Vance pledges to help Orbán ‘as much as we can’

BUDAPEST – Brussels bureaucrats are trying to destroy Hungary, said JD Vance, the US vice-president, on a Budapest mission for Donald Trump to help Viktor Orbán “as much as we can”.

Appearing alongside the Hungarian leader – Trump’s closest European ally – Vance accused both Brussels and Kyiv of interfering in the country’s upcoming elections on his visit, the first by a US “Veep” for 35 years.

“Viktor Orbán is the most important leader in Europe,” the US vice-president said, adding that the United States and Hungary, under the leadership of Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán, stand for the “defence of Western civilisation.”

Orbán thanked the US for its support in the final days of campaigning ahead of Sunday’s election, expected to be his closest contest in 16 years.

“We thank President Trump and Vice President Vance for standing by Hungary,” Orbán said. “The strongest country in the world is the ally of Hungarians today, and Hungary’s peace and security are thus guaranteed.”

Foreign interference

Vance attacked EU institutions, accusing Brussels of seeking to undermine Hungary’s economy to punish voters for backing Orbán’s sovereignist politics.

“I want to send a message, especially to the Brussels bureaucrats who have done everything to suppress Hungarians because they do not like a leader who stands up for his people,” he said.

The American vice-president claimed that Europe’s ongoing energy crisis stemmed, not from the war-torn Middle East but from the EU’s opposing Orbán’s policy of importing Russian oil and gas. He urged EU leaders to look at Hungary’s lower energy prices and follow Budapest’s lead to make the continent “energy dominant”.

The visit comes five days ahead of a vote that threatens to topple Orbán, Europe’s current longest serving prime minister and Trump’s closest personal ally, in a test of the US national security strategy, announced last December, to bolster “patriotic European parties”.

Previous endorsements by Trump, and first visit by Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state in February have failed to give the Hungarian leader, who has been in office for 16 years, a shot in the arm.

Orbán can claim to be one of Trump’s closest political friends, backing him since before his first election victory in 2016 and supporting him in the wilderness years after his defeat to Joe Biden. He praised Trump for destroying the “old world order” and bringing about a new “era of nations” while defending n his efforts to make peace with Russia over Ukraine, even at the expense of Kyiv.

In what has been turbulent and bitter election campaign dominated by Russia and the Ukraine war, Orbán has failed to beat off his challenger Péter Magyar, who emerged from his own inner circle after a scandal that ripped apart his ruling Fidesz party in 2024.

Magyar has targeted Orbán’s closeness to Putin and Russia, accusing his government of betraying national interest to keep Moscow happy and cheap Russian oil supplies flowing.

New polling by Median, reported by Telex on Tuesday found that 48% Hungarian voters fear Russian influence in the election, twice the number that see interference from Ukraine as a threat despite official claims of Ukrainian plans to sabotage Hungary’s energy supplies, including by bombing a pipeline in neighbouring Serbia.

A newly leaked Hungarian government transcript of a call between Orbán and Putin last October 17, published by Bloomberg, show the extent of their relationship which is sensitive in a country that was dominated and occupied by Moscow until the end of the Cold War. “In any matter where I can be of assistance, I am at your service,” he told Putin.

(bw, cs)