Szijjártó called U.S. sanctions against Orbán a personal vendetta against the American ambassador

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Jan. 7 called U.S. sanctions against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's cabinet chief a personal revenge against the American ambassador.

"This is a personal revenge against Antal Rogan, the ambassador sent to Hungary by the failed American administration and leaving here unsuccessfully and ignominiously," he wrote on his Facebook page (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia).

Szijjártó also cheerfully noted that in a few days there will be people left in Hungary who consider the country a friend, not an enemy.

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Earlier, on December 24, 2024, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry said there was no invitation for Prime Minister Orban to attend the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Orban met with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and entrepreneur Ilon Musk at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on December 9.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on December 4 that Hungary had asked the United States to make an exception to sanctions against Gazprombank for payments for gas from Russia. According to him, he discussed this topic with U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on the margins of the meeting of the heads of diplomatic departments of NATO countries in Brussels. The diplomat noted that such an exception can not be called unusual, because several Russian banks have it to pay for uranium supplies to the United States.

Before that, on November 15, Orban said that the economic path of Europe is comparable to suicide. So, the result of the conflict in Ukraine, according to the politician, are the problems with the Hungarian economy. In his opinion, the introduction of sanctions against Russia, imposed by Brussels, was wrong. Orban noted that the imposed restrictions led to an increase in energy prices, which caused inflation in the country. At the same time, European countries do not have enough money to finance the conflict.

On November 7, the Hungarian prime minister also said that after Donald Trump won the US presidential election, the EU had doubts about continuing to finance Ukraine.