Zsusza Hegedus chose her words carefully. She was one of Viktor Orban's closest advisers, but even for her his words on Saturday were too much. "I don't know how you didn't notice that the speech you delivered is a purely Nazi diatribeAn angry speech that severely criticises something. worthy of Joseph Goebbels," she wrote in her letter of resignation.

The speech was given in a part of Romania with a large Hungarian population. In it, Orban said: "We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed race."

In other words, it was fine for Europeans to marry each other, but not people from elsewhere. The idea of "racial purity" was a key Nazi doctrine.

Orban also made a joke about the Holocaust. Criticising the EU plan's to cut its gas demands by 15%, he mentioned "German know-how on that" - a reference to the gassing of Jewish people during World War Two.

His comments prompted widespread outrage. The International Auschwitz Committee of Holocaust Survivors called the speech "stupid and dangerous" and "grist to the mill to all racist and far-right forces in Europe". Over half a million Hungarian Jews were murdered in Auschwitz.

But the newspaper Magyar Nemzet praised Orban. It said he was right to defend the idea of nationhood rather than allow the world's population to become "a grey, indistinguishable mass". And his hard anti-immigration stance has been a vote-winner: his party won a resounding victory in April's general election. 

Orban has also moved to reduce gay rights and the freedom of the press and independence of the judiciaryThe part of a country's government that is responsible for its legal system, including all the judges in the country's courts..

Far-right politicians are also doing alarmingly well in other parts of Europe. Although Marine Le Pen lost the French presidential election, her party made considerable gains in last month's parliamentary elections. It now has the second largest number of MPs.

In Italy, the extremist Brothers of Italy party - which won just 4% of the national vote in 2018 - is favourite to win September's elections. Its leader, Giorgia Meloni, joined the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement when she was 15, and has downplayed MussoliniThe fascist dictator of Italy from 1925 to 1945. 's crimes by calling him "a complex personality". 

In Spain, the far-right Vox party entered regional government for the first time in March. One of its candidates said that the idea of equality for women was ridiculous.

Poland's governing PiS party, which opposes gay rights and abortion, has earned strong criticism from other EU countries for trying to undermine the rule of law. It has moved to give ministers the right to appoint judges and dismiss court presidents.

Right-wing extremists in the US are also a major cause for concern. Donald Trump has been accused of conspiring with two of their leaders before the attack on the Capitol.

But there is also plenty of resistance to these movements. Support for the AfD party in Germany has declined dramatically: one co-chair said it faced "total isolation". In Poland, thousands have marched in protest against the PiS's position on abortion.

Yes: Hitler exploited an economic crisis by promoting racism and overturned the legal barriers that stood in his way. That is exactly what Orban and politicians like him are trying to do.   

No: Although the far right has had some successes, views as extreme as Orban's are still fringe. The memory of the Holocaust remains strong, and most people are alert to the dangers of extremism.

Or... While no politician today is as deranged as Hitler, the idea of a leader who can ignore the rules is dangerously attractive, as people who voted for Trump and Boris Johnson have shown.