Victor Orban: He is the Hungarian prime minister. He is openly pro-Russia, anti-Ukraine and anti-West. And now there are allegations that Washington DC might be plotting to overthrow his government.
Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto made this bombshell allegation against the self-styled champion of democracy, the US, during a recent interview. He said the US has “invested heavily” in removing Orban from power. He added, “There were very serious attempts to interfere in our elections [in 2022]… Very heavy interference, many millions of dollars spent to throw the government out.” He added that the US was injecting money into Hungarian opposition and media to stir a political chaos in the country.
He said, “Millions of dollars have been spent by American entities during the Hungarian elections, invested in our opposition, invested in opposition media. This is still going on.”
If these allegations are true, then it means that US campaign to unseat Orban failed spectacularly. Because, Orban won the elections two years back with thumping majority. His victory came as a slap on the face of US leader Joe Biden. His alliance won 135 seats out of 199 in the Hungarian National Assembly.
The coalition of six opposition parties led by Peter Marki-Zay secured only 57 seats. After the vote, the Hungarian parliament reelected Orban as prime minister for a fifth term.
Two years back, when the elections took place, Hungarian media had reported allegations of illicit foreign funding of opposition party campaigns.
An intelligence report then claimed that opposition parties may have received as much as $8 million from foreign entities. Marki-Zay then went on to admitting that his party received funding from the US-based ‘Action for Democracy’ NGO in a podcast for the Magyar Hang newspaper.
The US of course denies these allegations.
Not only for being pro-Russia, Biden despises Orban for openly being pro-Trump as well.
Orban is a staunch Trump ally. He recently declared, “We will open several bottles of champagne if Trump is back.”
Many call Orban, the Trump of Europe. In fact, Hungary’s slogan for EU’s presidency is: “Make Europe Great Again” on the lines of MAGA. He has been asserting himself as the standard-bearer of a resurgent right wing across the continent.
Orban also believes the Ukraine war will soon come to an end if Trump comes to power in US.
Even Trump has also praised Orban during the election campaign trail. In fact, with his debate with Kamala Harris, Trump had cited support from Orban as the prime example of how much he is respected by world leaders.
Trump said, “Viktor Orban said … ‘The most respected, most feared person is Donald Trump. We had no problems when Trump was president.’”
So, you see, the current US administration has no dearth of reasons to hate Orban. In fact, Orban is also disliked by the EU for his moves to hold up aid for Ukraine.
Orban has also clashed with EU over refugee policies — to the point of threatening to bus migrants to the E.U. headquarters in Brussels.
You see a pattern there. Biden has problem with every major right-wing leader of the world; be it Israel’s Netanyahu, India’s Modi or Hungary’s Orban. He hates all of them and wants them out of power.
So much for the principles of the world’s oldest democracies!
