Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has heralded Donald Trump’s shock election victory as the end of “liberal non-democracy”.
Mr Orbán, who was a vocal supporter of the Trump campaign, said the Republican win would allow Western civilisation to “break free from the confines of an ideology”.
He also claimed Mr Trump’s election was akin to the Brexit vote, representing a global change in popular thinking.
It was a "historic event, in which Western civilization appears to successfully break free from the confines of an ideology”, Mr Orbán told the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development conference.
“We are living in the days where what we call liberal non-democracy, in which we lived for the past 20 years, ends, and we can return to real democracy.”
Mr Orbán's political climb has not been dissimilar to President-elect Trump’s and the former billionaire investor turned politician has been widely criticised for his rejection of globalisation and inciting xenophobia in the country.
In July, he labelled migrants a “poison” for Europe and claimed the bloc did not need “a single one”.
He also called Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy “deadly” for Hungary, while supporting heavily Mr Trump’s anti-immigration stance as “vital” for Budapest.
“We can call problems by their name and find solutions not derived from an ideology but based on pragmatic, creative-thinking rooted in common sense,” Mr Orbán said following the US election result.
He said despite "the big bang", everyone was "still alive".
"What a wonderful world. This also shows that democracy is creative and innovative," Mr Orban said.
In October, he called a referendum which asked citizens whether they wished to disregard European Union quotas for resettling migrants.
Voters supported the government's opposition to the mandatory acceptance of a certain number of asylum seekers, however the ballot was invalidated due to low voter turnout.
