When asked on Monday, January 5, for his opinion on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s abduction by the US army, Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban responded with unusual caution. “It happened, and we are considering whether this is good or bad for Hungary,” the Hungarian leader said in his annual press conference, looking uneasy as he faced several questions about the weekend’s dramatic military operation.

While he usually expresses boundless admiration for the US president, this time, Orban limited himself to saying that the American desire to seize control of Venezuela’s oil sector “could lead to a drop in oil prices,” without making his own position clear. Although Hungary was the only European Union member state to refuse to sign a joint European statement, which was drafted the day before and called for “respecting the will of the Venezuelan people,” Orban downplayed this abstention, instead attributing it to his broader opposition to any kind of common EU foreign policy.

Orban’s hesitancy signaled the broader discomfort that has gripped Europe’s far right as they face the spectacular return of American imperialism, especially among parties whose founding ideologies involved condemning alleged US influence over governing parties and elites. These far-right parties now find themselves in the highly uncomfortable position of having to comment on a blatant act of armed foreign intervention, though one conducted by their ideological ally, an administration that had previously vowed to stop interfering in world affairs.

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