“Antal Rogán is a primary architect, implementer and beneficiary of this system of corruption,” he continued.

"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,” Pressman added.

According to a related US treasury statement Antal Rogán “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”.

After January 20, the United States will have a new government and a new president. After their inauguration, we will take the necessary legal steps,” Orbán said in a related statement.

Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Tuesday that the US placing Antal Rogan, the minister heading the Prime Minister's Cabinet Office, on a sanctions list was "personal revenge" by the outgoing US ambassador who is leaving Hungary "without honour".

Szijjarto said on Facebook that "it is good that the people who will lead the US within a few days will view our country as a friend and not as an enemy".

Gergely Gulyas, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, on Tuesday called the United States’ move to sanction Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office chief Antal Rogan "a petty act of revenge" by outgoing US Ambassador David Pressman and the Democratic administration.

Gulyas told MTI by phone that the decision to place Rogan on a sanctions list was "further proof that the outgoing US administration and ambassador want to exact revenge for Hungary and the Hungarian government having supported Donald Trump in the election campaign". 

He added that Trump had referenced the Hungarian government and Orban as positive examples more than he had any other foreign politician.

But Gulyas underlined that Pressman and the outgoing Democratic administration were "the past" when it came to Hungary-US relations.

He said the "petty and baseless act of revenge that will not be in effect for more than a few weeks" would be "a reminder that the United States had an ambassador who, in violation of his official duties and ignoring the Vienna Convention had done everything to oust the government rather than striving to establish good relations with the host country"

Source: 
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.

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