US Woke Diplomacy: The Case of Hungary

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The United States meddles openly in the internal affairs of foreign countries on matters of race and gender. Hungary, which has been an ally and friend of the United States since the end of Communism in 1989 and is led by a conservative government that takes an openly anti-woke and anti-immigration line, has been subject to this form of aggressive, activist diplomacy.

Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, regularly reminds the rest of the world that his government is opposed to multicultural and multiracial ideologies, the LBGTQ agenda, and mass immigration. In his own words, Hungary, unlike its West European neighbors, intends to remain an ethnically homogeneous nation and does not wish to mix with peoples of different cultures and races.

When Mr. Orbán openly declared opposition to race-mixing in a speech last summer, he aroused the indignation of the entire international left-wing media. Hungary has no desire to go the way of Western Europe, where ethnic and racial tensions pose a daily threat to native populations. The majority of Hungarians know that mixing with non-Europeans would mean violence, crime, terrorism, and chaos.

Hungary is proud of its national, Christian, and European identity. Although it is less wealthy than Western European nations, it does not have a major insecurity problem like Western Europe.

Hungary’s policy is obviously unacceptable to the Biden administration. On September 14, 2022, David Pressman was appointed United States ambassador to Budapest. His choice can be seen as a deliberate provocation. He is married to a man with whom he has adopted two boys. This “rainbow family” is clearly opposed to the Christian and conservative values defended by the Hungarian government. Washington’s envoy does not hesitate to publicly promote his “family” in order to stir up trouble.

He quickly began interfering in Hungary’s internal affairs through a series of meetings with Hungarian judges, knowing full well that the European Union as well as the American Democrat Party have long accused Victor Orbán of trying to weaken the judiciary.

The Hungarian system is comparable to that of some Western European countries, where judges are tightly controlled by the state. Washington takes no offense at them; it is only Hungary that is a “problem.” As a result, both the US and the European Union use vague claims that Hungary is not abiding by the “rule of law” as a form of political blackmail.

Mr. Pressmen has met several members of the Hungarian government, including President Katalin Novák, but Viktor Orbán has kept his distance.

Mr. Pressman aligns himself with movements and organizations that are clear political opponents of the Hungarian government. Mass demonstrations took place in Budapest in October 2022 to demand higher pay for teachers. Many members of Orbán’s political opposition participated in them, as did Amnesty International.

Two days later, Mr. Pressman received three representatives of Hungary’s so-called “civil society” (the pro-immigration and pro-LGBTQ radical Left): the director of Amnesty International Hungary, the director of TASZ Hungary (a Hungarian “civil rights” group that supports far-left causes); and the director of Menedék Migránsokat Segítő Egyesület (a migrant advocacy association).

This was a clear act of provocation by the ambassador; all three organizations are known for their hostility towards Mr. Orbán’s government. Mr. Pressman has no qualms about violating diplomatic protocols of refraining from meddling in another country’s domestic politics.

Amnesty International, whose funding sources include George Soros’s foundations, the National Endowment for Democracy, the US State Department, and other Western governments, is obviously not neutral. It did not hesitate to defend Black Lives Matter protesters as they were destroying cities in both the US and Western Europe. The US often works through NGOs to avoid accusations of internal meddling  — even though it helps fund many of them. They are therefore fronts for US diplomacy aimed at destabilizing governments that oppose America’s woke agenda.

Péter Márki-Zay, who was the liberal-left’s opposition candidate against Viktor Orbán in the April 2022 national elections, later admitted that his campaign had been largely financed by the US NGO Action for Democracy, to the tune of seven million euros. Its mission is to fight for “inclusion and diversity” and combat “hate, fear, and exclusion.” Also involved in the campaign was the National Endowment for Democracy, a consulting firm founded by former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright.

American pressure on the Hungarian government went up a notch in February of this year when Democrat heavyweight and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power came to Budapest. Before running USAID, Miss Power was the US ambassador to the United Nations, where she pushed LGBTQ and migrant rights. She was also an advisor to David Pressman. She was a close friend of former President Barack Obama, for whom she worked in 2005, when he was still a senator, and she was appointed to USAID by Joe Biden.

During the George Floyd riots of 2020 USAID staffers sent a letter to management asking for more action against “systemic racism, colonialism, and police brutality.” Mrs. Power’s visit to Hungary was a reminder that all those who question the woke agenda are bigots. Her visit should also be understood in the context of Hungary’s position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Hungary has condemned Russian aggression and voted in favor of all European sanctions against Russia, but has refused to send weapons to Kiev and remains ambivalent towards the Zelensky regime. Democrats want to push Hungary further into the anti-Russian camp.

American diplomacy is clearly more interested in exporting ideology to all of Central Europe than in maintaining good relations. The Hungarian government, which has won a large majority in Parliament in every election since 2010, together with conservative journalists, is calling attention to this subversion-through-diplomacy.

Viktor Orbán is clear on certain gestures of humiliation: A Hungarian kneels only before God, the Homeland, and when he proposes marriage. Here, Zsolt Bayer, an influential journalist in pro-government circles, wears a White Lives Matter T-shirt with Szilárd Németh, a politician from Mr. Orbán’s party.

Hungarians and their leaders will not apologize for being white. They have every reason to distrust their American “ally.”