Furious Hungary summons US envoy over Biden’s ‘dictatorship’ comment

Hungary summoned the US ambassador over comments by the US president, Joe Biden, who said the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, wants a dictatorship.

The Hungarian leader traveled to Florida on Friday for talks with Donald Trump during a visit in which he did not meet with anyone from the Biden administration.

During a campaign event in Philadelphia, Biden referred to his rival’s meeting with the Hungarian politician: “You know who he’s meeting with today down at Mar-a-Lago? Orbán of Hungary, who stated flatly he doesn’t think democracy works, he’s looking for dictatorship.”

Rights groups and European capitals have repeatedly raised concerns that Orbán and his Fidesz party have undermined checks and balances in Hungary. In 2014, Orbán memorably announced that he was building an “illiberal” state.

And Hungary’s western allies have also grown increasingly worried about Hungary’s ties with Moscow and Beijing, while relations with Washington have reached a low point.

But Biden’s comments have met with outrage from Hungarian officials.

Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, dismissed the American president’s words as “lies”.

In a press conference on Tuesday, he said the American ambassador in Budapest, David Pressman, had been summoned and met with a senior Hungarian official earlier in the day.

“We asked the ambassador to show us the quote, with location and time,” Szijjártó said, denying that Orbán ever said what Biden described. “This is a very serious insult.”

Szijjártó continued: “We are not required to take such lies from anyone, even if that person is the president of the United States.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the US embassy in Budapest said: “We can confirm that Ambassador Pressman was ‘summoned’ for an ‘urgent’