©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during an economic forum in Budapest, Hungary, March 4, 2024. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo/File Photo
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BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungarian right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban gave his support to his long-time ally Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House after meeting the former U.S. president in Florida on Friday evening.
The two discussed “a wide range of issues affecting Hungary and the United States, including the critical importance of strong and secure borders to protect each nation’s sovereignty,” according to a Trump campaign statement.
Orban has long been at odds with his fellow European Union members on a range of issues, including refusing to send weapons to Ukraine and maintaining economic ties with Moscow since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Orban said that only the return of Republican candidate Trump to the White House could bring peace to Ukraine.
“We need leaders in the world who are respected and can bring peace. He is one of them! Come back and bring us peace, Mr. President!”, Orban said in a post on X after the meeting.
Orban, admired by many conservatives in the United States for his tough immigration policies, family support programs and outspoken stance on national sovereignty, said in a video on his Facebook (NASDAQ:) page that under president Trump 2017-2021 there was peace in the Middle East and also in Ukraine.
He said there would not be a war in Ukraine right now if Trump had been re-elected in 2020.
Orban has been regularly at loggerheads with the EU over his anti-immigration campaigns and moves to place the judiciary, NGOs and media under greater state control, which critics say have eroded democracy in Hungary.
Orban also criticized EU sanctions against Russia, although he ultimately never vetoed them, and delayed the EU’s decision on granting new aid to Ukraine last December until accepting it at the beginning of this year.