Orbán cabinet explains position after recent US anti-corruption report on Hungary

Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said after a meeting of EU foreign trade ministers in Luxembourg on Monday that parts of an annual US trade report on Hungary “were dictated by” David Pressman, the former US ambassador to Budapest, so it contained “all kinds of fake news and lies.”

A ministry statement quoted the minister as saying that several Hungarian media outlets that have received US funding once referred to the US trade representative’s report today.

Szijjártó said such reports have been published annually since 1974, dismissing the implication that the latest report on Hungary was linked to a “specific presidential decree.”

“This report was written during the Biden administration, which saw Hungary as an enemy. David Pressman dictated the parts of this report relating to Hungary,” he said, adding that the former ambassador had “acted as an opposition activist” during his stint in Budapest.

He said comments were submitted from September 3, 2024, to October 17, 2024, before the November presidential election, as the report was being drafted, noting that US embassies could contribute such comments.

“There’s no question that David Pressman and his team produced all kinds of lies … about Hungary, which were printed in this document,” he said.

Szijjártó noted that he had met the new secretary of state, treasury secretary and charge d’affaires amid a “completely different atmosphere” in which cooperation was “fair and based on mutual respect”.

“So we certainly won’t have to encounter such false statements, such unfounded accusations and slander in official documents in the future,” the minister said.