Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the report contained “all kinds of fake news and lies”.
After a meeting of EU foreign trade ministers in Luxembourg on Monday, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said parts of an annual US trade report on Hungary “were dictated by” David Pressman, the former US ambassador to Budapest, so it contained “all kinds of fake news and lies”.
Minister Szijjártó said several Hungarian media outlets that are one-time recipients of US funding referred to the US trade representative’s report today.
Such reports have been published annually since 1974, Minister Szijjártó said, dismissing the implication that the latest report on Hungary was linked to a “specific presidential decree”.
“This report was written during the Biden administration, which saw Hungary as an enemy. The parts of this report relating to Hungary were dictated by David Pressman,” he said, adding that the former ambassador had “acted as an opposition activist” during his stint in Budapest.
As the report was being drafted, comments were submitted from September 3, 2024, to October 17, 2024, before the November presidential election, he said, noting that US embassies could contribute such comments.
“There’s no question that David Pressman and his team produced all kinds of lies … about Hungary, and these were printed in this document,” he said.
Minister Szijjártó noted that he had met the new secretary of state, treasury secretary and charge d’affaires amid a “completely different atmosphere” in which cooperation was “fair and based on mutual respect”.
“So we certainly won’t have to encounter such false statements, such unfounded accusations and slander in official documents in the future,” the minister said.
