FILE PHOTO: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
Relations between the two governments have been burdened recently with Budapest's delay of a parliament vote on Sweden's NATO accession and curbs on LGBTQ rights by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's nationalist government.
In a statement, the U.S. embassy in Budapest said the validity period offered to Hungarians under the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) will be immediately reduced from two years to one year, and that only single visits will be allowed under the system and not multiple visits.
Hungary granted citizenship to about one million people between 2011 and 2020 - mostly ethnic Hungarians living in neighbouring states - "without adequate security measures in place to verify their identities", the U.S. embassy said.
Comment: Since when did the US administration care about countries being flooded with undocumented migrants? It's easily ridiculed statements like this that reveal their real agenda.
Comment: These kinds of tactics may have had some impact a decade ago, but even African nations, that have suffered immensely under the yoke of the US hegemon are breaking free; in addition, Orban himself has warned of how precarious the current global situation is, so it's unlikely that he's going to risk complying knowing what is at stake: