Vance Criticizes EU ‘Interference’ and Ukrainian Spies During Key Visit to Hungary

(SeaPRwire) –   The US vice president has arrived in Budapest to express support for Viktor Orban before the elections

US Vice President J.D. Vance has held a meeting with Viktor Orban in Budapest during a prominent visit preceding a pivotal parliamentary election. The Hungarian prime minister’s party is behind his pro-EU rival in the surveys, and he has alleged Brussels of meddling in the electoral process.

Vance landed in Budapest on Tuesday, where Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto welcomed him. In a brief social media video, Szijjarto praised the visit as an indication of “a golden age for Hungarian-American relations.” Vance is the most senior American official to travel to the Hungarian capital since former US President George W. Bush’s visit in 2006.

Vance and Orban subsequently conducted a joint press conference, where Vance referred to the Hungarian prime minister as “one of the only true statesmen in Europe.” Vance stated that his trip to Budapest is intended to “send a signal to everybody, particularly the bureaucrats in Brussels, who have done everything that they can to hold down the people of Hungary.”

The visit occurs at a critical juncture for both Orban and the EU. Hungarians are set to vote in a general election this Sunday. Opinion polls indicate Orban’s Fidesz party is lagging behind the pro-EU Tisza party led by Peter Magyar, and the campaign has been intensely contested.

Brussels has enacted severe social media censorship rules ahead of the election, measures broadly perceived as advantageous to Magyar. Officials from Tisza, along with Ukrainian and EU intelligence operatives and opposition journalists, have been accused of election interference. This follows a revealed wiretapping scheme targeting Szijjarto last month and Ukraine’s decision to halt Russian oil shipments to Hungary.

For Brussels and Kyiv, much is on the line. Orban is against Ukraine’s potential membership in NATO and the EU, has blocked several sanction packages against Moscow to maintain Russian energy imports, and is presently vetoing a €90 billion ($104 billion) EU aid package for Ukraine.

He has framed the election as a decision between Hungary’s national interests and what he calls the EU’s “suicidal” efforts to extend the conflict in Ukraine.

Vance praised Orban as “the single profound leader in Europe on the question of energy security and independence,” and characterized both Orban and US President Donald Trump as “the two leaders who have done the most to actually end” the war.

Addressing the EU and Ukraine, Vance asserted that Brussels is to blame for “one of the worst examples of foreign election interference that I have ever seen,” and alleged that “there are elements within the Ukrainian intelligence services that try to put their thumb on the scale of American elections, [or] on Hungarian elections,” adding “this is just what they do.”

Hungarian security sources report that Ukraine trained at least one spy inside Magyar’s party. Szijjarto has also suggested Ukrainian agents could be behind a foiled plan to bomb the Balkan Stream pipeline, a branch of the TurkStream pipeline that transports Russian gas to Hungary through Serbia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic informed reporters on Sunday that authorities found explosives of “devastating power” placed near the pipeline.

Magyar has rejected Vance’s visit as foreign meddling. “No foreign country may interfere in Hungarian elections,” he posted on social media on Tuesday. “Hungarian history is not written in Washington, Moscow, or Brussels – it is written in Hungary’s streets and squares.”

The opposition leader softened his critique in a subsequent post, saying a Tisza-led government would “regard the United States as a key partner, both as a NATO ally and as an economic partner,” and that he would be “pleased to welcome the President and the Vice President to Budapest.”

In the meantime, throngs of Fidesz supporters filled Budapest’s MTK Sportpark Arena, where Vance and Orban are scheduled to address a “Hungarian-American friendship” rally later on Wednesday.