US Vice-President JD Vance has travelled to Budapest to back veteran Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a key European ally of the Trump administration, ahead of tough parliamentary elections on Sunday.
Vance taook part in a joint press conference before addressing an election rally with Orbán in a football stadium on Tuesday afternoon.
The 12 April election is billed as Orbán’s toughest challenge in a political career going back almost 40 years. He has won four elections in a row since 2010.
Vance and his wife Usha were welcomed by Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó who told Hungarian media that Orbán’s friendship with President Donald Trump had created a “new golden age” in relations.
Last month, Trump said Orbán had his “complete and total support” in a video message to the Hungarian Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Budapest.
On Sunday Orbán faces Péter Magyar, a former insider in the prime minister’s Fidesz party, who broke with him two years ago to found the centre-right Tisza party.
Tisza leads Fidesz by between 10% and 20% in most polls. Only the strongly pro-government Nézőpont agency puts Fidesz narrowly ahead.
Orbán is hoping that Vance’s visit will impress undecided Hungarian voters enough to back him once again, as a strong and internationally respected leader in turbulent times.
“I’m looking forward to seeing my good friend Viktor, and we’ll talk about any number of things related to the US-Hungary relationship,” Vance told reporters as he left Washington earlier.
Orbán has strong ties to the US Maga movement backing the American president, who said last month: “I hope he wins, and I hope he wins big.”