J.D. Vance visits Hungary to boost Viktor Orban before weekend election

Vice President J.D. Vance arrived in Budapest Tuesday to boost Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban ahead of a tough election on Sunday. 

The leaders met bilaterally and addressed the press in a public show of official American support for Mr. Orban, whose Fidesz party is trailing the opposition Tisza party in polls.

Mr. Orban called the meeting a chance to fight for the “soul of the West.”

“With the election of President Trump, I believe a golden era has been ushered in in our relations,” Mr. Orban said in a press conference. “The United States of America is the strongest country in the world, and I’m happy to say that they are our allies today. The peace and security of Hungary, therefore, is guaranteed.”

He pointed to greater economic cooperation in areas such as space technology and defense.

Mr. Vance called Mr. Orban “one of the only true statesmen in Europe” and wished him luck in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

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“I want to help as much as I possibly can the prime minister, as he faces this election season,” Mr. Vance said. “I don’t expect, of course, the people of Hungary to listen to the vice president of the United States — that’s not primarily why I’m here.”

But Mr. Vance said he wanted to “send a signal” to European bureaucrats in Brussels who have opposed Mr. Orban.

Mr. Orban is a natural populist ally to the Trump team and its MAGA movement.

The Hungarian leader has antagonized the European Union establishment and ushered in strict migration policies, while leaning heavily into Christian identity.

Mr. Trump has lavished praise on Mr. Orban, calling him a “strong and powerful leader” who shares his vision on immigration and law-and-order.

“The president loves you, and so do I,” Mr. Vance said Tuesday.

Mr. Orban’s rival, Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar, slammed Mr. Vance’s visit.

“No foreign country may interfere in Hungarian elections,” he wrote on X. “This is our country. Hungarian history is not written in Washington, Moscow, or Brussels — it is written in Hungary’s streets and squares.”

Mr. Vance said the “bureaucracy in Brussels” is the primary meddler in the election. He said EU social media censorship limits the information Hungarian voters can receive.

Mr. Orban enjoys support from the U.S. and Russia ahead of the election, while many in the EU and Ukraine would prefer to see him lose.

On Tuesday, the Hungarian leader said the Russia-Ukraine war would not have happened if Mr. Trump had been president in 2022, and suggested European leaders were blocking efforts to settle the conflict.

Mr. Vance’s pre-election effort follows a February visit from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who heralded a “golden age” of U.S.-Hungarian relations.

On Tuesday, Mr. Vance praised the “moral cooperation” between the U.S. 

The vice president said that includes the “defense of the idea that we are founded on a certain Christian civilization and Christian values that animate everything from freedom to speech to rule of law to support for minority rights and protection for the vulnerable.”

“There have been too few people who’ve been willing to stand up for the values of Western civilization,” Mr. Vance said. “Viktor Orban is the rare exception that has unfortunately proved the rule.”