Vance backed Orbán, criticized the EU leadership, and accused Ukraine of interfering in the Hungarian elections

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance arrived in Budapest today and openly endorsed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled for April 12.

Vance expressed his support at a press conference with the Hungarian prime minister.

According to him, it is the leadership of the European Union that is seeking Orbán’s removal from office.

“I want to help Orbán as much as possible, because he has an election coming up. I want to send a message to the bureaucrats in Brussels who are doing everything they can to suppress the people of Hungary, because they do not like a leader who has actually defended the Hungarian people,” Vance said.

He added that he would not tell Hungarians how to vote.

At the same time, Vance said he believes that Orbán and U.S. President Donald Trump are the two leaders who “have done the most to end the war in Ukraine.”

He also accused Ukraine of trying to influence elections in both the United States and Hungary.

“We certainly know that there are elements within the Ukrainian intelligence services that tried to influence the outcome of the elections in America and in Hungary. That is just their style. You know, for example, there were people in the Ukrainian system who literally, just a few weeks before the presidential election in which Donald Trump won a very convincing victory in November 2024, were campaigning together with the Democrats. So I am aware of this. But, you know, I do not think Viktor allows such things to influence him. I do not allow such things to influence me either,” Vance said.

The vice president also touched on the war in Ukraine and said that ending it as soon as possible is in the interests of the United States, Europe, and Ukraine. To achieve that, he said, “diplomacy is needed, not threats or harsh statements, and the United States will continue working on a settlement.”

Vance also said that Europe itself made Ukraine weak and Russia strong.

“Very often, the very people who accuse one leader or another of being pro-Russian are the same people who created an energy-weak economy in Europe in the first place, and that more than anything else contributed to making Ukraine weak and Russia strong,” the U.S. vice president said.