Fidesz Wins by Third Highest Margin, with Third Highest Vote Share in Europe

The long-ruling right-wing Fidesz party won by the third largest margin in the European Parliamentary elections last night, behind the PSD-PNL big tent coalition in Romania and long-time ally Marine Le Pen’s right-wing populist Rassemblement National in France. Fidesz also got the third highest vote share, behind PSD-PNL’s 53 per cent and the Maltese Labour Party’s 45 per cent.

‘We should not be concerned with ourselves only’ — Interview with USA Regional President of the Hungarian Diaspora Council Ildikó Mónika Pataki

‘When discussing on a diaspora level, we should not just share local reports with each other, but actually try to find real solutions to the problems. For example, nowadays, we talk a lot about how to reach people who no longer speak Hungarian. To paraphrase a Sándor Kányádi poem: we have only one homeland, and that is the Hungarian language. If the language is lost, many great things will be lost as well.’

Central Europe, Right, Face!

In this analysis the number of right-wing MEPs who won seats in the 2019 European parliamentary elections are compared to how many seats right-wing parties are predicted to win this year. The countries covered are Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.

Illustrations of János Arany’s ballads by painter Mihály Zichy (1898)

King Sigismund and the Heroes of the Siege of Golubac

Galambóc (Golubac in today’s Serbia), still an imposing fortress on the banks of the lower Danube section, first appears in the annals of history when Turkish invasions approached and even reached the former borders of Hungary. King Sigismund, however, is not usually praised in military historical literature for the siege of Galambóc, although he acted with great foresight and care.

Francisco Goya, The Madhouse (1808–1812). Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, Spain

Anna Édes: A Case Study of Mental Illness from the Past and for the Present

‘The story of the maid Anna Édes is the story of undiagnozed or unrecognized mental illnesses and their consequences, in contrast to today’s societies, primarily in the West, where mental illness is advocated to the point of virtue and people are ‘pressured’ to have mental illnesses as a mark of social status.’

Hungary Will Not Back Rutte as NATO Secretary General

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó of Hungary claimed that Hungary will not back outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s candidacy for NATO Secretary General since he had made comments about ‘bringing Hungary to its knees’ in the past, He also added that ‘if a threat is from the East, then maybe the Secretary General should also be from the East’.

St Ladislaus fighting the Cumans — detail of a mural in the Early Gothic (14th c.) Lutheran church of Karaszkó (Kraskovo), Slovakia

Cumans in Medieval Hungary

The great confederation of the Cumans was one of the steppe tribal confederations of Turkic origin, which successfully represented and spread the once mighty ‘steppe civilization’ to a significant part of Eastern Europe. Although the Cuman state was unfortunately destroyed in the power and political dimensions, the descendants of the Cumans still live here among us in Hungary. People with Cuman-Hungarian identity greatly enriched the medieval (and modern) Hungarian nation and strengthened the Eastern relations of Hungarians alongside the also vital Western connections.