Hungarian Conservative

Renowned British author, commentator, and head of MCC’s Literary Centre Tibor Fischer talked to Hungarian Conservative about his career as a novelist, why he defends Hungary, the dangers of AI and the publishing challenges writers face.

In response to the Qatargate scandal in the European Parliament, EU Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly urged the EP to strengthen its ethics committee.

Transparency International has just published their CPI report for 2022, as they have done annually since 1995. The rankings might surprise some, however, many perceive the published information as facts, although there are many issues with Transparency’s index.

Rodrigo Ballester, head of the Centre of European Studies at MCC, talked to Hungarian Conservative about the dangers of echo chambers, big tech cannibalising content, and the risks of EU institutions overregulating the press.

The fact that over 1000 Moroccan students applied for admission to Hungarian universities for this academic year shows that the rise in quality of Hungarian higher education is internationally well known and recognised, Péter Szijjártó said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán spoke about the war, the effect of sanctions and the intelligence report on the funding of the leftist parties during an interview on Friday.

Swedish media has suggested that Moscow may be behind the Saturday burning of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.

Fidesz MEP Balázs Hidvéghi discussed the corruption in Brussels, double standards, and why he recommends that the EP adopt the Hungarian asset declaration system.

The remarks of a senior Turkish official on 14 January imply that it is unlikely Sweden and Finland would be able to join NATO before June.

Parts of the December 2022 ruling that said sending migrants to Rwanda was legal may now be challenged at the UK Court of Appeal.

‘The hymn serves as a reminder that, despite the magnitude and quantity of our crimes, the Good Lord did not erase us from existence and that, as a result, we have earned the right to a future.’

Similarly to the budget deficit, public debt is also declining and may drop to below 70 per cent this year. To compare: Hungary’s public debt was 83.6 per cent of the GDP in the second quarter of 2010, the final three months of the Socialist government’s tenure.

The Vox party in Spain proposed a regulation similar to the one introduced in Hungary last year which would allow women to listen to the heartbeat of their foetuses before an abortion.

After a local-level decision ordered the removal of Hungarian national flags from school buildings in Transcarpathian settlements, MFA State Secretary Tamás Menczer demanded that the measure be revoked.

According to press reports, Poland officially objected to Hungary’s request on Wednesday to remove nine names from the list of Russian individuals to be sanctioned.

MOL may decide to take the Slovak government to court over the windfall tax to be imposed on
on energy companies in the country.

Miklós Duray was an activist fighting for the rights of ethnic Hungarians in Czechoslovakia, then Slovakia, from an early age. As a university student, he co-funded the Committee for the Defence of Rights of Hungarians in Czechoslovakia.

At the worship that opened the prayer week, Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, and Tamás Fabiny, President-Bishop of the Evangelical Church of Hungary, delivered sermons at the Kálvin Square Reformed Church in Budapest last Sunday.

97 percent of Hungarians oppose sanctions that they believe would seriously harm the country, according to the results of the national consultation launched by the government last year.

The Hungarian foreign minister condemned the burning of an effigy of Turkish President Erdogan in Stockholm as ‘shameful and disgusting’.

Regarding the sanctions, the Prime Minister declared that it is high time there was a courageous person in Brussels who will admit that the sanctions policy has been botched and was miscalculated. ‘We have messed up badly,’ Viktor Orbán remarked.

Recently published statistics about 2022 workforce data show that the Hungarian unemployment rate has plunged to under four per cent.

Energy Minister Csaba Lantos highlighted in a recent interview that the government would continue to subsidize gas prices for Hungarian households up to the level of average consumption.

The income tax exemption for those under 25 has been extended to include young mothers aged 25-30. The new regulation has been in force since 1 January.

The goal is to curb inflation and avoid recession, Viktor Orbán stressed last year. On Tuesday, 3 January, Finance Minister Varga announced that Hungarian public debt has decreased more significantly than expected, dropping to 73.5 per cent of GDP in 2022, and confirmed that in line with the projection, last year’s budget deficit target was met, at 4.9 per cent of GDP.

In her address, President Katalin Novák highlighted the difficulties the nation had to confront in 2022 and the resilience Hungarians showed in the face of challenges, and underscored the importance of solidarity and national unity.

Despite the hardships caused by the sanctions and the war, Hungary managed to remain successful in 2022, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared at this end-of-year press brief.

The solution to the energy supply crisis that Europe is facing should not be the imposition of a gas or oil price cap, since that only further reduces the availability of fossil fuels. Instead, what is needed is the exploration of new energy sources and their transmission to Europe.

During the laudation it was highlighted that Viktor Orbán oversees elections that return results in one day and which have been more closely monitored by international observers than any other in the European Union.

Péter Szijjártó noted that in a number of matters, Hungarians and Slovaks depend on each other, adding: ‘The war has highlighted our differences, but I believe it has also strengthened our interdependence just as much.’