At a ceremony, János Lázár, Hungary’s Minister of Construction and Transport, recently praised Hungarian regent Miklós Horthy (1920-1944) for his adept statesmanship, in addition to being a fervent Hungarian patriot and a valiant soldier. Lázár called attention to how in the interwar period Horthy saved Hungary from being brutally partitioned as some Western powers pushed for in the aftermath of World War I.
The Hungarian minister’s remarks were instantly criticized by United States Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman.
“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 declared in a post on X.
Pressman is notorious for constantly interfering in Hungarian internal affairs. One of Pressman’s most recent polemical remarks dealt with the Soviet Union’s crackdown of Hungary’s revolt against it in 1956. Pressman likened this revolt to the present Russo-Ukrainian conflict.
