Hungary’s PM Orban openly supports Trump after Florida meeting
Florida, USA (REUTERS/AP) – Hungary’s right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban lent his support to long-time ally Donald Trump’s bid to return to White House after meeting the former U.S. president in Florida late on Friday.
The two discussed “a wide range of issues affecting Hungary and the United States, including the paramount importance of strong and secure borders to protect the sovereignty of each nation,” according to a statement from Trump’s campaign.
Orbán has garnered admiration from certain conservative populists by advocating for what he terms “illiberal democracy,” characterized by stringent controls on immigration and LGBTQ+ rights. However, he has also implemented measures to tighten control over the press and judiciary in his nation, restructuring the political system to ensure his party’s dominance while fostering exceptionally close ties with Russia compared to other European Union member states.
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Orban has long been at odds with his fellow European Union members over a range of issues, including refusing to send weapons to Kyiv and keeping up economic ties with Moscow since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Orban has said only the return of Republican candidate Trump to the White House could bring peace in Ukraine.
“We need leaders in the world who are respected and can bring peace. He is one of them! Come back and bring us peace, Mr. President!,” Orban said in a post on X after the meeting.
Orban, admired by many conservatives in the United States for his tough policies on immigration, his family support schemes and vocal stance on national sovereignty, said in a video on his Facebook page that under Trump’s 2017-2021 presidency there was peace in the Middle East and also Ukraine.
“Viktor is a Great Leader, respected all over the World,” Trump said on Saturday in a post on his Truth Social messaging platform, saying it had been an honor to host Orban.
“Hungary is a Safe Country because of his Strong Immigration Policies, and as long as he is in charge, it always will be!” Trump added.
Orban has regularly been at loggerheads with the EU over his anti-immigration campaigns and moves to put the judiciary, NGOs, and media under more state control, which critics say have eroded democracy in Hungary.
Orban has also criticised EU sanctions against Russia, although never vetoed them in the end, and held up an EU decision on granting new aide for Ukraine last December until finally agreeing to it early this year.
Biden’s reaction after donald trump’s meeting with Hungary PM
The Trump campaign said late Friday that the two men discussed “a wide range of issues affecting Hungary and the United States, including the paramount importance of strong and secure borders to protect the sovereignty of each nation.”
Campaigning Friday in Pennsylvania, Biden said of Trump: ’You know who he’s meeting with today down in Mar-a-Lago? Orbán of Hungary, who’s stated flatly that he doesn’t thinks democracy works, he’s looking for dictatorship.”
“I see a future where we defend democracy, not diminish it,” Biden added.
On Friday, Hungary’s Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártó, posted from Palm Beach, hailing Trump’s “strength” and implying that the world would be more peaceful were he still president.
“If Donald Trump had been elected President of the United States in 2020, the war in Ukraine, now in its third year, would not have broken out and the conflict in the Middle East would have been resolved much faster,” he wrote.
Orbán has served as Hungary’s prime minister since 2010. The next year, his party, Fidesz, used its two-thirds majority in the legislature to rewrite the nation’s constitution. It changed the retirement age for judges, forcing hundreds into early retirement, and vested responsibility for appointing new judges with a single political appointee who was widely accused of acting on behalf of Fidesz.
Fidesz later authored a new media law and set up a nine-member council to serve as the country’s media regulator. All nine members are Fidesz appointees, which media watchdogs say has facilitated a major decline in press freedom and plurality.
