Embattled Hungarian government launches US charm offensive

By Julian Pecquet - 05/22/12 11:20 AM ET

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government is on a week-long charm offensive to the United States to reassure the federal government and the business community of Hungary's democratic credentials.

The visit — the third in 18 months — aims to assuage fears that Hungary is backtracking on civil liberties and human rights following the overwhelming victory of the right-wing Fidesz party in parliamentary elections two years ago. Since then, Orban's government has adopted a new constitution and introduced some 360 legislative proposals — including reforms to the Judiciary, the central bank and the media — that have caused consternation in Europe and the United States.

“The very fact that we are trying to sort out structural issues and problems that haven't been sorted out for the past 20 years and touch on issues that are delicate doesn't mean that we're cutting back … on any kind of freedom-related issues,” said Minister of State for Government Communication Zoltan Kovacs. “That's simply not so. Change is always difficult, but this time it comes from a huge mandate from the Hungarian people.”

Kovacs is on a week-long visit to Washington and New York along with the ministry's deputy chief of staff. They're working with American public relations firms Rasky Baerlein and FWD Affairs to get the Hungarian point of view directly to lawmakers, State Department officials, think tanks, the media and community leaders. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have both raised concerns directly with Hungarian officials during recent visits to the country. And lawmakers — chief among them Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) — have criticized the Orban government in floor speeches and held hearings on rising antisemitism and discrimination against the Roma in central Europe.

“It is no wonder then that in Freedom House's latest 'Nations in Transit' survey … Hungary had declined in ratings for civil society, independent media, national democratic governance, and judicial framework and independence,” Cardin said in a July 5, 2011, floor speech. “Ironically, just as attention shifts to the tantalizing possibility of democratic reform in the Middle East, the red flags in Budapest keep multiplying.”

Kovacs said such criticism hurts Hungary because it “gives an impression that something is going wrong.” To the contrary, he said, Hungary is a stalwart NATO ally that's always been reliable in the war on terrorism.

He blamed the U.S. criticism on miscommunication.

Hungary is a small country with a language few people speak, Kovacs said, and the country's legal reforms can get “lost in translation.”

“We have problems getting our messages straight to the goal,” Kovacs said. “Instead of being listened to, we experience kind of a distorting prism.”

He also blamed long-established ties between left-of-center parties in Europe and U.S. groups for painting a distorted picture of what's happening in Hungary.

“Instead of relying on those channels, we are trying to [reach out directly] to journalists, think tanks, politicians,” Kovacs said. “In central Europe, center-right governments have a history of being criticized immediately upon coming to power. It's no conspiracy theory – it's just experience.”