US denies any interference in Hungarian election

U.S. Ambassador to the European Union (E.U.) Andrew Puzder denied any interference by the Trump administration in the Hungarian parliamentary election, to be held Sunday, April 12.

Due to the recent trip by Vice President J.D. Vance to Budapest to convey the Trump administration's support for conservative candidate and current Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Puzder assured that the visit did not constitute election interference.

"What the vice president or the president did was meddling in the Hungarian election," the diplomat said, in statements reported by AFP.

The vice president "was careful not to be coercive, or make economic threats, or do the kinds of things that could be coercive," Puzder added.

Puzder's response came after Péter Magyar, Orbán's main rival in Sunday's election, suggested that foreign interference could take place following Vance's visit to Budapest.

"No foreign country may interfere in Hungarian elections. This is our country. Hungarian history is not written in Washington, Moscow, or Brussels - it is written in Hungary’s streets and squares," Magyar wrote on X.

Orbán, who will try to continue as Hungary's prime minister after 16 years at the helm, in two separate stints, is one of President Donald Trump's most important allies in Europe.