US Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday he wanted to "send a signal" to Brussels by supporting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest before Sunday's parliamentary elections.
“I really wanted to send a signal to everyone, especially the bureaucrats in Brussels, who have done everything they can to keep the Hungarian people under pressure because they don’t like the leader who actually stood up for the people of Hungary,” he said at a joint press conference with Orban.
“I’m not going to tell Hungarians how to vote,” he added, calling on Brussels to do the same.
According to Vance, the election campaign in Hungary is “one of the worst examples of interference ever seen,” and the “bureaucrats in Brussels” have tried to “destroy the economy” of the Central European country “because they hate this guy”.
“I’m not going to tell Hungarians how to vote. I encourage the bureaucrats in Brussels to do exactly the same thing,” he continued, while describing Orban as an “important and constructive partner for peace” in Ukraine.
The Hungarian prime minister, who has been in power since 2010, is seeking a fifth consecutive term in office. He is widely predicted to lose Sunday's election by independent polling institutes, even though the electoral system, which he designed to be heavily skewed in his favour, could mitigate his potential defeat.
Pro-government institutions, however, predict a victory for Orban's Fidesz-KDNP coalition in the elections, which will take place on 12 April.
Orban, 62, is known to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and is believed by observers to be receiving covert support from Russia to boost his chances of victory against the Tisza party of the pro-European conservative Peter Magyar.
