Analyses one week before the US-Hungarian summit
May 7th, 2019A left-wing columnist thinks President Trump intends to express concern over Hungary’s co-operation with China and Russia, while pro-government commentators suggest that he wants to bolster Mr Orbán’s position before the European Elections.
In Népszava, Péter Németh recalls that under President Obama, the Hungarian Prime Minister was never received in the White House, due to concerns over the implementation of the rule of law in Hungary. President Trump has no such concerns, he writes. He may express misgivings to the Hungarian Prime Minister, but only over his ties with Beijing and Moscow.
Nyugati Fény finds it telling that while Mr. Orbán will be received in the White House, two opposition politicians will pay a visit to the State Department. In its headline, the left-liberal news site describes that decision by the State Department as ‘a slap in the face’ to PM Orbán. Two founders of ’Everybody’s Hungary’, an opposition umbrella organisation, Hódmezővásárhely Mayor Péter Márki-Zay and former MP Zoltán Kész will be guests of the German Marshall Fund in Washington.
On M1, the public TV news channel, political analyst Zoltán Kiszelly reads the invitation extended to PM Orbán to the White House as indicating that the President of the United States “wants to revalue” Mr Orbán’s policies in the run-up for the European Parliamentary elections. What prompts him to think so is a basic agreement between the two leaders on immigration and patriotism.
On 888, József György Horváth agrees and deems it telling that just two weeks before the European elections, rather than inviting Mrs Merkel, French President Macron or some leading European bureaucrat, Mr Trump felt it right to receive the Hungarian Prime Minister.