„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

„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)