As our neighbour is fighting a homeland-defending war against Russia, let’s take a moment on this memorable day to pay tribute to the long-standing Hungarian-Ukrainian relations, which have been close and essentially positive throughout history.
From Hungary to the United States, and from Sweden to Slovenia, 2026 will be a defining election year with consequences far beyond national borders. As conservative and populist forces challenge entrenched elites, several key votes are set to reshape Europe’s political balance and test the durability of the global right’s recent momentum.
‘From 1974 to the late 1980s, Hungary’s state security closely monitored the Turkish embassy at 45 Úri Street in the Buda Castle, keeping tabs on diplomats, their residences, and even personal correspondence. Newly examined documents reveal how counterintelligence observed NATO diplomats, highlighting both the meticulous methods of the secret services and the routine nature of embassy life.’
2025 is likely to be remembered as the year the post–Cold War order finally collapsed. From Donald Trump’s return to the White House and his America First diplomacy to the erosion of liberal institutions, trade realignment and the retreat of woke ideology, the foundations of a multipolar world have decisively taken shape.
Russia’s claim that Ukraine attempted a drone attack on President Vladimir Putin’s residence has cast a shadow over fragile peace talks just as negotiations appeared to be nearing a breakthrough. While Kyiv denies the allegation and Washington urges caution, the incident risks hardening positions in Moscow and derailing momentum towards a settlement.
The Game Awards reached a new milestone in 2025, drawing a record 171 million global livestreams and confirming its status as the world’s most-watched video game event. Viewership rose sharply across platforms, driven by co-streaming, global distribution and major premieres.
‘While a successful and prosperous EU is in the best interest of Budapest, unfortunately nothing illustrates what Europe has become in 2025 better than the National Security Strategy of the United States of America, which spoke of the “prospect of [Europe’s] civilizational erasure”.’
‘It isn’t easy to find proper intellectual work here. We talked with the Hungarian ambassador about work possibilities, and it came up that there were more and more Hungarian children in Tokyo, so perhaps I could try founding a Hungarian weekend school—there might be interest.’
‘The leaders of the most successful small or medium-sized countries tend to be acutely aware of the dexterity required to maintain security…it seems very unlikely that they and others like them will get lost in their own imagination or succumb to the self-fulfilling fatalism of the postmodernist cosmopolitan mind that gave birth to the “end of history”, the “rules-based liberal international order”, and all the rest of that dangerous nonsense.’
‘On Christmas day in 1944 Hungary, illusion and reality collided. The promise of “liberation” or “redemption” was drowned out by violence, coercion, and fear on all sides. What survives of that Christmas are the testimonies, the fragmentary voices that reveal how ordinary lives were crushed between two brutal systems at the very moment meant for peace.’