{"id":575699,"date":"2026-04-10T10:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T10:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/575699\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T10:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T10:20:16","slug":"jd-vances-claims-about-orban-the-eu-and-hungary-fact-checked-jd-vance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/575699\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Vance\u2019s claims about Orb\u00e1n, the EU and Hungary fact-checked | JD Vance"},"content":{"rendered":"

During his visit to Budapest, where he heaped praise on the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/a>, days before the country\u2019s decisive election, JD Vance claimed the EU was responsible for \u201cone of the worst examples of election interference\u201d he had ever seen.<\/p>\n

Standing alongside Orb\u00e1n on Tuesday, the US vice-president said<\/a>: \u201cThe bureaucrats in Brussels have tried to destroy the economy of Hungary. They have tried to make Hungary less energy-independent. They have tried to drive up costs for Hungarian consumers. And they\u2019ve done it all because they hate this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who are the bureaucrats of Brussels?<\/p>\n

He probably meant the European Commission, which is responsible for drafting and enforcing EU law. The \u201cbureaucrats of Brussels\u201d is a longstanding Eurosceptic trope. Those who deploy it, like Vance, usually leave out the fact that EU law and policy is determined by 27 member states, mostly with the input of the European parliament.<\/p>\n

Are these \u2018bureaucrats\u2019 meddling in Hungary\u2019s election?<\/p>\n

Vance did not elaborate much on his claim. His most specific allegation was that \u201cbureaucrats in Brussels\u201d were imposing \u201cdigital censorship\u201d and \u201ctelling\u201d social media companies what information to give Hungarian voters. He did not offer any evidence.<\/p>\n

His claim misrepresents EU law. Under the Digital Services Act, the EU has opened investigations into Meta<\/a>, TikTok<\/a> and X<\/a> over a variety of concerns, but these inquiries, grounded in a tightly defined legal process, do not amount to \u201ctelling\u201d companies what information they can give to groups of voters.<\/p>\n

In contrast to Vance\u2019s appearance on the Hungarian campaign trail, EU leaders have been at pains to avoid any comments that could be perceived as revealing a preference in the election.<\/p>\n

Has the EU tried to destroy Hungary\u2019s economy?<\/p>\n

Hungary has thrived since it joined the EU in the \u201cbig bang\u201d enlargement of 2004. If in doubt, Vance could check the US government\u2019s International Trade Administration (ITA), which reports that Hungary \u201cboasts a strategic location in Europe [with] easy access to EU markets<\/a>\u201d, one of several factors that attracted a host of US companies, such as Coca-Cola and Microsoft, to set up operations there.<\/p>\n

Over the last 22 years, Hungary has benefited hugely from EU funds. By 2018, more than 80% of Hungary\u2019s public investment came from European funds<\/a> intended to help poorer EU member states catch up with their wealthier neighbours.<\/p>\n

Hungary remains a net recipient of EU funds, despite widespread concern over state corruption \u2013 an issue highlighted by the US ITA. About \u20ac18bn (\u00a315.6bn) of Hungary\u2019s EU funds have been frozen over concerns about issues ranging from judicial independence, discrimination against LGBTQ+ Hungarians, academic freedoms and the rights of asylum seekers. Approximately \u20ac1bn has been permanently forfeited.<\/p>\n

Far from being singled out, the same standards apply to all EU member states. Hungary accepted these conditions.<\/p>\n

Did the EU make Hungary less energy-independent and drive up bills?<\/p>\n

Geopolitical shocks put up energy bills. Energy costs have risen across Europe since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with a further rise after the outbreak of the US-Iran war. That includes Hungary, where households have faced increasing gas prices.<\/p>\n

The Orb\u00e1n government has made energy a central campaign theme and blamed rising bills on EU sanctions on Russian fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

The EU has pledged to phase out Russian fossil fuels permanently<\/a>, despite opposition from Hungary. EU officials say Russia was never a reliable supplier, recalling when Moscow cut gas supplies in 2006, 2009 and 2014, an experience that affected millions of consumers, including in Hungary.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration, which is hostile to renewable energy, appears to overlook that Hungarians benefit from some of the lowest electricity prices in Europe<\/a>, thanks to an unheralded boom in solar energy production<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During his visit to Budapest, where he heaped praise on the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orb\u00e1n, days before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-575699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}