A new meme source? PM Orbán’s struggle with the interpreting device caught on live video

It appears that Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán didn’t quite understand how to use the interpreting device he was given. Well, at least he got one. Trump, on the other hand, had to listen to his Egyptian counterpart without any device for a while but managed to keep a good face about it.

Yesterday in Sharm El-Sheikh, after the signing of the documents for the long-term peace arrangement in Gaza, all the leaders had to line up behind Trump to listen primarily to the American president’s speech, as well as contributions from the Pakistani and Egyptian presidents. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, however, ran into trouble with his interpreting device during Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s speech. Quite a lot of trouble.

Did Orbán not understand how the interpreting device works?

The relevant footage was made public by Ákos Hadházy. In his posts, the independent MP—who manages to hold his seat in the Zugló constituency—hints at many things, mostly having a bit of fun at the prime minister’s intellectual abilities.

The video clearly shows that Orbán wanted to follow the speech of the Egyptian president in his mother tongue through the interpreting device, but it didn’t really work out for him. He tried to listen in various ways, but for some reason, he didn’t put the earpiece on properly. It seems as though he genuinely didn’t realise he had received an earpiece that simply needed to be worn, despite the fact that his neighbour put his on straight away.

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For some reason, he decided to hold the device up to his ear from the outside for several minutes, smiling in a way that suggested it might be deliberate. Presumably, that’s why Hadházy joked that he behaved a bit like Mr Bean. After a few minutes, Orbán may have worked out the trick (or simply noticed the devices already on the heads of both his neighbours) and finally put it on.

Here’s the footage:

Trump didn’t get an interpreting device

There’s another detail in the full footage that Hadházy didn’t highlight: it seems the event organisers weren’t prepared for the Egyptian president to deliver his greeting in a language other than English. They only began distributing the devices once el-Sisi had already started speaking. The devices were handed out first to those standing to Orbán’s right, then Orbán himself, who then began fiddling with his device even though his neighbour on the right was already wearing his (so he could have just copied him).

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Still, not everyone got a device right away. Orbán was already messing with his when a long stretch of el-Sisi’s speech had passed before someone approached US President Trump and handed him a device. However, either it didn’t work properly, or the White House resident didn’t know how to use it. Later, someone came over again and gave him another device, which seemed to work, as there were no more switches after that.

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Only in the following round did organisers approach the other leaders to ask if they needed a device, but most declined, as el-Sisi’s speech was already nearing its end—which was just about eight minutes long. By that point, almost everyone was listening to Trump’s English without any interpreting device.

In his speech, Trump greeted Orbán, said he was a fantastic man who would win the next parliamentary elections.

Here’s the full video, but considering our subject, only the first eight minutes are relevant: