Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accuses the EU of betraying Europe and slavishly dancing to the tune of the US-led democracy.
He also accuses the Americans of being behind the bombings of the Nordstream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in 2022.
It was a terrorist act, obviously carried out on orders from the Americans, said Orbán in a speech on Saturday in the Romanian town of Baile Tusnad, where many of the Hungarian minority in the country live.
He presented no evidence for his claim in the speech, which was held within the framework of the Tasvanyos summer university arrangement. Orbán usually returns every year and gives a speech to point out the ideological direction of his government, and also takes the opportunity to criticize the EU.
Sowing doubt about Ukraine
This year, it coincides with Hungary holding the presidency of the EU member states' organ, the Council of Ministers, for six months. Orbán took the opportunity at the start to embark on a "peace mission" to Russian President Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping regarding the war in Ukraine, a move that has infuriated other EU countries and led to a boycott of meetings in Hungary.
Hungary refuses to deliver weapons to Ukraine and is seen as Russia's best EU friend. Orbán sowed doubt in his speech about Ukraine's ability to become a member of NATO and the EU, something the country is aiming for and has been promised in the future.
We Europeans do not have the money for it. Ukraine will return to being a buffer state, said Orbán, talking about the US and Russia making deals on international security guarantees.
Ambassador warns
He also took the opportunity to, once again, give his full support to Donald Trump in his bid to become President of the US again. Trump is the right man to save the US, while opponents are doing everything to stop him, according to Orbán.
That's why they want to send him to prison, that's why they want to take away his assets. And if that doesn't work, then they want to kill him, said Orbán.
The US Ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman, comments on the whole thing on the social platform X and emphasizes that Orbán's rhetoric can damage relations with the US. He notes that the US does not expect an ally to spread conspiracy theories baked in the Kremlin.