Polish war reporter Tomasz Grzywaczewski’s documentary, screened last week at the Danube Institute, is a striking record of the deliberate destruction of Ukrainian cultural monuments across cities such as Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kharkiv by the invading Russian forces.
Users on X (formerly Twitter), corporate and private alike, were captivated by the images of the recent flooding of the Danube River in Budapest, Hungary. Photos of the flooded capital city spread across the social media site. Thankfully, the water levels have come down to normal since, and the flooding passed with no loss of human life.
‘For those whose hearts beat on both sides of the Atlantic, the more productive consideration is what this election signifies for U.S.–Poland relations. Poland, like the United States, is bitterly divided between cosmopolitan urban areas and more conservative and religious exurbs and rural areas. After eight years of single-party Law & Justice rule, Polish conservatives are momentarily weak and banking heavily on a second Trump administration.’
‘The gradual diminishing of Europe’s importance in the eyes of the successive US administrations in the twenty-first century has been arrested by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, and weakened the “pivot” or “rebalance” to Asia for the time being: emergencies have cropped up elsewhere. As Joseph Stalin may be said to have been one of the “founding fathers” of NATO, so may Vladimir Putin be seen in a similar role with regard to the revival of NATO, and closer US–EU cooperation.’
The 1838 flood, commemorated by many memorial plaques and water level signs in the centre of the city, was not only a natural disaster but a tragedy that brought the country together. The heroism of Baron Miklós Wesselényi (1796–1850) for instance is kept in high regard to this day. The young baron gained national recognition for rowing around the flooded city rescuing people. His boat was equally open to the poor and the rich survivors of the flood; many were pulled from the water, others were save from rooftops.
‘You [in Hungary] imbue your young people in primary and secondary school with a sense of Hungary’s place in history…I mean, this was the country that turned back the invasions from Turkey and the Muslim lands and saved European civilization hundreds of years ago…We need to teach history in our schools, teach our young people that their country is something to be proud of.’
‘Since the start of the war, 8 million Ukrainians have fled their country; another 3 million have emigrated to Russia. Aside the mass defections, because of Ukraine’s birth rate collapse to the lowest recorded level, Zelenskyy has been unwilling to mobilize men aged between 18 and 25—typically the bulk of any fighting force. The fear is that, since most of these men are childless, should such die or become incapacitated, future demographic prospects would dim further.’
Following the keynote speech by Former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie, Retired Brigadier General in the US Army Antony J Tata, Director of the Baltic Security Foundation Otto Tabuns, Programme Director and co-founder of the Swedish think tank Oikos Arvid Hallén, President of the information warfare firm WorldStrat Jim Hanson, and Hungarian Ambassador to NATO István Balogh shared their views about the future of the military alliance.
This study focuses on questions related to the Russia–Ukraine War, one of the most dramatic events in contemporary European history. It seeks to examine the extent to which the citizens of Europe feel that the official positions of Brussels (the EU) and NATO, and the resultant decisions, are their own.
The first panel discussion of the second day analysed warfare and its moral implications, and how policymakers, global powers and ordinary people react to the war in Ukraine and to the Israel–Hamas conflict.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.