BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his government in the Hungarian capital on Monday during which they planned to sign a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement championed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump has been an outspoken supporter of nationalist Orban as the Hungarian leader runs for re-election in two months. Orban and his Fidesz party face their toughest challenge in the April 12 vote since right-wing populists returned to power in 2010.
Rubio’s visit to Slovakia on Sunday was in the Hungarian capital after previously attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
Led by Eurosceptic populists who oppose support for Ukraine and vocally support Trump, Slovakia and Hungary are friendly territory for Rubio as he works to strengthen energy deals with the two central European countries.
Orban is widely considered Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most reliable backer in the EU, maintaining friendly relations with the Kremlin despite its war with Ukraine while cozying up to Trump and his MAGA movement, short for Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”
Although Hungary’s democratic institutions are eroding and it is one of the poorest countries in the European Union, many in Make Us Great Again and the wider conservative world view Hungary as a shining example of successful conservative nationalism.
Earlier this month, Trump endorsed Orban for the upcoming election in a post on his Truth Society website, calling him a “truly strong leader” and a “true friend, fighter and winner.”
Trump praised Orban for his staunch opposition to immigration, and his administration erected a fence along Hungary’s southern border in 2015 as hundreds of thousands of refugees fled Syria and other countries in the Middle East and Africa.
Other American conservatives admire Orban’s hostility to LGBTQ+ rights. His government banned the popular Budapest Pride celebrations last year and allowed the use of facial recognition technology to identify any attendee, despite the ban. It also effectively bans same-sex adoption and same-sex marriage, and does not allow transgender people to change their gender on official documents.
Despite EU efforts to reduce such supplies, Orban remains steadfast in his commitment to buying Russian energy and secured a waiver from U.S. sanctions on Russian energy after meeting Trump at the White House in November.
Orban and his government, apparently convinced that his political and personal affinity with the US leader could pay bigger dividends, sought to lure Trump to Hungary ahead of the crucial April 12 election, hoping that such a high-profile visit and support would push Orban, who trails in most opinion polls, over the finish line.
Budapest has hosted the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) several times, with another conference being hastily rescheduled to March this year, before Hungary’s general election.
