Foreign minister Peter Szijjarto – Photo: Facebook

Szijjarto slams Pressman for ‘war propaganda’

Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Friday slammed David Pressman, the US Ambassador to Hungary, for "war propaganda", saying that the US was trying to push Hungary into a war even though the country was part of a "global pro-peace majority".
5. May 2023 18:49

Szijjarto spoke at a press conference held jointly with Bangladeshi Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi, responding to a question on Pressman’s statement on Thursday, which said: “While we should be focusing on the hot war on our doorstep, others are focused elsewhere on fake ‘wars,’ on culture ‘wars’.”

Szijjarto said Pressman “gets an A+ in war propaganda”. “I would like to make it clear: an ambassador is an ambassador, not a governor,” he said.

“Ambassador Pressman said we should be concerned with war … this is also clear from their posters and statements … But we want nothing to do with that, we want to concern ourselves with peace rather than war. We want peace rather than war,” he said.

Regarding Hungary’s contract on gas deliveries with Russia, Szijjarto noted that Hungary had weathered “even the hardest energy crises” without having to introduce restrictions. Energy supplies have been and will remain uninterrupted, he said.

Energy prices in Hungary are expected to fall in the coming months, he said. “Due to the pricing formula, movements on the international market usually appear in Hungarian prices with a two-month delay,” he said, lambasting the opposition for “being awash with experts on natural gas these days”.

On changes to the contract on the upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant, he said there were no structural changes in the pipeline which would impact the contractor or the project company. The current amendments are “technical changes accelerating the investment. We expect the European Union to allow the modifications to go through as they are fully compliant with EU regulations,” he said.

Fidesz: US ambassador should accept that Hungarians remain pro-peace

Fidesz asks US Ambassador David Pressman to accept that Hungarians remain pro-peace, the ruling party’s communications director said in a video message on Friday.

“Inflation caused by the sanctions, migration, child protection — these are real problems that affect that lives of Hungarians, but according to US Ambassador David Pressman, these are only fake problems,” Istvan Hollik said. “He says that we should focus on the war in Ukraine instead.”

This is the position of the American left, which Fidesz refutes, Hollik said.

“Instead of the war, we want to continue focusing on peace … our position remains unchanged: no migration, no gender, no war,” he said.

Leave a Reply