Hungary’s Orban braces for US ‘interference’ in 2022 election

BUDAPEST: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he is "prepared" for outside "interference" including from the United States in an election next year that could see the nationalist premier’s ouster.

"That will happen, we are not worried about it, we are prepared for it," Orban said in an interview broadcast early on Friday with US television host Tucker Carlson, who had asked him if he was "worried that there will be international interference" in the election. "Obviously the international left will do everything that they can do, probably even more, to change the government here in Hungary."

The vote expected in April 2022 is shaping up to be a tight race with opinion polls showing Orban’s ruling right-wing Fidesz party neck-and-neck with a coalition of opposition parties from left to right. In power since 2010, Orban has moulded Hungary into what he calls an "illiberal" stronghold, but has faced repeated accusations of democratic backsliding from Brussels and Washington. During his election campaign last year, US President Joe Biden cited Hungary in his criticism of predecessor Donald Trump’s foreign policy.

"You see what’s happened in everything from Belarus to Poland to Hungary, and the rise of totalitarian regimes in the world... this president [Trump] embraces all the thugs in the world," he said on Fox News.

Asked if he expects Biden’s administration will try to "prevent" his reelection Orban said that "sooner or later the Americans will realise that issues in Hungary must be decided by the Hungarians".