The 29th Svet Knihy, or Book World Prague International Book Fair and Literary Festival, will feature around 800 exhibitors from 40 countries. On Friday, 24 May the Hungarian organizers will host a V4 literary discussion about the impact of Franz Kafka’s works on Hungarian, Slovak, Czech, and Polish literature and culture.
‘Justice, equality before the law, and freedom. I have travelled the world and have not found a combination of values and structures that better support the flourishing of the human soul and human nature,’ János Csák remarked at the launch of his book titled Genius of America. The Minister of Culture and Innovation’s work delves into how liberty, freedom, and equality before the law have become the United States’ three most important values, and how Americans can rediscover happiness by overcoming the current profound divisions in society.
In his remarks to officials working in the US capital and foreign diplomats, Ambassador Takács pointed out that for the sake of Ukraine and its society, peace and a ceasefire are needed. The sooner negotiations aimed at this can begin, the fewer further casualties will have to be suffered. The Ambassador also emphasized the importance of NATO remaining a defensive alliance focusing on deterrence.
‘In the modern, global-technological civilization based on the parallel structures of technical rationality, the idea of freedom still arises as an “abstract freedom” that is allegedly “the same for everyone”. But, regarding recent facts and conditions, this concept of freedom has lost all realistic content. Following the example of the idea of philosophical atomism, the human individual is still imagined as an atom, and from this social atomism it also follows that the modern individual is no longer an organ of a transcendental reality, but rather the social “whole” is derived from this collective of individuals.’
In truth, “the long arc of harassment, assault, and murder of Palestinians by Jewish settlers is twinned with a shadow history, one of silence, avoidance, and abetment by Israeli officials”, states The New York Times. This is not to downplay the terrorist threat against Israelis by Palestinian jihadists. However, interviews with more than one hundred people—current and former officers of the Israeli military, the National Israeli Police, and the Shin Bet domestic security service; high-ranking Israeli political officials, including four former prime ministers; Palestinian leaders and activists; Israeli human rights lawyers; American officials charged with supporting the Israeli-Palestinian partnership—there appears to be a long history of crime without punishment.’
‘When European elites long for a “Hamiltonian moment”, they imagine that a particular common financial necessity could be the spark that brings about a common political framework as well—hence the continuous return of talk of the “Hamiltonian moment” in discussing the EU’s attempts to deal with the eurozone crisis.’
‘Since 1990, we have had to find new ways of explaining the issues. The communist dictatorships have collapsed, everything seems to be going fine, nice-sounding laws are being passed, but these are not being enforced, and in some cases the situation is deteriorating. The countries have European Union membership, and many border issues have disappeared thanks to the Schengen agreement, but problems remain.’
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has sought arrest warrants for several leading Israeli politicians and members of the Hamas political leadership, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Allies of Israel, led by Viktor Orbán and Joe Biden, have described the prosecutor’s decision on the Jewish state’s leadership as absurd and shameful.
Gergely Karácsony confidently leads the race for the mayor of Budapest, according to a survey by the Publicus Institute: 46 per cent of all respondents would vote for him in the municipal elections on 9 June.
In a joint interview with General Gábor Böröndi granted to Index, Hungary’s Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay- Bobrovniczky stressed that Hungary’s autonomous, truly deployable and combat-ready armed forces are key to the country’s defence, because if a member state does not have a strong military, NATO membership is not sufficient protection.
Fico was shot in the town of Handlová after an off-site government meeting on 5 May. The pre-trial detention of the suspected perpetrator has been ordered by a Slovak court.
Eight adults were on the motorboat, five of whom—three men and two women—are still being searched for intensively, two were found dead. The ongoing investigation involves IT and water rescue experts. The aim is to determine if anyone is criminally responsible for the accident.
This year, the event will feature over fifty programmes across four stages. In the afternoons discussions introducing prominent authors and their new works will be held, while evenings will offer musical literary productions envisioned for Margó. The festival will include performances by Tudósok, Miklós Vecsei and Gergely Balla with their Mondjad Atikám József Attila evening, while slam poets Pion x Krizsó will play from their Népi lira album.
‘The emerging multipolar, multicivilizational world still needs and will be grateful to have a strong, rational, reliable, and consistent Western civilization…But for that to happen, common sense will have to rule us, and we must consign postmodern liberalism and the Cult of Woke to the trash heap of history.’
‘Conservatives are the only parties in Europe that are rising, and the left is afraid. We can be certain that a paradigm shift would wipe out many leftist politicians, and the elites that pay them clearly don’t want that to happen. They want obedient politicians who follow their agenda. On 9 June Conservatives have a mission: the reconquest of our sovereignty, the reconquest of our security, the reconquest of our economy and industry, the reconquest of our agriculture, the reconquest of our identity.’
Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian President and a potential successor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, were reported dead following a helicopter crash in the northern area of the country on Sunday. The European Union, China, and Russia have already expressed their condolences, while the United States had remained silent at the time of writing. Israeli officials stated that the Jewish state was not involved in Raisi’s death.
Since 2013, migration pressure on Europe has become the new normal, and in recent years the situation has once again worsened: 2023 saw the highest number of illegal immigrants reaching Europe since 2016. Due to the worsening security situation in the Sahel region and the economic difficulties afflicting North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, nearly one million people applied for asylum in the EU.
‘Besides the less remote Iberian Peninsula, the Center for Fundamental Rights now runs a dedicated operation aimed towards the oft-neglected south of the Western hemisphere, amounting to twenty-two countries, nine time zones, two languages—and countless parties, think tanks, civic groups, and allies spread from the borderland Rio Grande down to the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. This empire of actionable ideas will grow by persuasion rather than force, not as a sovereign entity but as a loose constellation of like-minded partners comparing notes on their parallel journeys to power.’
Russia held its first three-day-long presidential election between 15–17 March 2024; 7 May marked the previous cabinet’s last day in office. The new appointments in the Russian cabinet are significant not only because they mark the Kremlin’s apparent preparation for a long war, but also because they provide a fresh insight into the power games played in Moscow.
While talking at the Sedona Forum, US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman called Hungary’s pro-peace approach to the Russo-Ukrainian war ‘a proposal for capitulation’. In response to him, the political director for the Prime Minister of Hungary Balázs Orbán asked: ‘Has the US strategy really been that effective over the past two years?’
‘Throughout the West today…there is a mania for forgetting our civilizational past as an intolerable moral burden. Western elites regard migrants, sexual minorities, and other outsiders as bearers of ‘‘the richness of cultural diversity’’, but do not see the culturally diverse minorities already within Europe itself in the same way.’
‘The Internet, for all its premises as a beacon of knowledge, now resembles more of a digital information wasteland. It’s not that there aren’t well-written essays or long-form articles out there. It’s not as if one cannot find quality, deep content if one seeks it out. It’s just that we’re overwhelmed by the popcorn.’
In many Hungarian settlements, saints’ days with processions and pilgrimages are traditionally held at Pentecost. One of the most important Hungarian Marian Shrines is the one in Csíksomlyó, Transylvania, which has been declared a Hungarikum, together with the Pentecost pilgrimage held there. While many Hungarian Pentecost customs are rooted in the religious feast, there are also several traditions and beliefs that have been transposed from ancient Hungarian beliefs.
‘The international reorganization resulting from the changed role and situation of the United States will not be without consequence for Europe. At the same time, due to political and cultural challenges, there are at least serious questions regarding the future prospects of the transatlantic model we are familiar with today…’
In an interview with public media Minister of Energy Csaba Lantos informed that the recently concluded China-Hungary bilateral agreements cover, among others, nuclear research and development, training cooperation, expanding the electric vehicle charging network, and examining the possibility of creating a critically important connection between the Hungarian and Serbian oil pipeline systems.
Lieutenant Colonel Shoshani pointed out that ‘in this horrible reality, even though we showed evidence of the barbaric sexual violence by Hamas on 7 October, the world still doesn’t believe it happened,’ which demonstrates how people tend to believe only what they want to, even when presented with facts.
As part of the SopronFest series, János Áder, Chairman of the Blue Planet Climate Protection Foundation, addressed various topics during the recorded conversation, including the difference in attitudes towards environmental issues between Generation Y, which grew up with digitalization, and Generation Z, which was born into it.
‘Clearly, music in itself wasn’t “diverse” enough. The music, songs and dances of nearly fifty countries and even more ethnic groups, languages and cultures were not sufficiently diverse. No! Give us drag queens! Make it colourful, smelly, and sexualized, with a hint of antisemitism, and children will love it! Let’s brainwash them and shout to the world: this is Europe!’
‘The forthcoming European Parliament elections hold particular significance…As Orbán emphasized in his address on 15 March: “We are on the brink of a sovereign revolution in America and Europe, where normal life can be restored, and a great era of Western nations can commence.”’
The attempted assassination of Robert Fico has led to a significant rise in death threats against European leaders, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Máté Kocsis, the Fidesz parliamentary group leader, attributes this escalation partly to left-wing media, accusing them of mastering hate speech and biased reporting.