Hungarian PM Orders Tax Chief to Sue U.S. over Graft Claims
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday ordered his country's tax chief to sue the top U.S. diplomat in Budapest for defamation over corruption allegations.
Orban's ultimatum to Ildiko Vida is the latest twist in a row with Washington. Ties have been worsening since U.S. President Barack Obama in September criticized Budapest's moves against civil society.
Washington had also banned the entry of six Hungarian officials, including Vida, for alleged corruption.
"If she does not file a lawsuit against the U.S. charge d'affaires without delay, I will remove her," Orban said during a parliamentary debate, referring to Vida.
Orban, 51, re-elected last April by a comfortable majority, also had a message for Andre Goodfriend, the top U.S. envoy in Hungary.
"Stand up, be a man, and take responsibility for what you have said!" he said, adding that the envoy should not hide behind diplomatic immunity.
Last week Republican Senator John McCain called Orban a "neofascist dictator," prompting the prime minister to say that the comments were an attack on "Hungary's national independence."
Orban, who has governed Hungary with a constitution-changing majority since 2010, has regularly lashed out at what he sees as outside attacks on his country -- from foreign banks, the European Union or human rights groups that have criticized his policies as attempts to muzzle the media and curb the independence of the judiciary.
Source: Agence France Presse
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