Hungary is a small country and now the Orbán government has picked a fight with Joe Biden.
In a decade Viktor Orbán has transformed Hungary. He commands blind trust from his officials, dissenting views are not tolerated. Bellicose rhetoric is commonplace and his lieutenants are ready to pick a fight with anyone, at any moment, to “defend” Orbán.
Speeches are peppered with phrases like “Hungary is a World Nation” and “Every Hungarian is responsible for every Hungarian!” The über-nationalist propaganda is often gibberish.
Months before the US presidential election Orbán raised some eyebrows (and even smiles) when he enthusiastically endorsed Donald Trump’s reelection bid. He accused the Democrats of having “moral imperialism” and trying to control illiberal leaders like himself. “We root for Donald Trump’s victory, because we know well American Democratic governments’ diplomacy, built on moral imperialism. We have been forced to sample it before, we did not like it, we do not want seconds,” he thundered.
Indeed, the Obama administration voiced concerns over Orbán’s authoritarian rule, oppression of free media, harassment of NGOs and the the anti-Roma and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Orbán’s loud support of Trump made headlines yet many of us wondered, why would a small country’s PM go out on a limb with such an endorsement? (Read more here)
In October, just before the election, Biden mentioned on the campaign trail that Poland and Hungary were more like “totalitarian regimes” and compared them to Belarus. (Orbán is friendly with Belarus dictator Lukasenka.)
Budapest immediately launched a fierce personal attack on Biden’s character and family. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó produced a 4-minute video and Orbán loyalists circulated it in the US to influence Hungarian American voters.
Szijjártó’s brought up corruption allegations linked to Biden’s son, Hunter. Biden should address his own family’s corruption allegations in connection with Ukraine before dealing with Hungary, he said. He complained that the Obama-Biden presidency “attacked constantly and lectured” Hungary, unfairly criticized the new constitution, and supported anti-government protests in Budapest. (Read more here about Szijjarto’s attack)
Implying that President-Elect Biden and his family are corrupt without any proof does not indicate diplomatic wisdom. President Trump’s own Attorney General, William Barr stated that there was no reason to appoint a special counsel to look into claims about corruption of Hunter Biden. Why did Szijjártó insult Biden and his family? What political gain does Budapest expect from calling the President-Elect of the United States corrupt?
Many suspect that Orbán and his people actually had some role in „digging up dirt” on the Bidens. In December 2019 Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, travelled to Budapest to meet with former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko. Giuliani’s aim was to discredit the impeachment process in Washington D.C., and incriminate the Bidens. In Budapest Giuliani had dinner with his old friend U.S. Ambassador David Cornstein, a Trump-loyalist. He probably met Hungarian officials but no information was released.
Declaring war on the Bidens was a bad idea and I have a feeling that it will backfire. Most Hungarian Americans traditionally vote for the Democrats; Orbán won’t get support from them either.
This incident reminds me of the 1959 film, The Mouse That Roared with the difference that Orbán and his man are not as funny as Peter Sellers. In fact, they are not funny at all.
György Lázár