{"id":881750,"date":"2026-04-09T05:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T05:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/881750\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T05:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T05:34:13","slug":"eu-hits-back-after-vance-and-kremlin-attempt-to-boost-orban-before-vote-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/881750\/","title":{"rendered":"EU hits back after Vance and Kremlin attempt to boost Orb\u00e1n before vote \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"

EUobserver voice<\/strong> is a daily opinion piece by EUobserver staff writers, published every weekday morning<\/p>\n

In a revealing alignment, the White House and the Kremlin both have found common ground in Budapest.<\/p>\n

Following US vice-president JD Vance\u2019s arrival in Hungary to slam \u201cEU bureaucrats\u201d for interfering in Sunday\u2019s (12 April) crucial election, Moscow was quick to echo the MAGA rhetoric \u2014 portraying Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n as the victim. <\/p>\n

And while Europe initially stayed silent on the \u2018foreign interference\u2019 accusations, several officials eventually pushed back at the sheer irony of the situation.<\/p>\n

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that many in Europe would like to see Orb\u00e1n fall this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is well known, it\u2019s obvious to the naked eye, and, of course, they\u2019re playing into the hands of those forces that politically oppose Orb\u00e1n and believe that publishing such materials could harm him,\u201d Peskov said, when asked about leaked transcripts of a phone call between Orb\u00e1n and Vladimir Putin last year, now reported by Bloomberg<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Vance redoubled his interference accusations on Wednesday, saying: \u201cThe fact that so many foreign actors, whether they\u2019re transnational organisations like the bureaucrats in Brussels or whether it\u2019s foreign governments, are literally threatening the Hungarian people to vote this way or we\u2019re going to exact our revenge on you \u2014 that should make you very angry.\u201d<\/p>\n

He admitted that his presence in Budapest just days before the polls was \u201cunprecedented\u201d. But in the MAGA world, there is always a way to justify the extraordinary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought there were so much garbage happening against Viktor in this election, that we had to show that there are actually a lot of people and a lot of friends across the world who recognise that Viktor and his government are doing a good job,\u201d Vance said, effectively turning his visit into a full-on campaign event and show of loyalty to fellow nationalist-conservative Orb\u00e1n.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, both the EU and German officials hit back at the interference accusations when pressed by journalists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fact \u200cthat Vance is \u2060in Hungary \u201calready shows, or speaks for itself, who is interfering in \u200cwhat\u201d, said a German government \u200cspokesperson.<\/p>\n

Attempting to reclaim the narrative and mocking Vance\u2019s wording, one commission spokesperson said: \u201cWhat the \u2018European bureaucrats\u2019 have been doing is [trying] to set out a strong framework to make sure that the elections remain in the hands of our citizens\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was referring to new EU digital rules that aim to hold online platforms accountable for their content and algorithms. \u201cThanks to this, election interference is hardly possible by online platforms in Europe,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have our diplomatic channels and we will be using these also to convey our concerns to our US counterparts,\u201d another commission spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

But when pressed further on the nature of such concerns, the official said the EU was \u201cnot in the business of disclosing what we talk about with our partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have appropriate channels, appropriate frameworks, diplomatic contacts, [and] the joint statement. That is a framework in which we discuss matters of relevance with our partners. And that is where we will be bringing the discussions with the United States if they consider it something worthwhile pursuing with us,\u201d a third spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

This \u2018art of not answering\u2019 is not merely a PR tactic, but a de facto survival strategy, designed to prevent further deterioration in transatlantic relations.\u00a0We saw it with Gaza, Greenland and the threat of a global trade war.<\/p>\n

And while the EU might have all the rules in place, the populists have the microphone.<\/p>\n

If the EU cannot defend its own democratic processes against external interference or call it out for fear of upsetting its \u201cpartners,\u201d then the promise of a\u201dsovereign Europe\u201d is little more than noise.<\/p>\n

For Orb\u00e1n, meanwhile, this seems like the ultimate campaign gift. <\/p>\n

It allows him to present himself to Hungarians as backed by the world\u2019s two superpowers, with his coalition of \u201cpeace\u201d as the centrepiece of his campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EUobserver voice is a daily opinion piece by EUobserver staff writers, published every weekday morning In a revealing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[217083,2000,299,5187,226348,217281,245341,245339,226346,217279,245340,226347,217280],"class_list":{"0":"post-881750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-typedefinedterm","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-identifier4278","13":"tag-identifier4313","14":"tag-identifier4599","15":"tag-nameeuobserver-voice","16":"tag-namehungary","17":"tag-nameus","18":"tag-termcodeeuobserver-voice","19":"tag-termcodehungary","20":"tag-termcodeus"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116373125118143177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}