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21 hours ago
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The United States has imposed sanctions on a senior member of the Hungarian government for alleged corruption, in a move which Budapest said it would challenge as soon as Donald Trump takes office.
The US treasury accused Antal Rogán, a close aide of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, of using his role to secure financial benefits for himself and his political allies.
“Those closely connected to the ruling political party have acquired massive empires of holdings,” the US ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman, told a news conference. “Antal Rogán is a primary architect, implementer and beneficiary of this system of corruption.”
The sanctions were passed under the Global Magnitsky Act, which bans sanctioned individuals from entering the US, prohibits US companies from doing business with them, and freezes their assets under US jurisdiction.
Rogán, often referred to as Hungary’s “propaganda minister”, has been close to Orbán for decades, overseeing his vast media machine and election campaigns, which largely contributed to the Hungarian leader’s grip on power for four consecutive terms. He runs Orbán’s cabinet office and also oversees Hungary’s intelligence services.
According to the treasury’s statement the minister “orchestrated schemes designed to control several strategic sectors of the Hungarian economy and to divert proceeds from those sectors to himself and to reward loyalists from his political party”.
Orbán is the European leader closest to Trump, and relations between Hungary and the US have become increasingly tense during the presidency of Joe Biden, partly because of Budapest’s cordial relations with Moscow despite the war in Ukraine.
According to international watchdogs, corruption in Hungary has significantly worsened since Orbán took office in 2010. In 2023, Transparency International ranked the country last among EU members on its corruption perception index.
Just six days ago Hungary lost its entitlement to more than €1bn ($1bn) in aid from the EU because it “failed to tackle corruption, violated rules on public procurement, and a lack of control and transparency”.
“Corruption undermines a country’s governing institutions and limits its economic development, providing short-sighted gain to a select few while depriving future generations of longer-term benefit,” said Bradley T Smith, acting under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
The move has been in preparation for three years.
“Today’s designation was not a decision the United States has taken lightly. It is not common for the United States to designate a sitting minister. Even less common to do so in an Allied country,” said Pressman in a statement.
Hungarian officials described the sanctions as the “last, petty revenge” by Pressman, who has frequently expressed criticism over the state of democracy in Hungary.
“This is a personal act of revenge by the ambassador sent to Hungary by the failed American administration … How fortunate that in just a few days, the United States will be led by people who see our country as a friend rather than an enemy,” Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjartó, wrote on Facebook.
Dorka Takácsy, a researcher at the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy, said the sanctions were “a clear message to the Orbán regime”.
“[Rogán] is the head of the robust propaganda machine that, to a large extent, keeps the Orbán government in power, and has carried out harsh, continuous anti-western communication campaigns funded by taxpayers’ money for over a decade now,” she said.
Takácsy said that removing Rogán from the sanctions list would be a difficult process, even if there is political will from the incoming administration. “A Hungarian minister whose activities actively undermine US strategic interests is most likely not going to be a top priority, despite the excellent personal relationship between Trump and Orbán at the level of words,” she added.
Orbán has been Trump’s most loyal and vocal supporter in the EU since 2016 and publicly admitted having been involved in the president-elect’s “policy writing system”.
The two populists’ relationship has only strengthened in the past years, with Orbán visiting Trump in Mar-a-Lago multiple times.
“After Jan 20, the United States of America will have a new government and a new president. After their inauguration, we will take the necessary legal steps,” Orbán said in a statement on Tuesday.
