A bipartisan group of parliamentarians in the US Congress is preparing a bill to impose sanctions on Hungarian politicians associated with the Fidesz party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, reports The Guardian.
The list may include people who previously held government posts, as well as simply actively supporting the Orban government and his party.
The preparation of the bill began in 2022. It is expected that consideration of it in the US Congress will begin in May 2023. The authors of the bill are confident that it will be supported by the majority of parliamentarians.
For the first time, Viktor Orban became Prime Minister of Hungary in 1998, when his Fidesz party won the election. In addition to economic reforms, during his first term in office, he tried to strengthen the role of the prime minister's office and reduce the ability of parliament to influence the course of affairs in the country.
In 2002, Fidesz lost the elections and Orban lost his post. However, after the 2010 elections, his party was back in power, and he again became the country's prime minister. Thanks to the subsequent electoral reforms carried out by Orban, he manages to maintain his party's position in power to this day.
Orban and Fidesz carried out the clericalization of Hungary, introducing a line into the constitution that the people of the country "are united by God and Christianity." The life of national minorities was significantly complicated. The Prime Minister of Hungary himself, which is a member of the EU and NATO, has repeatedly spoken of disagreement with the course of these organizations and the need for Hungarians to build "their own model, different from the modern European one."
After the Russian attack on Ukraine, Hungary did not formally support the actions of the Russian leadership. At the same time, the Orban government regularly tries to block European sanctions against the Russian Federation and assistance to Ukraine, and its representatives often repeat pro-Russian narratives.
On Tuesday, April 11, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto arrived in Moscow. He discussed with the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation gas and oil supplies from Russia, as well as cooperation in terms of the construction of the Paks-2 nuclear power plant.