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Candidate for US Secretary of State, Antony blink his father, Donald Blinken, formerly an investment banker, was the United States ambassador to Budapest from 1994 to 1997. When he was appointed, he stated in Magyar Hírlap that
The United States is interested in integrating the economic and political systems of the region fully into the West.
The Blinken couple in 2009 Escape and return He also published his memoirs in his book. The title suggests that Judith Blinken survived WWII in Budapest as a child and only managed to leave the country with her mother in 1949.
In his memoirs, the first Orbán government is also mentioned.
The former head of mission stated:
Unfortunately, the Orbán government has slowed down Hungary’s progress to make the government’s work more transparent and accountable. National deficits and unemployment remained stubbornly high, foreign investors were burdened by complicated fiscal rules, and the largest state-owned companies were not privatized in the first two years of the Orbán government. It has also been worrying that relations with Romania and Slovakia have receded following progress towards reconciliation on ethnic issues in previous years. In 2002, the party of Viktor Orbán and Fidesz lost the elections.
The following was written about the Gyurcsány government in his book:
Voters responded positively to Gyurcsány’s strong executive capacity by re-electing the Socialists in 2006, and thus, for the first time since the end of communism, a government was able to retain office through two electoral cycles. This was an encouraging sign of Hungary’s political maturity.
The Blinken did not really forget about Hungary after the ambassadorial appointment expired. In 2015, Blinken and his second wife made a large donation to the Open Society Archives (OSA) at the University of Central Europe (CEU). OSA took the name of Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives in honor of donors.
Before the adoption of the lex-CEU, Blinken senior Nancy Goodman Brinker and Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis, along with former ambassadors, also wrote a letter to the government explaining that passage of the law could delay relations between the two countries.
As they wrote, the law causes changes in the legal environment that
they significantly limit the academic freedom that is essential to the continued operation of the university in Budapest, and would be a major blow to all that the United States and Hungary have accomplished together over the past quarter century.
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