Hungarian Conservative

The embassies of the United States, Germany, Slovakia, and 35 other nations have put out a joint statement ahead of the Budapest Pride March, condemning the Hungarian government for allegedly not protecting the rights of LGBTQ people in the country. US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman was also present at the March, where also gave yet another critical speech.

Another summit of the intergovernmental cooperation between Austria, Hungary, and Serbia took place on 7 July in Vienna, Austria. Apart from the heads of state and government, the three nations’ ministers of foreign affairs, and domestic and law enforcement leaders also took part in the conference, held at the Austrian Chancellor’s residence. The Vienna Summit was organised in the wake of Hungary and Poland officially objecting to the migration package at the European Commission’s 30 June session.

The Veszprém Regional Court ruled that a trans woman named Elvira is eligible for early retirement under the government’s ‘Women 40’ programme. Fidesz MP Gabriella Selmeczi and president of the Interest Group of Hungarian Women Kinga Szőnyi spoke out against the decision.

The deepening of cultural dialogue can be the solution to the domestic tensions in France, Hungarian Institute of International Affairs Gladden Pappin told the audience at a roundtable discussion titled The BLM-Moment of France? – Political and Security Implications of the Riots in France, held by the institute on Friday, 7 July in Budapest, Hungary.

The new Task Force set up by the Finance Ministry has been portrayed as a sign of austerity measures to come by the opposition media, however, the Ministry has debunked these speculations in a press release. In their statement, the Ministry assures the people of Hungary that family support schemes and the utility price cap will remain in place.

Mária Ádám-Haszonics, Zoltán Lomnici, András Patyi, and Réka Varga have all been confirmed to the Constitutional Court by a two-thirds majority vote in the parliament, replacing the four term-limited former justices on the 15-member panel. The Court has the power to strike down legislation if they find it incompatible with the Fundamental Law of Hungary.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs stated at a press conference on Tuesday that Hungary will keep its promise of not holding up Sweden’s joining of NATO, thus it is ready to back it once Turkey is. However, a recent incident of Quran burning in Stockholm may set the process back for some time again.

In a recent interview with business news site Világgazdaság, Hungarian Tourism Agency CEO Péter Horváth highlighted that the number of guest nights booked by foreign visitors to Hungary is on the rise, while domestic tourism has shrunk, which is in line with international trends in the industry. On the whole, however, the total number of nights booked has increased by four per cent in the first five months compared to last year.

Gergely Karácsony’s 99 Movement received over 650 million HUF in funding, mostly after they went inactive with the Budapest Mayor dropping out of the primary race for prime minister. The organisation claims that the bulk of its revenue came from ‘microdonations’ collected in cash in drop-boxes at live events. However, even opposition media admit that this is more than unrealistic given the large sum, and the fact that much of it came in foreign currencies.

Founding father and second US President John Adams, who also happened to pass away on 4 July, believed 2 July would be celebrated by generations to come, as The Resolution for Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress then. Only a handful of delegates signed the Declaration actually on 4 July 1776, and many of them did so as late as August 1776.

22-year-old Hungarian National Team captain Dominik Szoboszlai has just been signed by the six-time Champions League title winner Premier League team Liverpool FC. The English club bought him from the German Bundesliga team RB Leipzig for €70 million, by far the highest transfer fee ever paid for a Hungarian football player.

She founded her cosmetics company bearing her name, Estée Lauder, with her husband in 1946. Today, it is the second largest cosmetics company with a market cap of around $70 billion. Estée was the daughter of Jewish Hungarian immigrants who came to the US in 1898.

The Hungarian doctor was the first to introduce hand sanitation standards in a medical institution, which led to childbed mortality rate decreasing from 18 per cent to just two per cent at his Vienna obstetrical clinic. However, his ideas were tragically never accepted by his peers which led to his death in a mental ward.

Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl completed his magnum opus, the Liberty Statue of Budapest in 1947, in just two years. It was originally a monument dedicated to the ‘liberating’ Soviet forces at the end of World War II. However, elements of the composition alluding to its original purpose were removed, and it still stands tall on top of Gellért Hill as a beacon of Hungarian freedom today.

A large portion of the 15–39-year-olds polled by MCC’s Youth Research Institute shares their political opinions on the internet, and many of them had the experience of being banned for it on social media sites. Also, the majority of young people believe that the social media companies’ algorithms are politically biased.

The total amount of EU funds approved by the Commission is €100 million, which is to be distributed among the five member states most affected by the glut of tariff-free Ukrainian grain dumps: Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria. These five nations banded together and imposed bans on food product imports from Ukraine back in April.

PM Orbán wrote that the release of the three Kosovo police officers charged with illegal weapon possession in Serbia is a testament to the ‘mutual commitment to the peace and stability of the Balkans’. However, tensions in the region still seem to be on the rise.

The 2022 opposition prime minister candidate announced the official establishment of his new Mindenki Magyarországa Néppárt (Everyone’s Hungary People’s Party). At the scarcely attended press conference, he revealed that they plan on not taking any funding from the central government, and operating on donations alone; as well as eventually joining the European People’s Party.

Tamás Deutsch, during a public radio interview, drew attention to the concerning fact that the EU has been sending billions of Euros in military aid to Ukraine despite its current budget having been approved in December 2020, over a year before the Russian invasion began. He also pointed out that the exact amount spent on aiding the Ukrainian war effort is not even known.

Karinthy is best remembered for his comedic masterpieces, such as the collection of literary parodies, Így írtok ti (That’s How You Write!), and the collection of sketches about secondary school life, Tanár úr, kérem! (Please, Sir!). Every year, the best comedian in Hungary is rewarded with the Karinthy Ring. However, the man himself was not the exuberant, fun-seeking personality his best-known works may suggest.

The Institute for Economics and Peace, headquartered in Sydney, Australia, released its latest Global Peace Index report, in which Hungary is ranked the 13th most peaceful out of 163 nations. In terms of militarisation, however, we are ranked even higher, at fourth place globally.

The Ambassador stressed that LGBT activism is ‘not cultural imperialism’, nor is it ‘an export of a decadent West’. However, ‘pride month’, which he called on all Hungarians to celebrate, is centred around two recent events in American history that have nothing to do with Hungarian culture.

At a conference on Monday, Justice Minister Judit Varga assured everyone that the separation between the judiciary and executive power is enshrined in law in Hungary. She also opined that the current ‘crisis of confidence’ between Hungary and the EU is caused by the continuous unjustified attacks on the country over the years, and not the supposed faults in Hungary’s justice system.

Famed American internet personality and political commentator Dave Rubin sat down with writer and columnist Rod Dreher, also from the US, in Budapest, Hungary to discuss the state of conservatism in their home country and Hungary. They both see Prime Minister Orbán as a good model to follow for conservatives in America, and agree that he is being misrepresented in American mainstream media.

Senator James E. Risch of Idaho cited his frustration over Hungary not moving forward with approving Sweden’s NATO accession as his reason to block the $735 million arms deal. However, in the meantime, Hungary has signed a letter of intent for air force equipment acquisition with France.

The Twitter owner and eccentric centibillionaire travelled to Rome to discuss a number of issues with Italy’s recently elected conservative Prime Minister. Only a day earlier, he publicly went after Joe Biden for his statement about children.

The American pundit, scheduled to speak at MCC Feszt 2023 this summer, has been pulling in over 30 million views on his YouTube channel in the past two months. However, he recently received a one-week suspension due to his comments about transgenderism.

Foky was a pioneer in stop-motion animation. His best-known works are the award-winning short Babfilm (Pea Film, 1975), Mirr-Murr kandúr kalandjai (The Adventures of Mirr-Murr the Tomcat, 1972–1972), and, of course, the TV Bear.

In his video message sent to the conference taking place in Yibin, China, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó praised the mutually beneficial strategic cooperation between Hungary and China, and called Hungary ‘a meeting point of Western and Eastern investors’.

President Katalin Novák met with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach at the IOC’s Lausanne headquarters last week. The German Olympic gold medallist fencer spoke with members of the Hungarian sports press after the meeting, discussing Budapest potentially hosting the Olympic games, as well as his plan to allow Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete in the next Olympics.