Tucker Carlson's interview with Viktor Orban, which was widely reported on in the Romanian press, was aired in full by national news channel PrimaNews.
Romanian political analyst and former MEP Cozmin Gusa said in a video podcast that the Hungarian PM-Carlson interview shows that Hungary has ambition, expertise and international-level leadership.
Our neighbors are preparing for future leadership of the region,
said Gusa, citing that in the interview PM Orban spoke intelligently, eruditely, smoothly and when necessary in a sharp tone. He stressed that the Hungarian premier "mopped up the floor" with Biden, while speaking positively about Donald Trump and the Republicans. In Gusa's view the Hungarian leader had credibly conveyed to the world that he is a negotiator and manager with unique potential that the region can count on. The analyst opined that no leading Romanian politician would have been capable of such an interview. Cozmin Gusa mentioned that Hungary's President Katalin Novak had invited Elon Musk to Budapest for the world's largest demographic summit.
After Orban's speech in Baile Tusnad this year, former Romanian Foreign Minister Adrian Severin wrote in a Facebook post:
the Hungarian PM knows that an increasingly greater number of Romanians sympathizes with the sovereignism of the Hungarian government and condemns the servilism and incompetence of the Bucharest government.
Last year's poll by the Nezopont Institute showed that six out of ten people in Romania have a positive opinion of Viktor Orban, while only thirty percent have a negative opinion of him. According to the survey, across all social levels a majority of Romanians like the Hungarian Prime Minister.
Cover photo: Released by the Hungarian Prime Minister's Press Office, Prime Minister Viktor Orban (right) interviewed by US media personality Tucker Carlson (left) at the Carmelite Monastery on 21 August 2023. Carlson's interview was published on the X social networking site (Photo: MTI/Prime Minister's Press Office/Vivien Cher Benko).
