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With the return of the Democrats to power in Washington, opponents of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban expect an intensification of pressure on Budapest, already prepared for a confrontation just as immediately after 2010, says AFP, according to agerpres.ro.
By rejecting refugees, aversion to the balance of power and an appetite for fake news, the controversial style of government of the Hungarian Prime Minister, already in conflict with Brussels, brought him closer to Republican US President Donald Trump, loser in the elections of November.
But this way of governing could put him in conflict with US President-elect Joe Biden, who already fought violations of the rule of law in Hungary, an EU and NATO member state, when he was vice president.
For this reason, Budapest expects difficult relations and warned the United States on Thursday not to return to the policy of “exporting democracy”, through the voice of Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas.
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Hungary apparently hopes to be “punished” for its support for Trump and says it is “ready to fight the Biden administration,” according to political scientist Peter Kreko, interviewed by AFP.
During the US election campaign, the Democratic candidate denounced the outstretched hand of President Trump to the Prime Minister of Hungary, a country of 9.7 million inhabitants, accusing him of “embracing all the bandits in the world.”
Viktor Orban was received in May 2019 at the White House, the first visit at this level since 2005, and the US president described him as a leader “respected throughout Europe” and who “does a good job.”
Commentators later viewed this friendly gesture as a return to service, after Viktor Orban was the only EU leader to openly support Trump in the 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton.
In 2011, when she was secretary of state, the Democrat criticized Orban’s “authoritarian” policy, and in 2014, ten Hungarian officials suspected of corruption were barred from entering the US.
As for himself, Donald Trump “dramatically ignored the democratic setback, as well as the growing influence of Russia and China in Hungary,” says Peter Kreko, director of the political capital think tank.
The Hungarian sovereign leader, who returned to power in 2010, was slow to congratulate Joe Biden on his “successful campaign” and wished him only health and success.
In September, Orban said he saw Trump’s re-election as “the best solution for Central Europe” and boasted that he was caught on a phone call from the US president while working in the kitchen.
Hungarian media close to the government continue to report allegations of fraud in the US elections.
Agoston Mraz of the Nezopont think tank believes that Budapest “does not have a plan B”, but that pragmatism should finally prevail.
Hungary opposes the introduction of a mechanism to deprive EU countries of European funds accused of violating the independence of the judiciary and fundamental rights, and opponents of Viktor Orban predict increasing isolation.
The UN, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the EU regularly accuse Orban of adopting laws that are incompatible with European law and values.
The former president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, sees “the end of the triumph of far-right populism also in Europe.”
The liberal mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karacsony, expressed his hope that Joe Biden “is good for Hungary”, while “Trump was good for Orban.”
In a pandemic context that will bring multiple challenges to the new US administration, which will have to deal with many cases, Viktor Orban’s new strategy could be not to stand out and stay away, says Daniel Hegedus, analyst at the German Marshall Fund in the USA. .
“But it is true that he is not necessarily good at it,” added the analyst.
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