In the annual State of the Union address on Friday (10 February) Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán listed among those who “attacked” his country billionaire George Soros and the European Union.

The EPP-affiliated politician lashed out against left-wing politics, the liberal media and international human rights organisations.

Together they had created a “worldwide network” to deliver “hundreds of thousands of migrants” into Europe. “The former government of the US and the governments in Brussels and Berlin have ensured that immigrants cannot be stopped, but we have done so,” Orbán told his audience.

Orbán claimed Soros and groups backed by him wanted to secretly influence the country’s politics. He insisted that groups receiving funding from Hungarian-born Soros needed to be made transparent and identifiable.

#Hungary’s Orban renews attack on influence of George Soros – WTOP News https://t.co/hATHYzmKSp — Europa News ???? (@europafreunde) February 12, 2017

“Large-bodied predators are swimming here in the waters. This is the trans-border empire of George Soros, with tons of money and international heavy artillery,” said Orbán, who received a Soros-funded scholarship as Hungary was transitioning from communism to democracy in the late 1980s.

“It is causing trouble … that they are trying secretly and with foreign money to influence Hungarian politics,” Orbán said.

Apart from Soros, the Hungarian prime minister said his country faced attacks from the EU, which challenged his attempts to fix energy prices, tried to synchronise tax policies and to prevent the state funding for job creation.

Orbán hit out at a liberal vision of open economies which he described in the following terms: “The foxes are let into the henhouse to compete freely, and nobody can stop the foxes winning time after time.”

He also said he was not against opening up his country to refugees – but only those seeking to flee the multicultural West.

“Naturally, we will take in the real refugees,” Orbán said. “The panicked German, Dutch, French and Italian politicians and journalists, Christians forced to leave their countries will find here the Europe they lost at home.”

Orban: Hungary Will Welcome 'European Refugees' Fleeing Multicultural West. https://t.co/RjS22P9pFi pic.twitter.com/AqWjD3kxz2 — Voice of Europe (@V_of_Europe) February 11, 2017

The audience received the comments with laughter and loud applause.

@POTUS should welcome Orban in state visit to stick it to Soros who is organizing rioters and demonstrators against Trump. https://t.co/jCRfUaRk5T — Ann Corcoran (@RefugeeWatcher) February 11, 2017