‘Albeit the Tineke Strik-led delegation was supposed to establish “facts” about the state of the Hungarian democracy and rule of law during their time in Budapest, Strik had her mind made up about these matters long before arriving in Hungary.’
Pope Francis died on 21 April, Easter Monday, following a worsening condition due to serious respiratory illnesses in recent years. As the sede vacante period begins, the College of Cardinals is set to elect his successor, with Cardinal Péter Erdő reportedly among the possible candidates.
Just as before the 2022 parliamentary elections, the European Parliament’s rule of law mission visited Hungary this week. However, there are some crucial differences this time: not a single right-wing political group is represented in Tineke Strik’s delegation, and opposition leader Péter Magyar and his party are now openly and admittedly working against the interests of the Hungarian people.
‘The normalization of the targeting of Israel leads to the normalization of the targeting of Jews,’ State Secretary Péter Sztáray warned during a commemoration held on Holocaust Memorial Day. Between 1941 and 1945, approximately 564,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, representing more than two-thirds of the country’s Jewish community at the time.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has announced that he will travel to Moscow to attend Russia’s Victory Day parade, defying a warning from the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas. Fico criticized the former Estonian prime minister’s statement, asserting that Slovakia is a sovereign country and will make decisions accordingly.
‘We have already seen that Hungary’s living standards have increased enormously in recent years. Unlike Ireland, however, Hungary remains a culturally conservative country. Nevertheless, there is reason to think that this might change in the future—at least, if careful measures are not taken to ensure that it does not.’
Over the weekend both pro-government and opposition rallies were held across Hungary’s capital, Budapest. The demonstrations sent a clear message: both sides are preparing for next year’s election with full force, lending the 2026 parliamentary contest a level of significance not witnessed in Hungary’s political history for quite some time—and demonstrating that the country’s democracy is very much alive.
With the CDU–SPD coalition agreement presented on Wednesday, it has become clear that the new government, under the leadership of Friedrich Merz, will prioritize Ukraine’s interests over those of Germany and its people. Having failed to deliver on his own campaign promises, Merz is already paying the price for his political betrayal: Alice Weidel’s AfD has overtaken the CDU, becoming the largest party in Germany by a margin of one percentage point.
Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia has announced that his government coalition is proposing a new amendment to the Slovakian Constitution which would dictate that only two genders, male and female, are recognized by the country’s government. This is a very similar amendment that Hungary added to its Fundamental Law in December 2020.
‘Bosnia and Herzegovina is facing the most serious constitutional crisis since its inception, and this crisis will be resolved through political and legal means,’ President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik told Hungarian Conservative. In the interview, the Bosnian Serb leader—currently facing two arrest warrants—sets out the lesser-known perspective of the ongoing tensions in the Western Balkans.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.
