„David Pressman acts like a viceroy, meddling in our domestic politics”

The US ambassador to Budapest is trying to interfere in Hungary's domestic politics, says Janos Zila, an analyst at the Center for Fundamental Rights.

David Pressman, US Ambassador to Hungary, addresses a press conference at their embassy building in Budapest, Hungary on April 12, 2023. (Photo by Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP) Fotó: AFP

„When David Pressman makes a statement, it is as if President Joe Biden had said it, so when he invites a Hungarian politician who is notorious for his anti-Semitic pronouncements to a Passover Seder dinner, this interference can clearly be seen in practice,” said Janos Zila, an analyst at the Center for Fundamental Rights, on Hungarian public television M1's Saturday morning program.

According to the expert, a big shift can be seen in the world with the hegemonic position of the United States beginning to falter. This is being handled in one of two ways:  „if the Republicans are in power, they try to treat the allies as allies and to work together with them to show strength; conversely, if the Democrats are in power, then, as is the case now, bombs are dropping in some part of the world,” the analyst said, adding that we have seen this in the Obama administration and under Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

Another characteristic of the Democrats' politics is that they try to treat their allies as vassals, which we can also see traces of,

noted Janos Zila, who says that the main ringleader and custodian of this behavior is David Pressman.

He also mentioned that US media personality Tucker Carlson recently pointed out that it is important for a diplomat to have some kind of communication, especially when it is appearing in an allied state. Carlson sees no sign of this. The analyst noted that Pressman also had a poster campaign in Hungary, which was a direct continuation of what the US Left implemented during the 2022 election campaign. „In other parts of Europe, they are also trying to find not partners, but vassals for their war aims,” he added.

„They are not discerning in their means, they carried out very serious campaign interference and tried to put a puppet government at the head of the country in order to get Hungary to send weapons to Ukraine and to even to be ready to send soldiers upon receiving external orders,” said the analyst at Center for Fundamental Rights.

Janos Zila also brought up the example of Slovakia, mentioning that the government fell in December, and the head of state – loyal to the American Left – goes on to appoint a government without any parliamentary authority.

„The fact that elections were not called until September, despite the fall of the government in December, leaving a very long interregnum, raises questions regarding democracy,” he noted and then cited as an example of America's perception of democracy a recent article in the New York Times which said that the biggest threat to democracy are elections.

When asked about the statement by David Pressman following Hungarian President Katalin Novak's meeting in Ukraine that the whole government should pay a visit, the analyst said that Pressman is acting as a kind of viceroy, meddling in all important issues, including that of child protection. Mr Zila quoted from PM Viktor Orban's speech at the Tranzit festival saying that the Anglo-Saxons can always dress up their own interests in some kind of moral cloak. „It is as if it is moral to ignore the need for family protection in a country and the opinion of the electorate on this issue,” the analyst said. „Or as if there were any moral basis for fueling a war with arms instead of saying: stop the killing, because hundreds and thousands of people are dying every day,” he added.

Cover photo: David Pressman, US Ambassador to Hungary  (Photo: AFP/Attila Kisbenedek)