Tensions between Hungary and the US

On 17 October 2014 the US embassy in Budapest announced that a group of Hungarian citizens will be banned from entering the US. It later admitted that among these six people there are representatives of the state administration and that the ban has been introduced due to reliable information linking them to corruption. According to information leaked by the press, the ban applies to representatives of the National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) and several prominent figures from the circles of the ruling party Fidesz.

Peter Szijjarto, Hungary’s new minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, discussed this issue during his visit to Washington during which he met Victoria Nuland, the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the US Department of State, on 21 October. In her speech from 2 October 2014, Nuland clearly referred to Hungary when she talked about the contesting of liberal democracy, about nationalism and challenges to the freedom of speech. She thus elaborated on the reservations expressed by Barack Obama in his speech from 23 September 2014, during which he talked about the pressure put on civil society institutions spanning “from Hungary to Egypt”.