You say they were trying to make you feel weird or creepy, but what are these articles trying to say? There has been a series of reports suggesting that I am a pedophile, which is quite unusual. I am a father of two children. I have been with my partner for almost 24 years. I remember that together with the ambassadors of the diplomatic corps, I was participating in the only Pride march in Pécs, a city outside of Budapest. It was kind of a hodgepodge, it was small. And as always, the government media cameras were mainly on me, and I remember that my colleague, the Irish ambassador, who was there with me, had her daughter with her. And he had just arrived and he wanted to introduce his daughter to me, and he bent over and said, “This is the U.S. Ambassador,'' and we shook hands. And the headline story on the news that night was that the American ambassador would lead a pride march in Pécs, which of course is ridiculous. and Surrounded by children, and He was also seen interacting with children. And he meant that there was no need to finish the sentence. The message was clear.
America's growing relationship with the Hungarian right is one of the reasons why Viktor Orbán is better known in America than before. CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) holds several conferences in Hungary. We've seen right-wing thinkers like Heritage Foundation president Tucker Carlson and media personalities like Vice President-elect J.D. Vance express admiration for Orbán. What have you observed about that relationship during your time as ambassador? As the American ambassador, I want to be a little cautious about talking about American politics. But what I want to say is that the Orbán government has convinced the community, including the American political establishment, that we are a country that is standing up for family values, a country that is fighting against woke ideology. , it is broadcasting that it is a nation. A country struggling with immigration. Their tagline is “No immigration, no gender, no war,” which resonates not only in the U.S. political constituency but also in other parts of Europe and around the world. But that ends up obscuring what's going on. And what else is going on is a very dangerous reward and punishment system that has been established in Hungary. There, the government effectively controls two things: money and the media, and uses those two things to punish individuals who ask questions. or express opinions contrary to government policy. And they use their control of the media to radioactively contaminate those individuals. So while praise for the Hungarian government is sometimes expressed based on social issues and hot-button political issues, including US politics, one often wonders whether they actually understand the essence of this government's position. I think so. Not only in its relations with both Russia and China, but also in the system of kleptocracy that has taken hold here and is eroding democratic institutions.
Orbán really changed a lot. As you said, he is a defender of traditional, quote-unquote “family values.” He's cracking down on LGBTQ rights. He embraces an anti-immigrant position. Vance spoke with admiration of how Orbán has transformed higher education in Hungary. Could you please explain how Orbán did it? What the Hungarian government did was effectively take what was a public university and public property and transfer it into private hands. They created what they called a public-private foundation, transferred all of the university's assets to the public-private foundation, and appointed Fidesz party supporters as directors of the foundation for life. So what it effectively did was take what were public resources and place them under the unlimited control of a single political party.
