U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman reacted in a post on the social network X to the wreath-laying ceremony by pro-government politicians at the grave of interbellum leader Miklós Horthy, who was reburied just 30 years ago. He criticized the statement by János Lázár, the minister of construction and transport, that Horthy was an exceptional statesman, a true Hungarian patriot and a heroic soldier.
In the village of Kenderes, Horthy’s birthplace, János Lázár said that in 1919, Horthy saved the country from the fate that the Western powers had destined for Hungary.
The minister said that Horthy, who led the country after World War I all the way up until 1944, was an exceptional head of state, a true Hungarian patriot and a heroic soldier. Pressman, the U.S. ambassador in Budapest, reacted to the remarks.
“Miklós Horthy was complicit in the slaughter of Hungary’s Jewish population during the Holocaust. The United States is concerned by the participation of a senior Orbán government official in efforts to rehabilitate and promote his brutal legacy,” Pressman wrote in a post on X.
Pressman regularly meddles in Hungarian domestic affairs. His most recent comments on Hungary’s history have focused on the 1956 revolution. The U.S. ambassador then drew a parallel between the anti-Soviet revolution and the Russian-Ukrainian war. He has also made claims that Hungary’s government is supporting the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a claim sharply rejected by Hungarian officials.
It is worth noting that in his message on Oct. 23, Pressman did not say a word about the fact that, despite his earlier promises, the United States had then abandoned Hungary, thus enabling the brutal retaliation of the Soviets, which saw hundreds of thousands of Hungarians flee the country and hundreds of executions.
Shortly before that, Pressman had brought one of President Joe Biden’s most trusted men, Jason Crow, with him to Budapest, where he had also arranged a meeting with Klára Dobrev, MEP for the opposition party the Democratic Coalition.
At the time, Crow said in a post about his visit to Hungary that he had come to support Ukraine.
