One of Donald Trump’s first (of many) daring mandates in his second presidency was that in which he withdraw the United States of America from the Who Health Organization (WHO).
He cited as justification a disgust with the WHO’s Covid pandemic response in 2020, particularly condemning Anthony Fauci, and accuses the WHO of ganging up with China.
This is bad for the WHO: with its biggest global sponsor gone, the World Health Organization has been forced to cut cost, limiting technical support and laying new employment.
Conservative Argentinian President Javier Milei has said that he will follow in Trump’s footsteps, with his office confirming that it believes the WHO’s positions to be the “result of political influence, not based on science”.
Shortly after, Viktor Orbán’s office followed suit, saying that Hungary could withdraw from the World Health Organization.
Minister Gergely Gulyás told reporters Thursday that “if the most powerful country in the world decides to leave an international organization, then I think the Hungarian government would act carefully if it were to consider whether it should not take this step”.
“We may come to the conclusion that we do not have to do it, we may come to a different decision, of course, but it is certainly worth considering,” Gulyás said, since the “world’s strongest democracy is leaving of its own free will”.
This dangling threat felt odd to many.
Meanwhile, “it is time to thoroughly investigate WHO’s activities in Russia. During the investigation, Russian membership should at least be suspended. Or, better still, we should say goodbye altogether”, Pyotr Tolstoy, a pro-Putin-party member, wrote on Telegram.
