{"id":386590,"date":"2026-04-07T16:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T16:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/386590\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T16:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T16:22:14","slug":"jd-vance-endorses-viktor-orban-while-complaining-of-brussels-election-interference-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/386590\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Vance endorses Viktor Orb\u00e1n while complaining of Brussels election interference \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US vice president JD Vance<\/a> delivered an endorsement of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/a> just days before a he faces a make-or-break general election, praising him as model of leadership for Europe and criticising Brussels for allegedly meddling in the campaign.<\/p>\n

Speaking alongside the Hungarian prime minister during his two-day visit in Budapest, Vance said \u201cthe amount of interference that\u2019s come from the bureaucracy in Brussels has been truly disgraceful.\u201d He provided no evidence for his claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t tell the people in Hungary how to vote,\u201d he said, speaking ahead of the election on Sunday. \u201cI\u2019d encourage the bureaucrats in Brussels to do the exact same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance\u2019s visit underscores the outsized role that the election in a country of 10 million has played for the US administration as it seeks to keep Orb\u00e1n, its ideological ally and a perennial thorn in the European Union\u2019s side, in power despite most opinion polls showing he could ousted after 16 years in office.<\/p>\n

Vance is the second high-profile US official to visit Hungary before the vote. Secretary of state Marco Rubio travelled to Hungarian capital in February to offer his own endorsement, proclaiming the US and Hungary\u2019s relationship was entering a \u201cgolden era.\u201d US president Donald Trump has also repeatedly endorsed Orban, calling him a \u201ctruly strong and powerful leader\u201d.<\/p>\n

Orban has trailed the opposition Tisza party of former government insider Peter Magyar in most independent opinion polls during the final stretch of a hotly contested election.<\/p>\n

Such remarks are a common refrain for Vance. In his speech at the Munich Security Conference last year, the vice president criticised European leaders for regulating online speech, accusing them of suppressing conservative voices and retreating from the continent\u2019s \u201cfundamental values.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those comments blindsided officials on a visit that also saw him meet Alice Weidel, the leader of the AfD, a far-right, anti-immigrant German political party.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d encourage the people of Hungary to ask themselves the question not who\u2019s pro- or anti-Europe, not who\u2019s pro- or anti-the USA, but who is pro-you, who is pro- the people of Hungary,\u201d Vance said in Budapest. \u201cIn my experience, I\u2019ve seen a guy who\u2019s ferociously advocated for the interests of Hungary. I\u2019m here to help him in this campaign cycle.\u201d \u2013 Bloomberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US vice president JD Vance delivered an endorsement of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n just days before a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,1840,5461,43,40,38,41,39,9688],"class_list":{"0":"post-386590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-hungary","10":"tag-jd-vance","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories","16":"tag-ukraine-crisis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}