2024-03-18 07:15:29
The United States ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman, criticized Budapest’s “dangerous anti-American messages” and “deepening relations with Russia” this week. In an impassioned speech at the Central European University in Budapest to mark the 25th anniversary of Hungary’s accession to NATO, Pressman said the country’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was increasingly isolating himself from his friends and allies by “saying and doing things that undermine trust and friendship,” writes “Politico” magazine, quoted by BTA.
Pressman noted that Hungary is an ally “that behaves differently than everyone else.” “It (this speech) is about a government that defines the United States as an ‘adversary’ while making policy choices that increasingly isolate it from friends and allies. This speech is about a longtime friend and ally who says and does things that undermine trust and friendship,” added the diplomat.
Relations between Budapest and Washington have soured over Hungary’s delay in ratifying Sweden’s accession to NATO, which the Hungarian government finally accepted last month, and over Hungary’s nationalist prime minister’s warm ties to Moscow despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Reuters said.
A few hours after the American ambassador’s speech, Orbán published a video on his profile on the X platform, in which he spoke about the “difficult period in American-Hungarian relations”. “The American administration expects things from Hungary that we do not want and cannot fulfill,” he wrote.
Hungary’s retreat from democratic norms worries other members of the European Union. In September 2022, the European Parliament issued a statement saying that “Hungary can no longer be considered a full-fledged democracy,” notes Politico.
Relations between the United States and Hungary can be characterized as filled with contempt, sanctions and public reprimands, writes the Washington Post. In recent weeks, tensions between Washington and Budapest have escalated further and appear to have reached their lowest level since the Cold War.
“This is not a government that responds to dialogue, demarches and proposals to work together to constructively solve problems,” Pressman said in his speech. The US ambassador also criticized Budapest for favoring circles close to power, silencing the voice of the opposition and taking over the independent media – effectively building on US President Joe Biden’s claim last week that Orbán was “seeking a dictatorship”.
Following a meeting earlier this month between Orbán and former US President Donald Trump, Biden made the comment during one of his campaign speeches, saying the Hungarian prime minister “has categorically stated that he does not consider democracy to be working and is aiming for a dictatorship “, Reuters recalled, referring to American media. Then the government in Budapest summoned the US ambassador in protest against the American president’s speech, and the country’s foreign minister Peter Szijjártó called Biden’s speech a lie and “a very serious insult”. “This mindset of the president and the Democratic Party administration is a heavy burden on our bilateral relationship,” added Szijjártó.
Tensions between Orbán’s government and the Biden administration have further escalated after Orbán openly endorsed Donald Trump’s candidacy for the US presidency following his meeting with the Republican in the state of Florida. Orban praised Trump for being the only US presidential candidate who could end the war in Ukraine by ending military aid to Kiev.
Budapest opposes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but Orban has refused to send weapons to Kiev and has repeatedly criticized European Union sanctions against Russia. His government maintains close relations with Moscow, in part because of Hungary’s continued energy dependence on Russia, Reuters noted.
The Hungarian Prime Minister began to refer to the current American administration as the “democratic administration”, with which he seems to refuse to give it full legitimacy. Hungarian officials have made it clear they consider Biden a lost cause and are pinning their hopes on Trump’s victory in November, the Washington Post reports.
“We consider the Republicans to be the real America,” said Zoltan Kovacs, an international spokesman for Orbán’s government. With the Democrats, he said, “you have an ideological approach, represented not only by the central administration but also by the ambassador here, and constant pressure to do things we don’t want to do.”
While isolating Hungary from much of its EU and NATO allies, Orbán’s opposition to progressive globalists has won him admirers among American Republicans and drawn the central European country into the domestic political agenda in the United States.
“He’s aiming much higher than what he can achieve as the leader of a country of 10 million people,” Kim Lane Scheppel, a professor at Princeton University who previously served on the Constitutional Court, told the Washington Post. of Hungary. “He draws attention to himself and gets more and more power, and he gets it by breaking all the rules of politeness and civility,” Szeppel added.
Last year, in an interview with American TV host Tucker Carlson, Orbán said Trump’s return was the only way to end the war in Ukraine and accused Washington of interfering in his country’s election process. Late last month, a delegation from the US Congress, including senators from both the Democratic and Republican parties, visited Hungary, but Orbán’s ruling party declined their invitation to talk.
Hungary only responds to actions, Pressman said in his speech, pointing to US sanctions against the Budapest-based International Investment Bank, dubbed the “bank of spies” for its ties to Russian intelligence, which eventually led to its closure. The US has also restricted Hungarians’ access to its visa-free travel program amid concerns that foreign nationals have fraudulently obtained their passports, saying Hungary does not meet their security concerns.
Budapest sees the political winds on both sides of the Atlantic moving in its favor. Polls show that Europe is moving to the right against the background of the upcoming elections for the European Parliament, which will take place in June this year, notes the “Washington Post”.
Last week, Hungary’s newly elected president, Tamás Szuyok, signed the ratification of Sweden’s NATO membership, thereby removing one of the main sources of friction with the US. However, Hungarian officials irked their allies and messed up their plans by saying they would prevent Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte from becoming NATO secretary general. Rutte is one of the leading proponents of suspending EU funds to Hungary over fears of a retreat from democracy.
“What Orbán has learned is that in most of the exclusive clubs he belongs to, like NATO and the EU, many things are accepted unanimously,” Scheppel said. “So Orbán will now behave and take advantage of everything that can be given to him,” she added.