The former army captain -- who has made no secret of his admiration for the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964-1985 -- was speaking after phone talks with Hungary's conservative and fiercely anti-migrant Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Hungary "is a country that has suffered a lot with communism in the past, a people that knows what dictatorship is," Bolsonaro told a news conference outside his home in Rio de Janeiro.

"The Brazilian people still do not know what dictatorship is, do not know what it is to suffer at the hands of these people," he said.

Set to take office on January 1, the far-right leader has already drawn three of his government picks from the military, including General Fernando Azevedo e Silva as defense minister.

Asked about Orban's tough anti-migrant measures -- he closed Hungary's borders to migrants in 2015 -- Bolsonaro preferred to discuss the situation in his own country.

"I was against our last immigration law (in 2017) which made Brazil a country without borders. We cannot allow the indiscriminate entry of all those who come here, only because they wanted to come."

Thousands of Venezuelan migrants fleeing a political and economic crisis have crossed the border into Brazil over the past year.

Last week Bolsonaro announced the appointment of Ernesto Araujo, a fervent admirer of US President Donald Trump, as his choice for foreign minister.