Rogan Removed from US Sanctions List - 'Political Revenge' Reversed?
- 16 Apr 2025 7:22 AM

Szijjarto said that the previous administration led by Joe Biden had taken several measures against Hungary "out of pure spite, after its devastating defeat in the presidential election last November".
"One of these measures was putting my colleague, Antal Rogan, on a sanctions list, clearly an act of political revenge by a frustrated ambassador leaving Hungary," Szijjarto said, according to a ministry statement.
Szijjarto: ‘Recipe for success is for us to keep being Donald Trump’
Hungary's government "was Donald Trump well before [US President] Donald Trump", the minister of foreign affairs and trade said on Tuesday, adding that "the recipe for further success is to continue our existing policies of saying no to war, illegal migration and gender insanity."
Speaking at the Central European Summit in Budapest, Peter Szijjarto said recent crises had led to the emergence of a "new world order", adding that Trump’s inauguration in January had caused "a total shift with the world’s number one superpower now being led by a patriotic president."
Szijjarto said these developments in the United States had disproved the liberal mainstream’s "belief in its own exclusivity, that only the liberal mainstream can be good and successful."
"The reason why we are also under constant political attack is because we Hungarians are living refutations of the idea that it is exclusively the liberal mainstream that is good and successful," he added, according to a ministry statement. "Because we are successful as patriots. And it is this combination of being patriotic and successful that they can’t stomach in Brussels."
Szijjarto said the US president had begun delivering on his campaign promises, noting that Trump wanted to end the war in Ukraine and has entered into direct talks with Russia.
Also, Trump had "cut off the financial resources for meddling in the internal affairs of other countries, and there’s a revolution of common sense: the father is a man and the mother a woman, and one is born either a man or a woman," he added.
"No war, no migration, no gender is how you could sum up the revolution of common sense," Szijjarto said. "And this strategy of Donald Trump is in line with the Hungarian strategy."
"And it is without unnecessary modesty that we can say that we were Donald Trump before Donald Trump," Szijjarto said. "Because like him, we say no to war, we say no to illegal migration, we say no to gender insanity, we pursue an economic policy based on common sense, and we base our foreign policy strategy on mutual respect."
He said that for the last 15 years, the Hungarian government had been successful despite the "headwind" it faced.
"And if we want to ask what the recipe for our future success is, the simple answer would be ‘carrying on’," he said. "Let’s keep being Donald Trump!"
"Because our aim continues to be to stay out of the war next door and to provide every support needed for achieving peace," the minister said. "Our aim continues to be to stop illegal migration and reserve our sovereign right to decide whom we are willing to live together with. We’re committed to preserving our identity, and we’ll protect our children in the future as well."
"Yesterday, this was given another important form of constitutional support against aggressive gender propaganda," he said, referring to parliament’s vote to amend the Fundamental Law.
He said "another part of the recipe for future success" was ensuring that Hungarians were the ones to decide on key issues like Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.
"For 15 years, we’ve been governing according to the will of the Hungarian people," Szijjarto said. "And if we look at the actual definitions, this is what they call democracy. We are Europe’s strongest democracy because the government here has received a democratic mandate more times than any other government."
Szijjarto: New era started in Hungary-US relations
A completely new era has started in Hungarian-US relations characterised by friendship and full agreement on the main issues, the foreign minister said on Tuesday.
The ministry cited Peter Szijjarto saying after a telephone call with Marco Rubio, his US counterpart, that they had reviewed the main issues of bilateral cooperation and the current state of peace efforts.
"I told Marco Rubio that Hungary, the Hungarian government absolutely supports the peace efforts of [US President] Donald Trump. We hope for and we ask Donald Trump to maintain his dedication to peace because it is extremely important for us Hungarians that peace should return to Europe after three years of long, senseless and murderous war," he added.
"Unfortunately, many politicians in Europe are trying to undermine the road to peace and thwart the success of the peace talks," he said.
Szijjarto said it was good news that his US counterpart had assured him that the US continues to be committed to peacemaking.
"They won't give up, and they will continue to do everything in their power to end the war under way for three years," he said.
Szijjarto said the developments of the previous weekend in Ukraine also highlighted the importance of concluding the conflict as soon as possible.
"We also exchanged a few words about our cooperation with Israel because Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu had flown from Budapest to Washington, and he was received by Donald Trump in the White House after a meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Orban. I told Marco Rubio that we have announced our exit from the International Criminal Court because it has become a political organisation, discredited itself, and we have no reason to be there," he said.
They also touched on the amendments to the Fundamental Law adopted by parliament on Monday, Szijjarto said. He told Rubio that the amendments were desiged to protect children, declaringthat people were either male or female, among other statements.
"We also discussed the CPAC [Conservative Political Action Conference] Hungary will host the CPAC in late May and we reiterated our mutual commitment to further developing bilateral relations," he said.
"Marco Rubio also thanked the support and accord that the prime minister and other government members had demonstrated towards the US administration in the recent period," he said.
Meanwhile, Orban's national security adviser in talks with Trump administration counterpart
Prime Minister Viktor Orban's national security adviser, Marcell Biro, has met US counterpart Mike Waltz in Washington, DC, according to the daily Magyar Nemzet.
Monday's talks focused on national security, defence, as well as geopolitical and geostrategic issues, and the sides agreed that a peaceful settlement of the Russia-Ukraine war was desirable as soon as possible.
Biro also met other US national security leaders and experts, the paper wrote.
Source:
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.
*********************************
You're very welcome to comment, discuss and enjoy more stories via our Facebook page:
Facebook.com/XpatLoopNews + via XpatLoop’s groups: Budapest Expats / Expats Hungary
You can subscribe to our newsletter here: XpatLoop.com/Newsletters
Do you want your business to reach tens of thousands of potential high-value expat customers? Then just contact us here.
LATEST NEWS IN current affairs