Viktor Orbán has a very long record in public life, from his early days as a strong anti-communist freedom fighter, through to his first stint in government, and now to this long and successful tenure as a prime minister. He’s been able to articulate a brand of conservatism that is both economically sensible and culturally conservative and traditionalist.
‘Hopefully, under a second Trump administration, we’re going to see a new high in Hungarian–American relations that we haven’t seen since Kossuth visited America back in the 1850s,’ Republican Congressional Aide Johnny Szani pointed out in an interview with Hungarian Conservative.
‘When a country achieves success like Hungary, it’s crucial to ensure that less successful countries also thrive by promoting the blueprint, pushing the strategy, and supporting one another,’ Mexican conservative film producer Eduardo Verástegui stressed in an interview with Hungarian Conservative on the sidelines of CPAC Hungary 2024.
‘If working people are voting more right: as in Australia in my 2013 election, America in Trump’s 2016 election, Britain in Boris Johnson’s 2019 Brexit election, and here in Hungary for the past decade, that’s because the main party of the right has become more economically pragmatic, more focussed on the social fabric, more targeted towards people’s living standards, and more concerned to uphold its own country’s interests over “global” ones.’
At a press conference ahead of Day 1 of CPAC Hungary 2024, Director General Miklós Szánthó of the Center for Fundamental Rights shared that this year’s conference will be bigger than ever before, as the organizers are expecting a record number of 3,000 attendees, including 500 foreign guests. The event will attract 80 speakers from all six continents.
‘The way PM Orbán has redefined Hungarian identity and sought to maintain, develop and foster relationships with Hungarians who were dispossessed of their homeland in the Treaty of Trianon is something I personally have tremendous respect for. ’
In her book, Bradley-Farrell encourages American readers to turn their attention to the current governmental policies of Hungary, viewing them as a guiding path for resisting progressive aspirations.
‘I think that’s why the European Commission does not take the approach with Eurobarometer that the Hungarian government is taking with the National Consultations—because they would realize that Europeans are more supportive of centre-right policies than they would want to put their name and admit to.’
‘Hungary’s support for Georgia makes sense in a number of ways. With both nations having brutal histories of Russian domination, Hungary understands the struggles Georgia has had in coming out of Moscow’s shadow after so many years behind the Iron Curtain. While Hungary offers support to a fellow former communist satellite state to realise a future better than its past, Georgia offers Hungary and Europe the resources needed to maintain that future.’
During his recent talks in Tbilisi, the Hungarian Defence Minister stressed that Hungary strongly supports Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations, and highlighted the importance of Hungarian-Georgian military cooperation.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.