EU state accuses US of election interference

Washington has spent “millions of dollars” in an attempt to remove the government in Hungary, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said

The US has “invested heavily” in attempting to remove the current Hungarian government, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has claimed. According to the diplomat, US interference involved funding the opposition in a bid to defeat the Fidesz-Christian Democratic People’s Party (Fidesz-KDNP) alliance, led by Prime Minister Victor Orban, in the country’s 2022 election.    

In an interview with RIA Novosti published on Monday, Szijjarto alleged that “there were very serious attempts to interfere in our elections [in 2022]… Very heavy interference, many millions of dollars spent to throw the government out.”   

“Millions of dollars have been spent by American entities during the Hungarian elections, invested in our opposition, invested in opposition media. This is still going on,” Szijjarto said. Despite this, the political opposition lost the elections, the diplomat noted, expressing hope that future attempts to interfere in Hungarian policies would be similarly unsuccessful.  

The Fidesz-KDNP alliance won 135 seats out of 199 in the Hungarian National Assembly in 2022, maintaining a constitutional majority for the third election in a row. The coalition of six opposition parties led by Peter Marki-Zay secured only 57 seats. After the vote, the Hungarian parliament reelected Orban as prime minister for a fifth term.  

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Hungarian media first reported on illicit foreign funding of opposition party campaigns in late 2022. Citing an intelligence report prepared by Hungarian secret services, reports claimed that the opposition had received as much as $8 million from foreign entities. Marki-Zay later publicly admitted to receiving funding from the US-based ‘Action for Democracy’ NGO in a podcast for the Magyar Hang newspaper.   

The US government has denied claims it attempted to interfere in the Hungarian electoral process. In a speech in Budapest earlier this year, US Ambassador David Pressman attempted to deflect attention from alleged meddling, insisting that Hungary has no right to “decry foreign interference” when it “advocates for electoral candidates around the world from Poland to Brazil.”  

Relations between the US and Hungary have soured significantly in recent years, including over the Ukraine conflict. Washington has supported Kiev with financial and military aid, while Budapest has called for a diplomatic solution. Hungary has also refused to cut ties with Russia and has blocked numerous sanctions initiatives proposed by the West to pressure Moscow agree to Ukraine’s peace terms.