Following Emmanuel Macron’s statement on sending Western troops to Ukraine, NATO allies are distancing themselves from the French President. In the run-up to the European elections, radical pro-war rhetoric may have serious consequences—the case of the Hungarian opposition in the 2022 parliamentary elections is a cautionary tale.
Retired General Wesley Clark has been caught on a secret recording, claiming that George Soros had been trying to influence elections in Bosnia and Hungary, and admitting that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary is rightful in having objections to his influence.
While political festivals are not unique per se, there is something unique about how the Hungarian right organizes its gatherings. Their continuing success is not due to populist chauvinism, or to making them mere echo chambers. In fact, plenty of world views, including opposition voices highly critical of the Orbán administration, clashed on stage in front of captivated audiences many times this summer.
The daily operation of the Hungarian railways is hampered by profound structural problems. It is not only a lack of sufficient funding but also the absence of a consistent and comprehensive development strategy that causes the ever-growing woes.
The confetti cannon has been fired and the Polish campaign is officially underway: at the beginning of August, President Andrzej Duda set 15 October as the date for the parliamentary elections, an event that is making not only the Poles but also Hungarians hold their breath.
István Pálffy, who returned to television as an on-screen talent after 13 years, was interviewing 2022 opposition candidate Péter Márki-Zay when he inexplicably made the claim that ‘we should demonstrate certain patience towards an illness like that of paedophiles’. He was fired after just one day.
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.
A report recently released by the Hungarian Information Centre points out that despite all denials, the election campaign of the opposition parties was funded by sources coming from the American Left. Moreover, the overseas Democratic elite, led by George Soros, had direct ownership influence over the company DatAdat, which managed the campaign.
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.
Both statesmen won their respective elections by around 19 percentage points last year, but the similarities do not end there. Their stances on immigration, the Ukraine war, and, most notably, the restriction of teaching gender theory in schools, have been very much akin to each other in the past.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.