The reactions of Hungarian politicians to Joe Biden’s victory

It has now become certain that the 2020 U.S. election was won by Democratic candidate Joe Biden against Republican President Donald Trump.

Upon hearing the news, sooner or later many Hungarian politicians congratulated Joe Biden, the 46th president of the USA. These are presented by Telex.

On Saturday night, all authoritative U.S. news agencies reported that the result of this year’s election had come in. Hungarian leading opposition politicians and the head of communications at Fidesz also reacted to the result.

According to Gergely Karácsony, Trump was good for Orbán, but Biden will be good for Hungary.

“Regardless of party affiliation, it can reassure all of us that Biden does not paralyse dictators and does not view foreign policy as a value-neutral business transaction,” writes the mayor of Budapest. According to Karácsony, Biden values the rule of law, human rights, and human dignity. “With Joe Biden, normalcy returns to the White House, and even if the serious troubles of our world don’t go away in one fell swoop, they will at least once again have the opportunity to address them on a value-based, collaborative basis,” he added.

András Fekete-Győr wrote on Facebook that the American nightmare was over, and then he turned to the domestic aspect of the result: “We are past a serious four years: under Trump, the USA – to Viktor Orbán’s greatest pleasure – watched almost in silence as Hungary became a nest for agents of Eastern dictators, with a Russian spy bank and a Chinese spy factory. That’s the end of it: the Biden administration will be Momentum’s natural ally for the next four years,” he reported. According to the president of Momentum, the lesson of the U.S. presidential election is that

“Trump and Orbán’s false populism can indeed be defeated without extremist politics or demonising opposing voters, with respect for the facts”.

The leading man of the Democratic Coalition, Ferenc Gyurcsány, was short and marrowy: “Well then, that’s fine. Congratulation! It is a real hope that the world will be a little better.”

Biden’s victory was also welcomed in a statement by Jobbik. According to them, with Trump’s defeat, “populist lie-making, misleading, and ignorant mass manipulation that has become a daily political practice has been defeated”. The party also underlined that normalcy and people’s sobriety have prevailed. “The fact that a record-high number of American voters went to the polls also means that there is nothing that can be done with people in the United States or elsewhere. Biden’s victory is very bad news for the populists and very bad news for Viktor Orbán.” According to Jobbik, Hungarian-American relations could reach a new chapter, “finally there will be an opportunity to break the power of populist, illiberal despots together with the United States.”

Ágnes Kunhalmi, the co-chair of MSZP, also congratulated Biden. According to her, democracy has proven to be the only device capable of self-correction. The politician wrote on Facebook that the American people fought to “not bring out the populist right-wing Trump card’s exclusionary, deceptive, and selfish responses to the new challenges, but to reconsider the most fundamental values of our civilization, such as human dignity, respect for each other, and equality. According to Kunhalmi, in the spirit of this, the time will soon come to Hungary as well.

LMP also congratulated Biden, “whose election gives the world hope that the United Stated will rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, will actively fight to curb climate change that threatens our world, and preserve biodiversity,” wrote Erzsébet Schmuck on her social media page.

From the pro-government side, Fidesz’s communications director, István Hollik, shared a post on Facebook. He did not congratulate the newly elected American president, but he thanked Trump for the past four years. According to Hollik, thanks to Trump, Hungarian-American relations had become as excellent as ever. “We hope that Joe Biden’s administration will not undermine the common results for ideological reasons,” added Hollik, who had previously been a government spokesman.

Tamás Deutsch, a Fidesz member of EP, evaluated the American elections from the perspective of Hungarian domestic politics. “Previously, we won twice with two-thirds under Biden’s vice presidency. Now we will repeat under Biden’s presidency.”

János Áder also congratulates Biden.

Source: Telex