BUDAPEST, March 20 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President JD Vance will visit Hungary in early April ahead of what could be right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s toughest election since taking power in a 2010 landslide, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Friday.
Two sources familiar with the planning told Reuters on Wednesday that Vance was planning to visit Hungary in a show of support for Orban, who trails his centre-right challenger Peter Magyar ahead of an April 12 election based on most surveys.
The trip follows U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s trip to Budapest in February to publicly back Orban, who is grappling with a weak economy, an energy price shock and a rival seen as a viable alternative.
“The U.S. vice president will be coming to Hungary, if I know correctly, sometime in early April,” Szijjarto told the Otpontban podcast. “This is the result of excellent U.S.-Hungary relations, that there are personal meetings from time to time.”
Szijjarto did not give further details about timing.
Orban, one of U.S. President Donald Trump’s closest allies in Europe, has long been at loggerheads with the EU over a range of issues, including Ukraine. Defying Brussels, he has maintained cordial ties with Moscow, refuses to send weapons to Ukraine, and says Kyiv can never join the European Union.
Trump endorsed Orban last month, calling him “a truly strong and powerful Leader” in a social media post and many on the American right consider him a model for Trump’s tough immigration policies and support for Christian conservatism.
(Reporting by Gergely SzakacsEditing by Rod Nickel)
