Serving as the pope is one of the most demanding of any leadership position; at the same time, life expectancy is high, so the possibility of the resignation of a pope due to illness indeed comes to the fore.

As his main research interest was the Austro-Hungarian Empire and he had also extensively written on Emperor Franz Joseph, it was András Gerő who first initiated the establishment of the Institute of Habsburg History.

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine not only opened a new era in geopolitics but also affected the political framework for the protection of national minorities.

Veszprém-Balaton’s year as European Capital of Culture will be dedicated to creativity, with art, music and gastronomy-related events being at the core of the programmes.

This is one of the biggest deals in Hungarian telecommunications history.

The legendary gymnast is the oldest living Olympic champion in the world today.

Energy Minister Csaba Lantos highlighted in a recent interview that the government would continue to subsidize gas prices for Hungarian households up to the level of average consumption.

While President Katalin Novák had to respectfully decline her invitation for 1 January, the Prime Minister made sure to pay respects on behalf of his country within a week.

‘The Hungarian government has fulfilled its commitment: an agreement with Brussels has been reached, thus EU funds will be available to Hungary in 2023, and agriculture can also count on subsidies of an unprecedented scale.’

‘The huge potential of the Hungarian defence industry can unfold at the best possible time, as one of the recurring themes of EU defence ministerial discussions is that stocks are being depleted and there is insufficient capacity for after-market production.’

As one of the thirty member states that voted against the proposal, Hungary made it clear that the 75th Independence Day of the Jewish State should be celebrated and not mourned as a ‘disaster’. 

The concerns about financial security and the moderately enthusiastic assessment of overall life satisfaction by Hungarians in 2022 reflect the difficulties the country’s economy is facing, induced partly by the EU’s sanctions policy.

The income tax exemption for those under 25 has been extended to include young mothers aged 25-30. The new regulation has been in force since 1 January.

Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested a one-and-a-half-day truce in the Russo-Ukrainian war, but the Ukrainian leadership and their Western allies do not want any part of it, considering Moscow’s proposal a sham. To what extent the guns on the front will die down until Saturday evening is highly questionable.

Ukrainians fire as much artillery ammunition in two days as US munitions factories produce in a month—and even so, they achieve only one-sixth or one-seventh the density of fire of the Russian artillery. The question is where the West will draw the line when it comes to feeding the insatiable Ukrainian war machine.

Paradoxically, Communist Béla Kun and the contemporary nationalist racists had more in common in terms of their views than the Communist leader had with the social-democratic and the left-leaning bourgeois émigrés.

Ukraine used to celebrate Orthodox Christmas Day on 7 January, but as a cultural shift away from Russia, Ukrainians are increasingly keen on celebrating Christmas in December.

The internal documents released by Twitter’s eccentric billionaire owner show a disturbing relationship between the social media giant’s former management and political parties in the United States.

Japan’s new National Security Strategy acknowledges that the balance of power has shifted significantly towards China, a country that has been going through a massive military build-up for decades.

Without support from the mother country, the fate of small village churches would be sealed, since the local communities have no resources at their disposal to renovate them, and the monument protection policies of neighbouring countries do not focus on these edifices.

Despite the tensions with Serbia, in December 2022 Kosovo formally applied to join the EU. But unless relations between Serbia and Kosovo are normalized, accession of either of the countries is unlikely.

The corruption scandals of the EP make the lack of accountability of EU institutions visible for European citizens, contributing to increased disappointment with the system as it is today.

Countries including the United States and Japan as well as some EU member states have enhanced border procedures for tourists from China as a result of China abandoning its zero-COVID policy. Is Hungary planning to take similar action?

On January 1, 2023, border controls were lifted on the Croatian-Hungarian border. As the Croatian seashores are one of the most favourite tourist destinations of Hungarian tourists, Croatia’s accession to the Schengen Zone is great news for Budapest.

While left-liberal political and media organisations in Hungary are facing tough questions about receiving large campaign donations from the US from entities posing as NGOs, the second largest donor to the Democratic Party in the US is facing multiple counts of wire fraud charges.

The goal is to curb inflation and avoid recession, Viktor Orbán stressed last year. On Tuesday, 3 January, Finance Minister Varga announced that Hungarian public debt has decreased more significantly than expected, dropping to 73.5 per cent of GDP in 2022, and confirmed that in line with the projection, last year’s budget deficit target was met, at 4.9 per cent of GDP.

Today our society, the Roman Church, and other ecclesiastical communities are experiencing an epidemic of confusion and moral and doctrinal disorientation, which is threatening the common good.

Instead of the setting that we can paraphrase as ‘the West (and Japan) versus Everyone Else’ that we got used to throughout past decades basically ever since the end of the Second World War, we will end up in a setting of ‘Africa versus Everyone Else’, where Sub-Saharan Africa remains the only source of significant migration.

‘There are some member states that have their own historical sensitivities, and they don’t want European legislation on minority rights because that would mean that they must put their own house in order. 50 million Europeans who belong to a national minority are not protected by anti-discrimination legislation.’

It appears that the Biden administration’s policy to require Chinese nationals who wish to enter the US to provide a negative swab test, which does not guarantee they are Covid-free, is nothing else than a cover-up.