{"id":10704,"date":"2026-04-08T22:40:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T22:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/10704\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T22:40:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T22:40:26","slug":"jd-vance-accuses-corrupt-brussels-of-manipulating-european-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/10704\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Vance accuses \u2018corrupt\u2019 Brussels of manipulating European elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

JD Vance<\/a> has claimed European elections are being manipulated by \u201ccorrupt millionaire\u201d bureaucrats in Brussels.<\/p>\n

The US vice-president, on a visit to Budapest to support the re-election of Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/a>, the Hungarian premier, accused the European Union (EU) of enriching itself while illegally withholding money from member states.<\/p>\n

In some of his most scathing comments on the EU, he urged Hungarians to reject pressure from Brussels and vote for Mr Orb\u00e1n on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a rally on Tuesday, Mr Vance criticised the \u201ccorruption of Brussels, which has seen bureaucrats become millionaires by threatening and cajoling the sovereignty of the people across this beautiful continent\u201d.<\/p>\n

The vice-president said \u201cthe bureaucrats and Brussels, those people, should not be listened to\u201d in the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike some of the leadership of Brussels, I\u2019m not threatening you or telling you that we\u2019re going to withhold funds to which you\u2019re legally entitled.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EU has frozen around \u20ac18bn (\u00a315bn) intended for Hungary over concerns about the erosion of democracy under Mr Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Right-wing populist government, including high-level corruption and attacks on media independence.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A shirt featuring Mr Trump and Mr Orb\u00e1n was seen in the crowd as Mr Vance spoke during the \u2018Day of Friendship\u2019 event in Budapest – Marton Monus\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Mr Vance\u2019s visit to Budapest was an 11th-hour intervention before the Hungarian elections, with Mr Orb\u00e1n trailing P\u00e9ter Magyar in the polls by between 10 and 20 percentage points.<\/p>\n

The vice-president set up Mr Orb\u00e1n as the saviour of European civilisation, while accusing the EU\u2019s \u201cfaceless bureaucrats\u201d of trying to destroy it via unchecked migration and net zero laws.<\/p>\n

His attack on Brussels echoed his comments at the Munich Security Conference<\/a> last year, when he shocked European leaders by upbraiding them for clamping down on free speech.<\/p>\n

Mr Orb\u00e1n, when he introduced the US vice-president at the rally on Tuesday, praised his Munich speech as a \u201cliberating political thesis\u201d.<\/p>\n

While urging Hungarians to vote \u201cwith no outside forces pressuring you or telling you what to do\u201d, Mr Vance dangled the prospect of trade deals with the US under Mr Orb\u00e1n.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Hungary I actually see real progress under a man named Viktor Orb\u00e1n. I see a trading partner who will bring in record investment from the United States of America,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Mr<\/p>\n

Mr Vance sang the praises of the Right-wing populist leader, saying: \u2018In Hungary I actually see real progress under a man named Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019 – Attila KISBENEDEK\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

With undisguised contempt for the EU, efforts to bring Hungary\u2019s media and public institutions to the heel of the government, his nationalist politics and fierce loyalty to Donald Trump, Mr Orb\u00e1n has emerged as a darling of the Maga movement on a continent increasingly at odds with Washington.<\/p>\n

Mr Vance telephoned Mr Trump at the start of his speech to address the crowd, but was forced to do so twice when his first call went to voicemail.<\/p>\n

When the vice-president held up his phone to the microphone, Mr Trump declared himself a \u201cbig fan\u201d of Mr Orb\u00e1n and said he was \u201cwith him all the way\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Hungary, and I love that Viktor, I\u2019ll tell you, he\u2019s a fantastic man, we\u2019ve had a tremendous relationship,\u201d Mr Trump said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember this, he didn\u2019t allow people to storm your country and invade your country like other people have, and ruin their countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"On<\/p>\n

On a phone call with his vice-president, Mr Trump declared himself a \u2018big fan\u2019 of Mr Orb\u00e1n – Jonathan Ernst\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

At a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Vance claimed Mr Trump and Mr Orb\u00e1n had done more than any other world leaders for peace in Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour leadership has been a far, far more important and constructive partner for peace than almost anyone, anywhere else in the world,\u201d the vice-president told the Hungarian premier at the event in Budapest.<\/p>\n

During his 16-year rule, Mr Orban has forged close ties with Moscow<\/a> and stoked enmity with Kyiv, stalling much-needed loans for Ukraine worth tens of billions of euros, and stymieing its EU accession.<\/p>\n

A leaked call published on Tuesday by Bloomberg, in which Mr Orb\u00e1n offered to support Vladimir Putin \u201cin any way\u201d because of the pair\u2019s \u201cfriendship\u201d, laid bare the Hungarian leader\u2019s rapport with the Kremlin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He compared himself to a mouse aiding the Russian lion, invoking a fable in which a rodent frees a trapped lion by gnawing through a hunter\u2019s ropes, after the predator had spared its life. According to the transcript, the remark drew a laugh from the Russian president.<\/p>\n

\u2018Golden era\u2019 in US-Hungary relations<\/p>\n

Mr Vance\u2019s two-day trip is being billed as the first high-level official US visit in 20 years, although Washington sent Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, to the capital last month to support its flagging ally.<\/p>\n

In a no-holds-barred endorsement of the man Mr Trump has called a \u201cgreat leader\u201d, Mr Vance said: \u201cI want to help as much as I possibly can.\u201d Mr Orb\u00e1n hailed \u201ca golden era\u201d in US-Hungary relations.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Mr Magyar appeared to criticise Mr Vance\u2019s visit in a post that said Hungarian history \u201cis not written in Washington, Moscow or Brussels\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chastising \u201cbureaucrats in Brussels\u201d, Mr Vance suggested Europe should mimic the energy policy of Hungary, the bloc\u2019s leading consumer of Russian oil.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is funny to watch prime ministers and leaders in some of the Western European capitals talk about the energy crisis<\/a>, when, frankly, they should have been following the policies of Viktor Orb\u00e1n,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hungary has refused to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels<\/a> and relies on exemptions to import crude via the Druzhba pipeline.<\/p>\n

Mr Vance also suggested during the press conference that the seeds of the war in Ukraine had been \u201cplanted well before the fighting started\u201d by European energy policy.<\/p>\n

Mr Orb\u00e1n has made energy security a pillar of his campaign and has scapegoated Ukraine in increasingly vitriolic statements which portray the embattled nation as a threat to Hungary\u2019s economy and safety.<\/p>\n

During the weekend, he blamed Kyiv after Alexander Vu&ccaron;i&cacute;, Serbia\u2019s president and an ally of Mr Orb\u00e1n, said two backpacks with \u201clarge packages of explosives\u201d had been left a few hundred metres from a stretch of pipeline transporting Russian natural gas into Hungary.<\/p>\n

Kyiv has denied involvement and the Hungarian opposition has accused Mr Orb\u00e1n of staging a false flag attack<\/a> to boost his standing in the polls.<\/p>\n

Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JD Vance has claimed European elections are being manipulated by \u201ccorrupt millionaire\u201d bureaucrats in Brussels. The US vice-president,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[18,381,125,326,5563,7313,7312,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-10704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-brussels","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-european-union","11":"tag-hungary","12":"tag-jd-vance","13":"tag-mr-orban","14":"tag-mr-trump","15":"tag-viktor-orban"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116371497029879885","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}