Hungary, following Trump, will designate antifa a terror organisation, Orbán says | World News
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters after departing the United Kingdom, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025, aboard Air Force One. (AP Photo)
Hungary will replicate a policy announced Thursday US President Donald Trump and designate antifa a terror organisation, Prime Miner Viktor Orbán said on Friday.
Antifa, short for “anti-fasc,” is an umbrella term for loosely affiliated far-left-activs and groups that res fascism, fascs and neo-Nazis, especially at demonstrations. It resembles more an ideology than an organisation, though some have embraced militant tactics.
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Orbán, a right-wing popul and strong Trump ally, said in comments to state radio on Friday that he was “pleased” Trump’s announcement that he plans to designate antifa as a “major terror organization” in the United States.” Antifa is indeed a terror organization,” Orbán said.
“In Hungary, too, the time has come for us to classify organizations such as antifa as terror organizations, following the American model.” It was unclear what prompted Orbán’s decision to make the move. Antifasc groups rarely engage in political actions in Hungary, where Orbán and his party have held near-total power for more than 15 years.
Yet in his statements Friday, Orbán referenced a 2023 incident in which antifasc activs engaged in assaults against several suspected participants in an annual far-right event in Budapest.
One of the alleged assailants, Italian antifasc activ Ilaria Salis, was jailed in Hungary for over a year following the assaults, resulting in a diplomatic dispute between Rome and Budapest over her treatment in detention.
Salis was released to house arrest in May 2024 before winning a seat in the European Parliament, as a result of which she gained legal immunity. Hungary continues to demand that she be returned to face trial, where prosecutors have sought an 11-year sentence.
Orbán on Friday bemoaned Salis’ release, saying antifa had “come to Hungary and beaten peaceful people in the street, some were beaten half to death, and then they became European members of parliament and from there lecture Hungary on the rule of law.”
