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U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman criticized the country’s “dangerously unhinged anti-American messaging” and its “expanding relationship with Russia” on Thursday.
In a fiery speech at the Central European University in Budapest on the 25th anniversary of Hungary’s accession to NATO, Pressman claimed that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was increasingly isolating himself from friends and allies by “saying and doing things that undermine trust and friendship.”
“We can neither understand nor accept the prime minister identifying the United States as a ‘top adversary’ of our ally Hungary,” Pressman said. “Or his assertion that the United States government is trying to overthrow the Hungarian government — literally, to ‘defeat’ him.”
“We cannot ignore it when the speaker of Hungary’s national assembly asserts that Putin’s war in Ukraine is actually ‘led by the United States’,” he added.
A few hours after the speech was held, Orbán shared a video on X, formerly known as Twitter. In the video, he talked about the “difficult period in American-Hungarian relations.”
“The American administration expects things from Hungry that we don’t want to deliver and can’t deliver,” he said.
Hungary has been criticized by many for maintaining close ties to Russia despite the invasion of Ukraine. Its democratic backsliding has also worried other EU members. In September 2022 the European Parliament issued a statement saying “Hungary cannot be considered a full democracy” any longer.
Pressman decried the lack of constructive dialogue with Budapest and its unwillingness to solve problems. Admitting that ambassadors “do not ordinarily give speeches like this in other allied countries,” he stressed that the U.S. hopes cooperation remains possible.
“With other allies we engage, we collaborate, we work together — even where we have differences. Here, that doesn’t work — until we act,” he warned.
“We needn’t agree on everything, and we won’t. We needn’t even agree on most things,” Pressman said. “But there is clearly work to be done.”
Orbán’s communications office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
