NATO accession, defending the countries of Central Europe, success in academia and standing up for one’s heritage. These topics interest many these days, and Joanna Siekiera is an expert on them. In this interview she discusses the ‘blocking’ of Swedish NATO accession, the influence of smaller EU countries globally, academia and cybersecurity.
We have moved from our absolute fertility low in 2011, last in the EU, to sixth in 2022, with the highest growth in 2022. According to the latest Eurostat data, we moved up five places in 2022, the first year of the Russian-Ukrainian war, even though we had fewer children that year than in 2021. This fall was much smaller than in other EU countries.
Among the twenty winners of this year’s New European Bauhaus Prizes the Hungarian project titled Cooperative Ownership of Communities won the New European Bauhaus Rising Stars prize in the ‘Regaining a sense of belonging’ category. The aim of the project is to promote ‘affordable housing and inclusivity through circular renovation and sustainable practices’.
The authors examined the resolutions, annual fundamental rights and human rights reports adopted by the European Parliament between 2019 and 2024 to analyse and document the emergence of a ‘new language’ that serves to prioritize specific aspects in the protection of fundamental and human rights.
Fidesz MP and Interior Ministry State Secretary Bence Rétvári has announced that a new amendment proposal had been submitted to the Child Protection Act to parliament, with the goal of making children even safer from child abusers.
The annual Three Seas Initiative Summit and Business Forum was held with the participation of thirteen countries situated between the Baltic, Black, and Adriatic Seas, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria, Croatia, Romania, Greece, and Bulgaria. President of Hungary Tamás Sulyok also participated in several bilateral meetings during the event.
The majority of Europeans reject the European Union’s migration policy. Hungary, alongside France and Austria, stands out as one of the most critical of Brussels’ misguided approach.
Hungary strongly opposes Dutch PM Mark Rutte’s candidacy. There are alternatives to Rutte, however; candidates that might not enjoy widespread support as of now but are less divisive. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, for one, recently announced his candidacy for the role. But Hungary’s endorsement of President Iohannis is not self-evident, considering that Klaus accused the Romanian Socialist Democratic Party and the Hungarian minority party UDMR of conspiring ‘to give Transylvania to Hungary’ during the COVID-19 pandemic.
GDP per capita growth has been above the EU-27 average in every year since 2010, so the Hungarian economy has grown faster than the EU average. Our decline in 2020 was also below average, and even below the large decline in 2009—despite the fact that the EU average decline in 2020 was larger than in 2009.
‘There is a ridiculous claim that keeps resurfacing in the Ukrainian, Slovakian and Romanian press: that Hungary has territorial claims against Ukraine. While neither the intention, nor the slightest chance or means are there to support the ridiculous Russian PSYOPS stunt, Ukraine, Slovakia, and Romania continue to think it is real. Is it because of their bad conscience over the oppressed hundreds of thousands of Hungarians in these countries?’
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.
