Vance Campaigns for Orbán as Polls Show Hungary's Authoritarian Leader in Danger of Being Ousted

Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday campaigned on behalf of far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whom opinion polls show is in danger of losing power in this month's general election.

During a speech in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, Vance heaped praise upon Orbán, who has ruled Hungary for 16 years and has wielded the power of the state to shut down independent media outlets, while putting political allies in charge of the nation's courts and major businesses.

"Viktor Orbán has been a great example in charting a course that could lead to a better, more prosperous and more energy secure Europe," Vance said during a joint news conference with the Hungarian leader. "What the US and Hungary represent is the defense of western civilization."

Vance's campaigning for Orbán comes as opinion polls suggest that his government is more vulnerable than at any time in more than a decade. According to polling averages compiled by Politico, Fidesz currently trails Tisza, its top rival political party, by 10 percentage points.

Axios reported on Monday that the Trump administration has made defending Orbán's grip on power "a strategic priority," given that he and his allies have spent the last two decades "building a template for Christian nationalist rule now embraced by the American right."

Tisza leader Péter Magyar, a one-time Orbán ally, slammed Vance's visit in a social media post, accusing the US vice president of improperly meddling in his country's democratic process.

"No foreign country may interfere in Hungarian elections," wrote Magyar. "This is our country. Hungarian history is not written in Washington, Moscow, or Brussels—it is written in Hungary's streets and squares."

Marc Loutau, an affiliated fellow at the Central European University Institute for Advanced Studies, said in an interview with the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft that he doubted Vance's appearance in Budapest would move the needle for Orbán.

“Vance doesn't set the campaign trail on fire by any stretch of the imagination,” Loutau said. “Few Hungarians know who he is.”

Stephen Wertheim, senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, speculated that Vance's appearance could even hinder Orbán's chances.

"Orbán positions himself as a bastion of geopolitical stability," Wertheim explained. "Back in Washington, however, Vance's administration is waging a war on Iran that has predictably destabilized the Middle East and damaged European economies. More and more, America First isn't playing well with European nationalism."

Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said that Vance's trip to Hungary seemed like a desperate Hail Mary pass.

"It speaks to how worried the would-be autocrat Trump is about the likely electoral loss of Viktor Orbán, Europe's most notorious autocrat," he wrote, "that Trump sends JD Vance to Hungary (amid a war in Iran) to try to salvage Orbán's candidacy."