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New US Ambassador Arrives Soon – Speaks Understandable Hungarian, with an Accent

• 1 Sep 2022 7:20 AM
• Hungary Around the Clock

The new US ambassador-designate David Pressman is due to arrive in Budapest within days, Magyar Nemzet reports, without citing sources.

The US embassy neither confirmed nor denied that Pressman will arrive in Budapest this week.

In a post on the US embassy’s Facebook page on Sunday, Pressman said he has clear goals in Hungary, as he wants the two countries to move closer to each other and aims to “deepen the ties between our economies and our people”.

He added: “A free, safe and secure Europe, of which Hungary is an integral part, is fundamental to a free, safe and secure United States”.

No date has been arranged for Pressman to present his credentials to President Katalin Novák.

Pressman can hold the post until January, 2025, the end of the term of the incumbent president of the US.

Due to his statements so far, Pressman is being welcomed by the Hungarian government with reservations, but by the left with open arms, Magyar Nemzet writes.

Pressman introduced himself with an accent, but in understandable Hungarian in a video published on his Twitter profile last week: https://twitter.com/usembbudapest/status/1562754197518696448

“A beautiful language and a beautiful country -- can’t wait to return to Hungary soon,” he wrote on Twitter.

At his US Senate hearing in June Pressman said that he feels that democracy is under threat and sees deeply disturbing signs in Hungary. Among other things, he expressed his reservations regarding media freedom and the rights of LGBTQ people.

The 45-year-old diplomat is a lawyer with a degree from New York University. He led the working group fighting for the recognition of the LGBTQ community in US foreign policy.

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David Pressman Confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to Hungary

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