Thank you, Ambassador Colleen Bell!

Almost a year ago, Senator John McCain blasted Colleen Bell on the US Senate floor: “We’re about to vote on a totally unqualified individual to be ambassador to a nation which is very important to our national security interest. Her qualifications are as a producer of the television soap opera The Bold and The Beautiful, who contributed $800,000 to Obama in the last election and bundled more than $2.1 million for President Obama’s re-election effort.”

McCain also said: “I am not against political appointees … I understand how the game is played, but here we are, a nation [Hungary] that is on the verge of ceding its sovereignty to a neo-fascist dictator getting in bed with Vladimir Putin and we’re going to send the producer of ‘The Bold and The Beautiful’ as the ambassador. I urge my colleagues to put a stop to this foolishness. I urge a no vote.”

The Senate confirmed Bell to the ambassador post with a vote of 52-42. Ambassador’s Bell’s recent speech at Corvinus University in Budapest proves that she is a capable diplomat with a clear grasp of the Hungarian situation. Even Senator McCain would agree that her speech tackled most of the important issues. (Don’t expect a congratulatory note from the Senator.)

Ambassador Bell laid out a list of concerns and she did this with unusual clarity. She talked about – among other things – the widespread and debilitating corruption, the government crackdown on the freedom of NGOs and she even mentioned the government’s attempt to whitewash an anti-Semite.

Hungarian politicians tried to sway her; the right-wing media tried to bully her. They announced that with her arrival everything has changed; all troubles originated from her predecessor Chargé d’Affaires, André Goodfriend, the “Hungarian hater.” Hungary’s Ambassador to Washington, Réka Szemerkényi, declared that the “female approach” would play an important role in coordinating sensitive issues. She also assured the media that Hungarian corruption is not on the table anymore, e.g. declaring that the case of Hungarian officials banned from entering the US has been “completely closed”. I was happy to hear that Ambassador Bell’s speech focused on Hungary’s “systematic corruption.”

Bell also met several self-appointed leaders of right-wing Hungarian-American organizations. Last year Edith Lauer, Chair Emerita of the Hungarian American Coalition, was vigorously defending Mr. Orbán. She wrote that Hungary is a “healthy democracy with one of Europe’s most stable governments. In the free and democratic elections on April 6, Hungarian voters gave a resounding vote of confidence to Mr. Orban. They also rejected the destructive record of a Socialist Coalition which proved itself corrupt and inept at governing and incompetent in providing an alternative.” Now things have changed, it seems that she is firmly behind Ms. Bell.

Ambassador Bell (in the middle) with Ms. Edith Lauer and Mr. Zsolt Szekeres of the Hungarian American Coalition.

Ambassador Bell (in the middle) with Ms. Edith Lauer and Mr. Zsolt Szekeres of the Hungarian American Coalition.

Frank Koszorus of the American Hungarian Federation issued a press release after meeting with Ambassador Bell: “We were glad to meet with Ambassador Bell and appreciated the opportunity to express our views and the concerns of a cross-section of our community, as the United States has strategic interests in the region. The United States and Hungary, moreover, have a long history of friendship and shared values,” said Mr. Koszorus. “Good bilateral relations and mutual respect are indispensable, especially as the United States and Hungary are natural allies. We were struck by Ambassador Bell’s passion for Hungary, perseverance, and commitment to bring the two countries together,” he added. It seems that he is also supporting Ms. Bell.

Mr. Orbán’s American friends find it uncomfortable to show public support for his policies. (In private, many of them tell that they wouldn’t mind if he would just disappear.) US media is openly discussing how Hungary is turning into the European Union’s only dictatorship. (Read here.)

Ambassador Bell (in the middle) with Ms. Edith Lauer and Mr. Zsolt Szekeres of the Hungarian American Coalition.

Ambassador Bell  with Frank Koszorus Jr. of the American Hungarian Federation.

The Orbán government is shell shocked. Hungarian diplomats, like Ferenc Kumin, New York consul-propagandist assured his bosses in Budapest that the American relationship is in new phase, Ms. Bell is a lightweight and the US media is under control. Orbán lobbyists are feverishly organizing “feel-good” events in the US to manipulate the media and to prove that Budapest is sensitive and caring. They try to make the Hungarian public believe that Ambassador Bell is inexperienced and gullible and that she is incapable of causing any damage to the Orbán government.

US-Hungarian relations have reached a new low and I have a feeling they will get worse. Ms. Bell is formidable and clever, and she quietly made the Hungarian-American community her ally. She also has strong bi-partisan support. Most US Democrats and Republicans agree that Mr. Orbán’s policies are unacceptable and his failed leadership has guided Hungary into a dead-end.

György Lázár

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For the full text of Ambassador Bell’s speech, referenced in our piece, please click here.

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