US Ambassador Unleashes Renewed Attack on Hungary

David Pressman first criticized the Hungarian government over license plates and the Central European University (CEU), then expressed concern over press independence and attacked the Sovereignty Protection Act.

20230417 Pécs Pécsre utazott David Pressman amerikai nagykövet, aki nyilvános program keretében látogatott el a Pécsi Tudományegyetemre, majd a Nemzeti Virológiai Laboratóriumba ment. Később „off the record” háttérbeszélgetést tartott. David Pressman egy Soros Györgyhöz köthető helyi alapítványt is meglátogatott. Fotó: Laufer László LL Dunántúli Napló DN A képen: David Pressman USA nagykövet a pécsi belvárosban Fotó: Laufer László

Ambassador David Pressman started his speech by lamenting that Central European University students now have to continue their studies in Vienna instead of Budapest. He did so despite the fact that he himself was speaking at the Budapest campus of the Central European University (CEU), where hundreds of students are still studying today.

The ambassador then went on to illustrate the Hungarian government's hostile attitude towards America through a bureaucratic problem, namely that the status of the personal cars of US soldiers serving at the airbase in Papa has allegedly not been resolved for years, therefore requiring service personnel to apply for temporary license plates. 

This license plate issue has remained unresolved for more than three years. Ministers of this government have assured us that it would be solved, only later to concede that solving it is beyond their power, on hold from the top,

Pressmann said, suggesting that the prime minister himself is standing in the way of US service members obtaining plates in Hungary. 

The US Ambassador to Hungary expressed concern about the situation of independent media, claiming that the media in Hungary has been systematically taken over or bought by oligarchs. He then took aim at the law on the protection of national sovereignty by saying: 

The Defense of Sovereignty Act that threatens anyone who takes part in 'democratic debate' or 'advocacy' is not in defense of  Hungary's sovereignty, but only of a single party's effort to monopolize public discourse, even if not fully implemented, the law achieves its purpose by its very existence.

However, this was not enough for the ambassador, and he began to expound at length on Hungary's pro-peace position, which he claims can only be construed as a pro-Russian stance, because by regularly calling for a halt to arms transfers and the establishment of peace, Hungary's proposal is not one of peace at all, but the capitulation of Ukraine.

This is not the approach of the transatlantic Alliance, an alliance which stood firm against the Soviet Empire and emerged intact and ascendant while the Soviet Union crumbled,

David Pressmann said, noting that Hungary has all the more reason to stand by Ukraine, together with all NATO allies, by supplying weapons to the country under attack.  

Cover photo: US Ambassador David Pressman (Photo: Laszlo Laufer/Dunantuli Naplo)