Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, welcomed US Vice President JD Vance in Budapest on Tuesday in what appeared to be a final effort to boost Orban’s faltering election campaign.
It is rare for the US administration to send such a high-level politician to a campaign event, highlighting the importance that the current Hungarian government holds for Donald Trump and his MAGA movement.
“I am not here to tell voters who to vote for,” Vance said at a press conference with Orban, as he harshly criticised the alleged “interference of Brussels” in the election campaign – which has seen the opposition take a lead in opinion polls over Orban’s party.
Vance also accused Brussels of fighting against Orban just because “they hate him”.
The US Vice President praised Orban for his energy strategy, European leadership and protection of Christian values, but added that the “US will work with whoever is elected in Hungary on Sunday”.
Orban meanwhile alked about a golden area in Hungarian-US relations than began when Trump was reelected and reiterated that Hungary would still welcome an eventual peace summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump and Ukraine’s President Zelensky.
Orban’s electoral prospects currently appear bleak. Independent pollster Median reported at the end of March that the opposition Tisza party holds a 16-per-cent lead over Orban’s Fidesz.
While Orbsn emphasises foreign policy and security as key campaign themes, his rival, Tisza leader and former Fidesz insider Peter Magyar, focuses on domestic issues, such as poverty, the struggling healthcare system and the deteriorating education system in a country where economic growth has halted since 2022.
Vance’s visit comes just six weeks after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Hungary, also trying to boost Orban’s campaign, underlining the importance of the personal friendship between Trump and Orbsn.
The Hungarian Prime Minister was one of the few political leaders who endorsed Trump even before his first election victory in 2016 and continued to support him during his time out of office between 2020 and 2024.
Since his re-election, Trump has regularly praised Orbsn as one of his main European allies. Fidesz hopes that Trump’s support, even when mediated through Vance, can help to tilt the campaign in his favour, just as it helped Javier Milei in Argentina and the Japanese Prime Minister, Sanai Takaichi.
Although Orban campaigns has lashed out out at Brussels and Ukraine, alleging foreign involvement in the campaign, he has welcomed a range of right-wing and populist politicians lending support to his own campaign, with Vance the highest-ranking among them.
Two weeks ago, the Patriots for Europe group held a conference in Budapest featuring prominent right-wing figures such as Germany’s Alice Weidel, Italy’s Matteo Salvini and France’s Marine Le Pen, underscoring Orban’s central role in the international populist movement.
Opposition leader Peter Magyar, walking a thin line in international politics, has urged foreign leaders to stay out of the campaign, saying: “Our history will not be written in Washington, Moscow or Brussels but in Hungary.” He has also warned that any agreements reached by the current government will be subject to approval by an incoming new cabinet.