Hungary elections: Vance says he’s ‘here to help’ Orban’s poll campaign

Budapest: US Vice President JD Vance said from Hungary’s capital on Tuesday that he was “here to help” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s reelection bid, the clearest sign yet that President Donald Trump’s administration is going all-in for an Orbán victory when Hungarians go to the polls on Sunday.

Vance’s two-day visit to Budapest is a bid to turn the tide in Orbán’s election campaign where the long-serving leader, a close Trump ally, is trailing in the polls.

Orbán is running for his fifth-straight term as prime minister.

He and his nationalist-populist Fidesz party are facing their toughest race in two decades against a centre-right challenger, the Tisza party led by Péter Magyar, that could bring an end to Orbán’s 16 years in power.

The prime minister has bristled at the slightest mention of the Hungarian election by any of his partners in the European Union,

decrying any expressions of support for his opponent as a grave breach of Hungary’s sovereignty and meddling in the election.

Yet speaking at a joint news conference with Orbán at his headquarters in Budapest’s Carmelite Monastery, Vance campaigned openly for the prime minister, saying he wanted to “help as much as I possibly can” ahead of the April 12 vote.

Vance was scheduled to appear later on Tuesday at an election rally for Orbán dubbed a “Day of Friendship” event — an unusual step from a foreign leader and a break with the practice of most politicians who avoid taking an active role in the political campaigns of other countries.

Despite his clear endorsement of Orbán, Vance lashed out at the EU for what he said was “one of the worst examples of foreign election interference that I’ve ever seen or ever even read about.”

“I won’t tell the people of Hungary how to vote. I would encourage the bureaucrats in Brussels to do the exact same thing,” he said, adding that he was confident Orbán would win the election.