that could destroy Christian Democracy, and the EU, from the inside.

GETTY Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban

GETTY Hungarian PM Viktor Orban is accused of trying to destroy the EU from within

Mr Orban’s government systematically disregards the rules of the European club and the supposedly shared values of democracy Professor Jan-Werner Müller

“Hungary receives large subsidies from Brussels, yet Mr Orban’s government systematically disregards the rules of the European club and the supposedly shared values of democracy. “Most recently his government passed a law which, for purely political reasons, aims at closing the Central European University, a Budapest-based bastion of academic independence and free thought founded by the billionaire philanthropist George Soros. (Tens of thousands took to the streets of the Hungarian capital on Sunday to protest against the new law.)” Prof Müller accuses Mr Orban of manoeuvring himself into a position where he benefits from the support of the far-right at home while maintaining important connections with Europe’s liberal-leaning leaders. He said Mr Orban presents himself as a supporter of EU Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels at the same time as starting an anti-EU campaign with newspaper advertisements and billboards proclaiming “Let’s Stop Brussels!”

GETTY Anti-Orban protestors take the streets of Hungarian capital Budapest

Every household in the country will receive a leaflet with leading questions intended to ram home the message that the EU is planning to impose higher utility prices and “illegal immigrants” on Hungary. Prof Müller said: “In his speech at the EPP congress in Malta last month, Mr Orban laid out his vision of a Europe in which “there is room for our Christian identity, our national pride.” “Such attempts to start a pan-European Kulturkampf against a left that allegedly wants to destroy Europe by letting in as many Muslims as possible used to find an echo only on the far right.

GETTY Opponents say Viktor Orban plays one side off against the other

Powerful images as migrants protest in Hungary Tue, April 4, 2017 Migrants protest outside Budapest's Keleti Railway Station after it was closed off by police to prevent people travelling on to western Europe Play slideshow REUTERS 1 of 53 A migrant taunts Hungarian riot police as they fire tear gas and water cannon on the Serbian side of the border, near Roszke