Pressman Consults with Hungarian Helsinki Committee Co-Chair

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has received substantial funding from Georg Soros in recent years.

Budapest, 2022. szeptember 2. David Pressman, az Amerikai Egyesült Államok új budapesti nagykövete az érkezése után tartott sajtótájékoztatón a Liszt Ferenc-repülõtéren 2022. szeptember 2-án. MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd Fotó: Koszticsák Szilárd

As the guests of Ambassador David Pressman, three US senators visited Hungary over the weekend. During their visit they called on the Hungarian parliament to ratify Sweden's accession to NATO as soon as possible at a press conference held at the US embassy in Budapest on Sunday. The US embassy published several photos of the meeting, showing discussions between the senators and Hungarian opposition leaders and "representatives of Hungarian NGOs and their experts".

The pictures reveal that the meeting was attended by representatives of opposition parties such as Katalin Cseh (Momentum), Tamas Harangozo (MSZP) Gergely Arato (DK) and Peter Ungar (LMP)

One of the participants captured in the photos was Sandor Lederer, director of K-Monitor, a news portal and database that has been supported by George Soros's main foundation, the Open Sociaty Foundations (OSF).  Lederer's entry into public life began with a cross-cutting stunt on November 1, 2000. The Regnum Marianum Church, located in Budapest's City Park, was demolished during the Rakosi era in 1951 to make room for a vast empty space designated for public parades and marches, known as Felvonulási Square. A monument later marked the church's site, but the wooden cross on it was sawed down and adorned with a drawing depicting a red star, courtesy of Mr Lederer and his four accomplices. He inscribed "Budapest Liberation Front" next to his drawing. During the court proceedings, Lederer denied premeditation, arguing that he happened to have a saw with him, "just in case."

The discussion hosted by Pressman was also attended by Marta Pardavi, co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, an old flagship organization in Soros's network.

In 2021, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee received 168 million forints from the Open Society Institute, 153.4 million forints from the Sigrid Rausing Foundation and 122 million forints from the Oak Foundation, also with ties to Soros, and the organization's assets increased by more than a quarter of a billion forints from 2021 to 2022.

"The Hungarian government has no need for lectures from US congressional delegations on what should happen in Hungary, as only Hungarians can decide that," the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said in Brussels on Monday, responding to a question from the press regarding the visit to Hungary by the US congressional delegation.

I have read here about the Americans complaining that we did not receive them at ministerial level. I suggest that we should try and look up in the chronicles when the last time was that a parliamentary delegation from Hungary was received in the the United States at ministerial level,

the minister said, emphasizing that earlier talks with similar delegations had resulted in "comprehensive lectures on how we should govern Hungary". 

"The situation is that the way Hungary should be governed is decided by Hungarians whose decisions the government implements. Fortunately, over the last fourteen years, we have been tasked to do this, and we hope to continue to do so for some time. We do not need US congressional delegations to lecture us on what should or should not happen in Hungary," he said.

In is opinion, the proof that they made the right decision is the delegation's press conference on the previous day, which showed that the topics the senators wanted to discuss included few bilateral issues and that they clearly wanted to focus on Hungarian domestic issues and EU affairs, but none of those matters concern them, he emphasized.

Meanwhile, Mate Kocsis, Fidesz parliamentary group leader, announced on his Facebook page that the National Assembly may vote on Sweden's NATO accession bid on February 26.

 Cover photo: US Ambassador in Budapest David Pressman (Photo: MTI/Szilard Koszticsak)