Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has promised continued resistance against the “unholy alliance of Brussels bureaucrats, the liberal world media and insatiable international capitalists” in a landmark speech.

Orbán’s speech marked the anniversary of the 1848 rising against the Habsburg Empire, commemorated on 15 March as one of three Hungarian national days.

“The revolutions of 1848 broke out because the imperial great powers of the day denied nations the right to transform their systems of government, to weave anew the fabric of their economies, and to open their cultures’ gates to new ideas” he said, drawing parallels between that period and the behaviour of the European Union (EU) in the present day.

“European emperors, tsars and kings forged a holy alliance in the interest of European peace. That holy alliance of peace, however, turned into an enemy of national independence, sovereignty and freedom, and became an alliance of hypocrites.”

“This story sounds familiar,” he emphasised. “In the past year the nations have rebelled once again. They have rebelled against the hypocritical alliance of Brussels bureaucrats, the global liberal media and international capital, with its insatiable appetite. First the British rebelled, then the Americans – and there is more to come this year.”

The Fidesz leader warned that Hungary would have to “fight bravely” against the EU in order to preserve its independence, particularly with respect to immigration control.

“We must stop Brussels: we must protect our borders; we must prevent the resettlement of migrants; we must make the networks that receive their funding from abroad transparent; we must keep the right to regulate taxes, wages and household utility charges here at home.”

Orbán stressed, for now at least, he believes “the energy released by rebellion [can be kept] within constitutional boundaries”, but the “the masks of hypocrisy in Brussels must be removed” before true reform can begin.

“Perhaps neither the past nor the future of the Hungarian nation matters to Brussels and international capital – but they matter to us,” he said.

“Our rebellion against debt slavery has welded our hearts together. Our struggle for economic independence has welded our hearts together. And our hearts have been welded together by the battle in which we beat back the mass population movement which is besieging Europe, and in which we stayed the hand of Brussels as it reached to open the gates from within.”