On January 24, 2017, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit by Hungary. The award was presented in Washington D.C. with great fanfare by Orbán loyalist Ambassador Réka Szemerkényi and Kaptur expressed her support for the Budapest government.
Ambassador Réka Szemerkényi (left) and Rep. Kaptur at the award ceremony in 2017
Hungarian taxpayer’s money was not spared. The award ceremony was preceded by a piano concert followed by a seated dinner honoring Kaptur who represents Ohio’s Ninth Congressional District. She is the senior-most woman in the House and also the longest-serving woman from Ohio in history Rep. Kaptur is also a long-time co-chair of the Congressional Hungarian Caucus.
Now, to my surprise, in a letter dated May 9, 2019, Rep. Kaptur with other members of Congress have vigorously protested Viktor Orbán’s visit to the White House. Things have changed…
György Lázár
Rep. Kaptur and current Ambassador to Washington László Szabó.
May 9, 2019
President Donald J. Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We are deeply concerned by your decision to invite Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to the White House. As you know, Hungary is a NATO ally, and it is important that the United States maintain a close relationship with Hungary. However, we are concerned that you will turn a blind eye toward Prime Minister Orbán’s ongoing attacks on democracy in Hungary during your meetings — thus effectively endorsing his deplorable actions.
Prime Minister Orbán represents so many things that are antithetical to core American values. He has overseen a rollback of democracy in his country, used anti-Semitic and xenophobic tropes in his political messaging, and cozied up to Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin. He has also suppressed independent media and academic freedom in an effort to consolidate his increasingly autocratic rule. It troubles us to see the President of our country, which has historically supported the protection and promotion of democracy and human rights worldwide, meeting with a man who so regularly disregards these values.
Prime Minister Orbán’s actions have also begun to compromise the security interests of the United States. We are particularly concerned that the Hungarian government’s decision to host the headquarters of the International Investment Bank, widely regarded to be a lightly disguised front for Russian foreign intelligence and money laundering, and to provide the bank employees with diplomatic immunity, will create increased opportunities for Russian espionage and influence operations within a NATO member state. Indeed, this step follows a larger trend of increased Russian and Chinese influence in Hungary, including the construction of a Russian nuclear power plant, Hungary’s embrace of the Chinese “Belt and Road Initiative,” and Hungary’s extradition of Russian arms dealers back to Russia over U.S. Department of Justice objections.
Prime Minister Orbán’s domestic and foreign policy objectives run counter to American values and U.S. security interests. Therefore, we urge you not to meet with Prime Minister Orbán in the coming days and to postpone this meeting until Prime Minister Orbán returns his country to the path of democracy and respect for human rights.
Sincerely,
It is high time the people of Hungary stood up to this ridiculous man and his fly by night policies.
How can she be co-chair of the Congressional Hungarian Caucus when the Wikipedia article about her describes her as having Polish-American
parents?
Many more people of good will and civic responsibility should raise their voices about the blind eye this White House, and this President is showing towards the flagrant abuse of the rule of law in one of the member states of the North Atlantic Community. The moral and political encouragement given t by Trump to the neo-fascist Hungarian autocrat is either a suicidal or a consciously pursued strategy, that threatens us all. For beginners, it throws all those Hungarians under the bus who cherish social justice, , the rule of law and sustainable economic development. (Trump’s praise of the Hungarian autocrat was as callous and stomach turning as his earlier pronouncement that the North Korean butcher, Kim, “loves his people very much”. If only once Mr. Trump would get a taste of the North Korean pychopath’s real affection for his people, if only once he would feel the meat cutter, the “affection” of the Saudi Crown Prince towards anyone who dares to practice those universal human rights that are enshrined in the Charter of the UN, but which are broken with increasing frequency the world over, because of the American government’s encouragement to the criminal, money-grubbing, affinity.fraud artists who are pulling the wool over their citizens’ eyes with fundamentalist religious, nationalist claptrap, as they rob them blind.)
The American government’s encouragement of global gangsterism is the biggest threat to humanity today. It is jeopardizing the future of the planet, hundreds of millions of people the world over, and if left unchecked, will come back to destroy the country that allowed its cherished values to be stolen by a crooked, immoral, globally irresponsible swindler. If this goes on much longer, a hard rain is gonna fall. Bringing back into power geriatric democrats like Joe Biden, under whose watch American democracy staggered to its perilous state will only prolong the agony.
PS I don’t know what those words in caps are doing at the top of my previous post, perhaps they have been inserted there by the good people who want to make America Great Again? Bendeguz or Joe, nay, MartzhaBurka should proceed to investigate 🙂
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!
You are a bit late though, about 6-7 years late, but no matter. Happy that you saw the light (of morning).
Leftist socialist democrats have been anti Hungary for the past 15 years. No surprise. The good thing is Mr. Trump understands sovereignty.
Dear Gabriel Farkas, Kaptur represents Ohio’s Ninth Congressional District which has a large Hungarian-American community. Historically Cuyahoga County in Ohio had one of the largest Hungarian communities in the US. Kaptur’s ancestry is Ukrainian…
martaburka’s above response is the only one that is in any way tied to reality. The rest are the products of the misinformation fed to them by the Hungarian Free Press and the Soros controlled Washington Post and New York Times. Unfortunatelly Marcy Kaptur now also swallows this distorted and myopic view of Hungary and Viktor Orban. Fortunatelly the Hungarian voters are witnesses to progress and Christian Democracy at work. Thus, they have returned him to office three times with a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
Andrew Ludanyi, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Ohio Northern University
Dear Prof Ludanyi,
You are apparently of Hungarian descent, live in conservative Ohio, probably a US citizen who voted for Trump? You get to watch close up the attempts at dismantling of the constitution. As a Prof of Poly-sci it must be great stuff?
I’m an American who has lived the last 30 years in Europe, the last dozen in Hungary. I’ve watched here, close up and personal, the dismantling of democracy and the gutting of a constitution Orban style. In the past 10 years hospitals have closed, schools have become a joke, people are fleeing the country looking for work wherever they can find it. The economy is a disaster unless you happen to be one of the few Orban chosen. I dare say you know not of what you speak Mr Professor Sir.
Then according to your post Soros has control of the worlds richest man Besos who happens to own the Washington Post? Clever move by Soros, eh?
And by the way, the two-thirds of the votes you speak about are derived from 48% of those who were able to vote. Good you’re not a math professor, I’d have to ask how it is that 48% becomes 67% in any place other than Orbanistan.
Keep dreaming your American dream.