Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will meet with former US President Donald Trump next Friday in Florida, shortly after he openly endorsed his former ally's bid to return to the US presidency this year. . "It is not about betting, but about betting on the only sensible possibility: that we in Hungary bet on the return of President Trump," Orbán said at an economic forum this Monday.
Trump has described the right-wing and illiberal Orbán, who has regularly been at odds with the European Union over his anti-immigration campaigns and moves to put the judiciary, NGOs and media under greater state control, as a "great leader." .
Orbán's conservative family policies have also drawn praise from populist figures in the United States, and Hungary has hosted meetings of CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, in recent years. Next month Hungary will host CPAC for the third time.
The Hungarian prime minister, who has refused to send weapons to Ukraine and has maintained close economic ties with Russia since the 2022 Russian invasion, has repeatedly said that only Trump's return to the White House could bring peace to Ukraine. "The only chance the world has to reach a peace agreement relatively quickly is political change in the United States, and this is linked to who the president is," Orbán said today.
Trump, who is seeking re-election, caused outrage among Western allies last month after suggesting that the United States could stop protecting NATO allies that are not spending enough on defense against a possible Russian invasion.
Orbán has said this year's US presidential election and the vote for the European Parliament in June will be crucial as conservatives in Europe and the United States must fight together to "recapture" institutions in Washington and Brussels from the hands of the liberals who, according to Orbán, threaten Western civilization.
Orbán, in power since 2010, has faced tensions with President Joe Biden's administration, mainly over Budapest's delay in ratifying Sweden's membership in NATO. After a long delay, the Hungarian parliament approved Sweden's candidacy to the Atlantic Alliance last week and the legislation awaits final approval by the president this week.
