This new generation renewed Hungarian politics not only in the use of language but also in the nature of governance. It was open about its value choices and did not accept that politics was merely the dispassionate administration of affairs. After decades of humiliation, it wanted to once again raise the Hungarian nation to the heights that its thousand-year history destined it for.
‘Supporting the institution of marriage and families promotes social stability. Families provide the foundation for the social fabric of a society; when families are healthy and well-functioning, they provide a sense of belonging, instil values of respect, responsibility, and empathy, as well as provide basic education for children.
‘There was something about the past that could only be conveyed by being where it took place. Although I had already studied the horrors of the Holocaust and the Second World War, being in the actual face of such evil, in the literal place of it, shook me to my core.’
Uncertainty about a ‘Huxit’ scenario is not fuelled by the Hungarian Prime Minister but rather by EU bureaucrats using a one-sided interpretation of the rule of law. The Hungarian government possesses a clear mandate for EU reform, distinct from the binary narratives of full Eurofederalism or immediate exit.
The nation celebrated at Tusványos, the Hungarian one, drapes over various states in the Carpathian Basin and consists of a plurality of ethnic and religious groups, fully including not just Christian Magyars but also Jews, Ungarndeutschen, and Roma with roots in the region. Foreign guests like me, who come from outside the Hungarian nation or family of nations, could also feel welcome, because, if devoid of chauvinism, nationhood offers fertile ground for inter-national solidarities and sympathies.
While Hungary has been declared to be the rule of law black sheep not only of the Carpathian Basin, but of the whole of Europe, Brussels has in fact found plenty of issues with other Members States as well in its annual report — only those are never highlighted by the EU bureaucracy or the mainstream media.
‘Could Biden’s token [of shaking hands only with Orbán when arriving for the NATO group photo in Vilnius], as some experts suspect, have been an invitation to the Hungarian government to hop on board the US geopolitical bandwagon and forget the Chinese and Russian ones?’
After the victorious election, the prime minister made it clear that the Russian aggression against Ukraine was forcing us to partially revise our strategy in foreign affairs, adjusting it to the changed circumstances. It is hardly surprising, then, that proposals and ideas of a strategic nature have increasingly claimed centre stage at in-camera government sessions and in public forums alike.
Since its inception, the left has seen the school as an important means of ‘enlightening’ people and creating a new world. The anti-school, anti-knowledge, and anti-teacher sentiments of former Chairman of the Communist Party of China Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution and of its Western importers, the ‘68ers have spread everywhere before our eyes over the last two decades.
The sincerity of the concerns of Belgian politicians about Hungary’s Child Protection Act is cast into doubt by the fact that, according to statistics published by the Belgian police, forced marriages involving minors and illegal child marriages have been an unresolved problem for more than a decade in Belgium.
Reflections on how the European Commission selectively applies the rule of law conditionality procedure and manipulates public perception in this regard.
While many had hoped for a more balanced portrayal of Hungary’s legal system and reforms, the report still appears to maintain a negative image of the country.
‘There is also a way to deal with the world’s largest economy, for the US Dollar (USD) is not going to decline anytime soon. Those who claim that the USD is in decline often argue that for centuries, reserve currencies have risen and fallen in tandem with their home economies. As the US’ share of the global economy diminishes, economists argue, so too will the USD and its global hegemony. A fascinating yet hardly conclusive argument since there has never been a dominant global reserve currency prior to the USD. Quite the contrary, the USD is the only currency ever to have played such a pivotal role in international commerce.’
The reputation of Hungarian football continues to soar: Szoboszlai could mean to Hungary what Messi means to Argentina or Modrić to Croatia.
Although some celebrated Prigozhin’s mutiny as the weakening of Putin’s Russia, it is important to remember that Prigozhin would not have brought about a ‘better or more democratic Russia’, only an even bloodier war.
It can’t be doubted that gays and lesbians have been badly treated. It is real and welcome progress that gay men and women can walk the streets of Budapest holding hands and face no harm. In a liberal society, people have a right to be wrong. But that right is not unlimited…Only a few years ago, if one had said, ‘They’re coming for our children!’, one would have been denounced as a bigot and an alarmist. Now, in 2023, a gay rights march chants the same thing, proudly, in America’s cultural capital.
Given Erdoğan’s pro-Ottoman policies, many were a bit surprised that the first to congratulate him in his victory, even two weeks before the runoff when he was projected as the frontrunner, was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The paradox in this is that both are ardent defenders of their respective faiths that have historically been in conflict with each other.
‘In contrast to other indicators, the Hungarian judiciary performs below the European Union average in terms of the perception of its independence. Based on this, we might state that the rule of law conditionality procedure launched against our country is justified. However, the validity of this argument is undermined by the fact that there are no criteria in this area either in which Hungary would not be ahead of several other Member States. For example, the Spanish, Slovak, Bulgarian, Polish, and Croatian public have a worse opinion of the independence of their country’s judiciary than the Hungarian.’
The US became an imperial power in its own right by the end of the nineteenth century, specifically from 1898 to 1901, when it claimed territory or influence over no fewer than five islands outside its territorial boundaries: Cuba, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines…Under the guise that is was America’s duty to spread the light of civilisation and democracy to the ‘backward’ people of the world, the former British colony took it upon itself to govern the peoples of Latin America and the Pacific—whether they wanted it or not.
Some thoughts on why the EU-Commission should not take students hostage. And why Hungary maybe isn’t as bad as they want us believe.
‘The tale of Britain’s Conservatives is dark and depressing, but it might be educational.’
I personally believe Putin would have invaded the Ukraine, as he did Crimea in 2014, whether he felt ‘provoked’ or not, especially after he lamented the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 as ‘the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [twentieth] century’. One can conclude that the former KGB colonel, with his reverie to rebuild the former Soviet empire, was looking for an excuse to do so. And the US-led West provided it to him.
It is high time to start building a close strategic partnership with the new member of the ‘Central European family’ that—as the only one of us—got a seat at the G7 table while it is fighting a heroic fight for freedom to regain its occupied territories: i.e., Ukraine.
‘Eastern Europeans are considerably more energised to be upfront, overt and strategic in preserving the Faith. Their churches are growing, while ours are falling off a precipice. Of course, the Western liberal media elites will write off modest promotions of Christianity in Hungary as Alt-Right theocracy.’
There are two models of opposition—one that is based on cooperation and one that is based on absolute rejection. While democracies are characterised by cooperation between the ruling and opposition parties, out-of-power parties in Hungary are unwilling to cooperate with the ruling coalition, which results in their ineffectiveness.
‘We should not turn a blind eye to the EP representatives who seem to be out of line with their role. Repositioning the power of the EP is actually part of a wider phenomenon that tries to outsource political decision-making from the democratic frameworks of the Member States and thereby reduce the influence of voters on the fate of their own country.’
‘The real crisis is neither at the US-Mexican nor at the European borders. Instead, it stems from Central America. Crime, violence, corruption, and economic devastation in the region have propelled people to the border. In terms of Europe, it is the Balkans, Africa, and the Middle East that have propelled their citizens to flee inhumane situations.’
How could Hungarians celebrate the EU, when it is seen as a threat to their ideals, God, nation, and family?
Today, confirmed anti-Semites may be the ‘great friends of the Jews’, but members and sympathisers of the government that proclaims ‘zero tolerance’ regarding anti-Semitism at all international and domestic fora, and which unequivocally stands by and up for Israel, can be labelled as the ‘new anti-Semites’. Israelis cannot invoke the Holocaust as an argument of her legitimacy and a historical event of her people, because the ‘new Jews’ are Palestinians and migrants. Now ‘Nazi’ apparently denotes a right-wing Jew in some circles, while Nazis seem to be the ‘guests of honour’ at seder tables.
It would be too much to say that Viktor Orbán has seen the future. But he has indeed seen the dark future that awaits all of us if the globalists, the gender ideologues, and the other servants of the woke Machine triumph. On the American scene at the moment, only Ron DeSantis shares both Orbán’s vision, and Orbán’s focus and policy skills to transform that vision into reality.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.