Szijjártó: the United States, which wants to keep Donald Trump from running in the election, cannot criticise the state of Hungarian democracy

From now on, the Hungarian government will not accept any criticism from the United States regarding the state of democracy in Hungary, given that they are trying to exclude the most promising presidential candidate, Donald Trump from the election race, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Budapest on Thursday.

MTI (the State News Agency) reports based on the Foreign Ministry's statement that, while answering journalists' questions about the latest developments in the United States’ domestic politics, the minister asked all members of the US administration to "put away their lectures on the state of Hungarian democracy".

"From now on, we don't want to hear the Americans talk about how democracy functions here, how the institutions operate, or about the rule of law. Because if they allow one of the biggest contenders in the election to be disqualified, then from here on we will not accept any criticism from that country about the functioning of our political system," he said.

Szijjártó also pointed out that Donald Trump's disqualification would be very bad news because he can be trusted when it comes to peace-building, as he was the only one in recent decades who has been successful in settling the situation in the Middle East.

"I think we have every reason to believe that if Donald Trump were President of the United States, we would very quickly have peace in our neighbourhood. We are also convinced that if Donald Trump had remained President of the United States, this war would not have broken out. So it would be very bad news for us, who are in favour of peace, if the efforts in the United States to exclude the most likely presidential candidate were successful," he said.

The former US president is facing 91 criminal charges on four counts of election fraud, withholding classified information and paying hush money to a porn star. The indictment also includes a violation of the Espionage Act of 1917 for mishandling nuclear secrets and national security documents, which may carry a particularly severe prison sentence. Other charges include improper handling of classified documents, obstruction of justice and perjury, among others.

As for the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, the indictments have not hurt Trump's chances at all. In fact, the former president has a huge lead over his challengers in the polls six months before the primaries begin. Moreover, US law does not prohibit convicted felons from running for president, so Trump could even run from prison.

His popularity has not waned in Hungary either, with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently telling Tucker Carlson in an interview that "Trump is the man who can save the Western world and perhaps all of humanity".