Hungarian minister sanctioned by US 'strengthened' by the penalty, Prime Minister Orbán says

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Sanctions issued by the United States last week against a powerful Hungarian official with close ties to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán have “strengthened” that official's standing within the populist government, Orbán said Friday.

Speaking on state radio, Orbán said the U.S. sanctions against Antal Rogán, a senior government minister who leads the prime minister's Cabinet office and is believed by the U.S. Treasury Department to be involved in official corruption, had not shaken his confidence in the minister.

The sanctions against Rogán “strengthened the minister’s position in Hungarian politics and in the government to an unprecedented extent," Orbán said. “He is the minister responsible for the national security services, the number one guardian of Hungarian national sovereignty, and being punished by a great power means that he is doing his job well.”

Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control suspects Rogán of using his position to broker favorable business deals with government-aligned businesspeople, a key aspect of European Union penalties against Hungary that have withheld billions in funding over official corruption concerns.

Speaking at a news conference in Budapest last week, U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman, who left his post days later ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, said Rogán was “a primary architect, implementer and beneficiary” of systemic corruption in Hungary, which he described as a “kleptocratic ecosystem.”

Rogán oversees the engineering of wide-reaching government communication campaigns that are credited with being instrumental in maintaining Orbán’s power since 2010. Known among critics in Hungary as the “propaganda minister,” Rogán rarely appears in public or gives interviews, but is a veteran adviser to Orbán and also oversees Hungary’s secret services.

Orbán, who supported Trump during his election campaign and is a regular visitor to his Florida headquarters, Mar-a-Lago, predicted Friday that the incoming president would usher in a “golden age” in U.S.-Hungary relations that had chilled over concerns in Washington that Orbán has led Hungary, a member of both the EU and NATO, to abandon democratic principles while pursuing closer ties with Russia and China.

Hungary's steeply contracting economy would also get a boost from Trump's presidency, Orbán said, owing to Trump putting an end to the war in neighboring Ukraine “on the horizon.”

A harsh critic of Ukraine, Orbán is widely seen has having the closest relationship with the Kremlin of any EU leader and has vocally opposed economic and military aid to Kyiv and argued against placing sanctions on Moscow for its war.

On Friday, he argued that during the Trump presidency the EU must “throw sanctions out the window and establish a sanctions-free relationship with Russia.”

He also said a postwar Ukraine would pose “a serious threat to the European economy,” and that Ukraine ultimately achieving its goal of joining the EU would force farmers from all over the bloc out of business.

“Economic cooperation with Ukrainians raises many issues, and so far I see far more dangers than opportunities,” he said.