Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban lamented the election of new leaders in Israel and the United States are a “challenge for him,” in an interview with Fox News, broadcast Thursday.

Speaking with the network’s Tucker Carlson, Orban said former US president Trump’s “America First” policy was a positive foreign policy for central Europe.

“And the same for Bibi Netanyahu,” Orban said, using the ex-premier’s nickname.

He went on to praise Netanyahu as a “good friend” of Hungary.

“When he was in power, he always invested a lot of energy in having a good relationship with central European countries,” he said.

“But he lost also,” Orban continued, “so the Hungarian-Conservative Judeo-Christian democratic syncing lost two main international supporters, and the opponents came into power.”

The Hungarian premier asserted his country was now in uncharted waters.

“This is a totally new circumstance around Hungary,” he said.

“For me as a politician, it’s a strong challenge.”

In June, Naftali Bennett was sworn in as prime minister after a diverse coalition of eight parties formed a new government ending Netanyahu’s 15-year rule, including the last 12 consecutively. Trump was replaced as US president after losing the November 2020 election to Joe Biden.

Budapest has in recent years been Jerusalem’s staunchest supporter in the European Union, blocking several efforts to issue statements critical of Israeli policies.

For instance, in 2020, Hungary was one of the only countries that did not publicly speak out against Israel’s then-plan to unilaterally annex swaths of the West Bank.

Meanwhile, human rights organizations have said Hungry can no longer be considered a democracy after Hungary’s parliament approved a bill in March 2020 giving Orban’s government extraordinary powers during the coronavirus pandemic, and setting no end date for them.

Orban has also long held up George Soros as an enemy, calling him a “public enemy” for allegedly backing uncontrolled mass immigration.

Jewish groups in the country condemned Orban’s anti-Soros campaign as anti-Semitic but despite widespread condemnations, it continued and in 2018 the Soros-founded Central European University was forced to relocate from Budapest.

Source: TOI

Header: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (L) hold a Rubik’s Cube at the Hungary-Israel Business Forum in Budapest, Hungary, on July 19, 2017. (Haim Zach/GPO/Flash90)