Reuters. U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived in Hungary on Tuesday (April 7) on a mission to boost the campaign of nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who faces the toughest re-election bid of his career.
During the two-day visit, coming just days before the April 12 parliamentary election, Vance will meet with Orban and attend a rally with him, according to Hungarian government sources.
The rare in-person gesture of support for Orban by a senior U.S. official is the latest example of President Donald Trump's efforts to prop up like-minded right-wing leaders, including in Argentina and Japan.
Opinion polls show that Orban, whom Trump has already publicly endorsed and praised as "a truly strong and powerful leader", and his Fidesz party face the most challenging election since returning to power in 2010. In most independent surveys, they trail the center-right Tisza party, led by Peter Magyar.
In a post on X ahead of Vance's arrival, Magyar warned against foreign interference.
"This is our country," he wrote. "Hungarian history is not written in Washington, Moscow, or Brussels - it is written in Hungary’s streets and squares."
Orban’s self-described “illiberal democracy” mirrors key themes of Trump-era America: harsh anti-immigration policies, disdain for liberal norms, hostility toward global institutions, and attacks on the media, universities and nonprofit groups. He was the first European leader to endorse Trump during his 2016 presidential bid.
