Tamás Bernáth, researcher and lecturer at the MCC School of Economics, has recently appeared on the Hungarian news channel HírTV to discuss the new crude oil pipeline being built between Hungary and Serbia; as well as a defence agreement reportedly in the planning between the two nations and its implications.
‘Thanks to the strong relationship between President Trump and Prime Minister Orbán, there is real space—on the ground, in government, in business, and among ordinary citizens—to build something meaningful,’ US Chargé d’Affaires ad interim Robert Palladino remarked during a discussion on US–Hungary relations with President of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs Gladden Pappin.
Human rights NGOs such as Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights joined Hamas in expressing their outrage over Hungary’s decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court and to refuse the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They also called on the European Union to revoke Hungary’s voting rights.
‘If we look at the crises that have damaged the EU in recent years, and evaluate them through the lens of the EU’s real interests, it becomes increasingly clear that Viktor Orbán is not the EU’s greatest threat—but its most pro-EU leader. In fact, he might be the only one.’
According to Head of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will pay an official visit to Hungary in the next few weeks. The visit was set in defiance of an international arrest warrant for the Israeli leader.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Hungary’s energy security has faced constant and varied threats—from strikes on Russian gas pipelines to the suspension of transit through Ukraine. However, if the current ceasefire agreement is implemented effectively, Budapest could finally experience stability in this regard.
Last weekend the world was shocked by news of a fire that took the lives of 59 people in a North Macedonian nightclub and injured an additional 156. The blaze broke out after 2am at Club Pulse, most probably due to the pyrotechnics used during a concert. Arguably the nightclub fire is the worst tragedy that has happened in North Macedonia in recent memory.
Chaos erupted in the Hungarian Parliament on Tuesday after opposition MPs ignited smoke flares in protest against the ban on the Pride march. The events bore a striking resemblance to those that unfolded in Serbia just weeks earlier, raising suspicions of a coordinated effort to destabilize right-wing governments in the region.
‘There is a historic chance for US–Hungary relations to peak, and it depends in no small part on the two leading players. Even though Hungary is a member of the EU and NATO, in the last two decades, American Democratic administrations have been explicitly hostile towards it…With the US president behind him, Orbán could be much more effective in strengthening his conservative agenda in Brussels, which until now has been an uphill struggle.’
Although the regime change in Syria raised hopes for the restoration of stability, the protection of religious minorities has still not been realized. The mass killings committed in recent times indicate that minority communities remain in grave danger, which calls for decisive action from the international community.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.
