U.S. Hungary Envoy Under Fire for Attending Protest
The top U.S. diplomat in Hungary was under fire Tuesday after attending an anti-government protest, with Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government accusing him of interference amid a worsening of relations.
Washington's charge d'affaires, Andre Goodfriend, was photographed by local media among tens of thousands of protestors in Budapest on Sunday demanding Orban scrap a planned Internet tax.
Goodfriend also tweeted from the event, writing: "Always good to see the mood... with my own eyes ... I try to hear the full range of perspectives."
Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said on Twitter that Goodfriend was not just observing but "influencing" the protest.
Tamas Deutsch, a lawmaker from Orban's Fidesz party, called the diplomat a "fifth-columnist CIA agent turned agent provocateur" in a Facebook post.
And in reference to Russian accusations that the West orchestrated protests that toppled Ukraine's government this year, journalist Zsolt Bayer, a co-founder of Fidesz and a close friend of Orban, wrote: "Goodfriend, you are an undesirable in Hungary, the U.S. thinks this is Ukraine."
Victoria Nuland, the top U.S. diplomat in Europe, handed out food during protests against the government of former Ukranian president Viktor Yanukovych in Kiev's central Independence Square, known as the Maidan, before his ouster in February.
Many of Sunday's demonstrators, who planned to protest again later Tuesday, say the mooted Internet tax is aimed at silencing online criticism of Orban, who has been accused of eroding democracy since coming to power in 2010.
Goodfriend, who was not available for comment Tuesday, told journalists Friday that "negative trends" such as weakening of the rule of law and intimidation of civil society have "rapidly taken hold" in the EU member state.
Relations with the United States have been worsening for some time, with President Barack Obama in September criticizing Hungary's government and Washington this month banning the entry of six officials for alleged corruption.
Source: Agence France Presse
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