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Hungary has hauled in the American ambassador for a dressing down after U.S. President Joe Biden’s remarks about Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wanting to run a “dictatorship.”
During a presidential campaign stop in Pennsylvania on Friday, Biden said that Orbán “doesn’t think democracy works and is looking for dictatorship,” after the Hungarian leader’s love-in with Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump in Florida last week.
Hungary reacted furiously on Tuesday, with Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó blasting that Budapest “is not obliged to tolerate lies, even from the president of the United States.”
“This way of thinking by the president and the Democratic administration is a heavy burden on our bilateral relationship,” Szijjártó added, according to local media reports.
Orbán sparked outrage in the White House after he met with right-wing buddy Trump in Florida last week, a meeting in which Orbán praised Trump as the only presidential candidate who could end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The admiration was mutual. “There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orbán. He’s fantastic,” Trump said in a video post.
The Biden administration has often been at odds with Orbán’s government, including over Hungary’s close ties to Russia.
The U.S. Embassy in Budapest confirmed that Ambassador David Pressman was summoned for an “urgent” meeting by the foreign ministry on Tuesday.
“Ambassador Pressman always welcomes the opportunity to discuss the state of Hungary’s democracy with our ally,” a spokesperson for the U.S Embassy told AFP.
