In Speech To Romanian Town, Hungary's Orban Again Rails Against The West

TUSNAD, Romania – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban again ripped into the European Union, using a speech in a Romanian spa town to trumpet his nationalist-tinged agenda, including a full-throated embrace of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

In his nearly two-hour speech on July 27, Orban said his visit to the country was positive, discussing with his Romanian counterpart a new high-speed railway between Bucharest and Budapest and Romania's membership in the Schengen visa-free zone. Currently, visa-free travel only applies to Bucharest’s air and maritime borders, something Romania trying to change.

But Orban also touched on many of the same themes he has promoted as prime minister, a post he was soundly reelected to two years ago.

He railed against policies in some Western countries promoting or protecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, and voiced support for what he asserted were Christian values.

"There is no public morality in the West. You could see this at the opening of the Paris Olympics," he said, referring the opening ceremonies of the games held a day earlier.

“In contrast to the ‘slim-fit-squeamish-avocado-latte-free-of-everything" liberals, we have to raise a banner so that brave, nationalist, young Christians can also gather under it,” he said.

Orban also accused the leadership of the European Union of constantly waging war -- an apparent reference to Brussels’ strong support for Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion.

Orban has backed Trump, who is running as the Republican candidate in the U.S. presidential election in November. The Hungarian leader, who traveled to Trump’s home in Florida earlier this month, predicted that ex-U.S. president would win the U.S. election.

And if Europe has not switched to a policy of peace by then, then after [Trump’s] victory, [Europe] will have to do so after admitting its defeat,” Orban said.

Orban also told the crowd that he had spoken a day earlier by phone with Trump and the American sent his greetings to the Transylvanian forum, and he repeated a previous suggestion that "Hungarian professionals" are participating in the creation of Trump's program. RFE/RL could confirm neither the conversation nor the claim of Hungarian involvement in Trump's program.

The U.S. ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman, responded to Orban's remarks by reposting part of a speech the envoy delivered earlier this month in Budapest. In it, he chided Orban for continuing "to remind us, daily, of who he would like to win that election, who he would vote for if he were an American, which he is not."

“We have no other ally or partner, not a single one, that similarly, overtly, and tirelessly campaigns for a specific candidate in an election in the United States of America -- seemingly convinced that, no matter what, it only helps Hungary, or at least helps him personally,” Pressman told his audience.

Pressman, a trained lawyer specializing in human rights, has sharply criticized and publicly jousted with Orban since he was appointed as ambassador in 2022.

Orban delivered his speech while visiting the small central spa town of Tusnad, which is in a region of Romania with a large population of ethnic Hungarians.

Throughout his tenure as Hungary’s dominant politician, Orban has frequently championed the cause of ethnic Hungarians throughout Eastern Europe, often antagonizing nationalist groups in other countries, such as Ukraine.

Orban called for expanding his government’s child support and welfare policies to include ethnic Hungarians living in other countries.

Orban, whose country now holds the rotating EU presidency, has antagonized other EU leaders for years over his slow crackdown on civil society, independent media, and opposition political parties in Hungary.

And he has butted heads not only with the EU, but also NATO, in particular over his embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his unwillingness to do more to support Ukraine in its defense against Moscow's invasion.