Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban pledged on Saturday to crack down on politicians and journalists who receive foreign funding and again ruled out EU membership for Ukraine, stepping up his campaign for elections due in a year.

The right-wing populist prime minister has stepped up his attacks on critics, largely journalists and civil society organizations, since US President Donald Trump entered office.

In a conspiracy theory-laden address, which coincided with a national holiday commemorating Hungary’s 1848 revolution against Habsburg rule, Viktor Orbán told a group of several thousand select supporters that Hungary in the coming weeks will uproot media outlets and other organizations that have received funding from abroad,

"There is always an empire that is trying to take away the freedom of the Hungarians, and right now it is the one in Brussels," Viktor Orban said in a speech on Saturday. View on euronews