On Monday, former United States (US) president Donald Trump released a statement of endorsement for far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s fourth consecutive re-election bid.
In the statement on his Save America website, Trump declared that Viktor Orbán has his complete support for Hungary’s spring 2022 elections. He called Orbán a “strong” leader who “truly loves his country and wants safety for his people.” Showering the Hungarian leader with praises, Trump said: “He (Orbán) has done a powerful and wonderful job in protecting Hungary, stopping illegal immigration, creating jobs, trade, and should be allowed to continue to do so in the upcoming Election.” Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has welcomed Trump’s remarks and thanked him for the endorsement.
Orbán was the first European Union (EU) member state head to endorse Trump’s presidential run in 2016. He was later invited to the White House in 2019. At that time, Trump compared himself to Orban, saying both of them were “a bit controversial, but that’s OK.” Orbán also supported Trump’s 2020 re-election bid against Joe Biden, who called the Hungarian leader a “thug.” Relations between the US and Hungary have deteriorated since Biden came into power; in fact, Washington excluded Budapest from Biden’s ‘Democracy Summit’ last month.
This is the second time Trump has endorsed an authoritarian foreign leader since leaving office. Last year, he supported Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s 2022 re-election bid. Throughout his presidency, Trump showed support for and boasted about his good relations with authoritarian leaders such as Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. While talking about his relations with national leaders last month, Trump said, “The ones I did the best with were the tyrants.”
Viktor Orbán has been in power for ten years, with his Fidesz party describing him as the champion of “illiberal democracy.” Throughout his tenure, critics have accused Orbán of challenging the judiciary’s independence, stifling press freedoms, undermining institutions such as universities, and attacking immigrants and the LGBTQ community. Stockholm-based think tank International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), in its 2021 report on the global state of democracy, highlighted “concerning democratic declines” in the EU member state. Freedom House, another think tank, gave Hungary a “partially free” rating in its 2021 country report, making it the only EU member to receive such a rating.
Polls suggest Hungary’s upcoming spring elections will be close as Orbán’s Fidesz party is pitted against a coalition of six opposition parties led by Peter Marki-Zay. It is the first time all the opposition parties have rallied behind one candidate, making it possible for the conservative Marki-Zay to oust Orbán.