One of Viktor Orbán's longest-serving advisers has resigned after the Hungarian Prime Minister spoke out against "peoples of mixed race" in a speech condemned by Jewish groups.
Zsuzsa Hegedus quit on Tuesday after Mr Orbán's speech that was delivered on Saturday to a region of Romania with a large Hungarian community.
“We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed race,” Mr Orbán told the crowd, adding that mixing between Europeans was acceptable.
Hungarian media reported that Ms Hegedus described the speech as a "pure Nazi text", before severing a political relationship with Mr Orbán that had lasted two decades.
"I don't know how you didn't notice that the speech you delivered is a purely Nazi diatribe worthy of Joseph Goebbels," Ms Hegedus wrote in her resignation letter, according to the Hungarian news website, hvg.hu.
Jewish community representatives had earlier voiced alarm, describing the speech as "stupid and dangerous".
The International Auschwitz Committee called on the European Union to continue to distance itself from "Orbán's racist undertones and to make it clear to the world that a Mr Orbán has no future in Europe".
International Auschwitz Committee vice-president Christoph Heubner said Mr Orbán's speech reminded Holocaust survivors of "the dark times of their own exclusion and persecution".
Mr Heubner called specifically on Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer to make a stand when he hosts Mr Orbán on an official visit to Vienna on Thursday.
Known for his anti-immigration policy, Mr Orbán has made similar remarks in the past but without using the Hungarian term for "race", according to experts.
Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said Mr Orbán's speech had been "misinterpreted" by those who "clearly don't understand the difference between the mixing of different ethnic groups that all originate in the Judeo-Christian cultural sphere, and the mixing of peoples from different civilisations".
Mr Orbán's right-wing Fidesz-led coalition secured a fourth term in government after elections in April.
Wires/ABC
