Posted on 08/06/2023 11:29:07 AM PDT by MarMema
BUDAPEST (Sputnik) - The United States’ demand to hand over the data of 900,000 Hungarian citizens living abroad is unprecedented and unrealistic, Hungarian Deputy Interior Minister Bence Retvari said on Sunday, adding that Budapest would not share the information to avoid putting its citizens in danger. The main reason why Hungary has not agreed to hand over the data is security concerns, he added.
"Such a request for someone to hand over the data of several hundred thousand of its citizens is unprecedented, countries do not do this. Every country protects and safeguards the data of its citizens with legal guarantees, Hungary does the same. Nowhere in the world do they hand over data of this amount, it is an unrealistic request, other countries do not do it either," Retvari told Hungary's Kossuth Radio.
"There are countries where dual citizenship is not allowed, and if we hand over this data and the authorities of these countries obtain these lists, very serious retortions will have to be applied to Hungarians, various procedures will have to be initiated, including criminal ones, at least in Zakarpattia [western region of Ukraine that prohibits dual citizenship]," the deputy minister said. The recent US's decision to restrict entry for Hungarians is "more of a symbolic gesture, a political signal, than a practical legal issue" because Hungarians will still be able to enter the country without visas, but the process will involve more bureaucratic complexities, Retvari noted.
Hungary and the US have a different mentality, which sometimes overshadows the fact that the countries are allies, he added. "You can see that in many cases, belonging to a different political camp and different world views — from the gender issue to migration and more recently wars — seem to outweigh the fact that the two countries are close allies," Retvari said.
On August 1, the US embassy in Budapest said that Washington had reduced the validity of entry permits under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) for Hungarian citizens from two years to one year and limited them to a single use, citing security concerns over Hungary's simplified naturalization program.
Hungary must be prepared for serious attacks from the European Union since "Brussels and liberal propaganda machine" are not selective in their means and are using all kinds of blackmail against Budapest, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Thursday.
The United States’ demand to hand over the data of 900,000 Hungarian citizens living abroad
Tell me again why we’re supposed to be the ‘Good Guys’, with DEMANDS like this being sent to other countries?
Amazing.
It’s as if every petty bureaucrat in the USG was given orders to find ways to harass, damage, inconvenience and otherwise punish every nation in the world that doesn’t toe the line on what we tell them to do.
And the EU is another pack of totalitarian policy jackals
Be a blast if Hungary suspended its membership in NATO
Tell President Retard to stick it up his butt
Good for Hungary.
Hungary to U.S.: Shove it.
Why do we need to be concerned about where Hungarians are? Shouldn’t this just be a problem for Hungary to worry about?
Why the concern if a few Hungarians are still here on a stale visa? Is there some sort of crime wave here that illegal alien Hungarians are behind?
I think it is just harassment because Hungary leans neutral most of the time. Or at least they don’t bow to Biden.
The United States on Tuesday sharply limited Hungary’s participation in its visa waiver program over security concerns regarding new passports issued between 2011 and 2020.
Under the American Visa Waiver Program, citizens of participating countries can travel to the U.S. for tourism or business for up to 90 days without a visa, and simply need a so-called Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).
But starting Tuesday, ESTA validity for Hungarian passport holders will be reduced from two years to one, and an ESTA will only be valid for a single use.
The unprecedented move, in response to security concerns, affects Hungary as the only one of 40 countries participating in the U.S. program.
After coming to power in 2010, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government implemented a major policy change that granted citizenship to ethnic Hungarians abroad — including in Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. Domestic critics say Orbán’s controversial move was designed to boost his electoral prospects.
David Pressman, the U.S. ambassador in Budapest, told POLITICO in an interview ahead of the announcement, “There are hundreds of thousands of passports that have been issued by the government of Hungary as part of the simplified naturalization program without stringent identity verification mechanisms in place.”
The U.S. government has been engaging the Hungarian government on this “security vulnerability” for many years and across multiple administrations, Pressman said. But “the government of Hungary has opted not to close” it.
Tell the fake US government to pound sand. F* them.
So, they’re going after Hungary. Isn’t that the country that has an arrest warrant out for George Soreass? Gee, I wonder if there’s a connection.
Do not cooperate, Hungary !
Nah, just send the 900,000 home to Hungary and be done with it.
Something something the Big Guy something 10%.
It is not a Biden initiative.
Trump told Hungary in 2017 to sort it out or lose the visa waiver, but the Hungarians failed. Then Trump put restrictions on non Hungarian born Hungarians in 2020 and they still didn’t fix it. This thing currently is the third step following the same line of thought that the Trump administration started.
87,000 more IRS agents ....
Meanwhile on the southern border...
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