Hungary's Orban: European party opponents 'useful idiots'

A billboard from a campaign of the Hungarian government showing EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Hungarian-American financier George Soros with the caption "You, too, have a right to know what Brussels is preparing to do." is displayed at a street in Budapest, Hungary, Feb. 26, 2019. The Hungarian government claims that EU leaders like Juncker, backed by Soros, want to bring mass migration into Europe. The billboard has been sprayed with graffiti saying "Orban thief," in reference to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. (AP Photo/Pablo Gorondi)

BERLIN – Hungary's populist prime minister says members of a European Parliament group calling for his party's expulsion are playing into the hands of left-wing opponents.

Viktor Orban's comments to Germany's Welt newspaper Sunday come after calls within the center-right European People's Party for his Fidesz party's ouster after his government started an ad campaign seen to have anti-Semitic undertones portraying Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Orban said those calling for Fidesz's ouster "are, in Lenin's words, 'useful idiots.' While they believe they're fighting in a spiritual struggle, in fact they're serving the power interests of others — indeed, of our opponents."

Orban said Hungarians don't consider the posters anti-Semitic and "I can't do anything about the fact that George Soros is a Hungarian of Jewish origin."