Xinhua News Agency
December 14, 2014
Hungary urges U.S. to halt unfriendly behavior
BUDAPESTa: The United States should end its unfriendly behavior and policy toward Hungary, Hungary’s parliamentary speaker Laszlo Kover said on Sunday.
Kover told local wire service MTI that he has sent a letter of protest to the U.S. Senate after Republican Senator John McCain called Prime Minister Viktor Orban “a neo-fascist dictator”, which came on the heels of a U.S. visa ban against several Hungarian tax officials citing corruption.
Washington has employed similar policies against the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia, treating them as a tool in a bid to make its own brand of order “in the immediate hinterland behind the front lines”, he said.
He added that some U.S. foreign affairs decision-makers have communicated a negative opinion on Hungary whenever his Fidesz party was in power over the past 25 years.
“The tone may be more unusual and irrational now than earlier … (and) as allies we expect to see a minimum of a correct attitude on America’s part,” Kover said, adding that the U.S. holds the key to normalizing bilateral relations.
McCain called Orban a “neo-fascist dictator” on Tuesday while unsuccessfully trying to persuade the U.S. Senate to reject Colleen Bell, President Barack Obama’s nominee, to be the next U.S. ambassador to Hungary.
He said Hungary was “a very important country where bad things are going on” following a series of events, including a statement by Orban in support of “illiberal democracy” in which he cited Russia and Turkey as an example.
On Saturday, Kover sent a letter to Vice U.S. President Joe Biden, who is also president of the U.S. Senate, charging McCain with “crude statements reminiscent of the tone used during the Cold War”.
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