Pro-Orban media in Hungary pushes Trump’s unfounded fraud claims

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungarian pro-government media outlets push unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud in the US election, with nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban also appearing to lend credence to the allegations.

“Huge tension in America over the many signs pointing to fraud,” says a headline in the main pro-Orban news portal Origo.hu.

Outlets among the large swathes of Hungary’s public and private media sector that follow a pro-Orban line have pushed a similar angle since yesterday, echoing US President Donald Trump’s uncorroborated claims of fraud as his Democratic opponent Joe Biden closes in on victory.

An interviewer on public radio today asks Orban to comment on claims made by the Trump campaign that some votes had been cast on behalf of dead people.

Orban replies the US can “no longer criticize others after such an election.”

“If it happened in Hungary, what is happening there now, the sky would have fallen down — it’s unthinkable,” he says.

Describing Trump as “Hungary’s friend” he says that Hungary-US bilateral and economic relations have been in the “best shape ever” since Trump came to power.

“I have always stood beside President Trump,” he says.

In 2016, Orban was the first European premier to endorse Trump, and backed him for reelection in September.

When he visited Washington last year Trump praised the Hungarian as a leader “respected all over Europe” whose anti-immigration stance kept his country safe.

In contrast, Biden last month cited Hungary while criticizing Trump’s foreign policy.

— AFP