‘While the saint who gave the mid-December celebration its name is known for her kindness and benevolence, in folklore the day is nevertheless more closely associated with evil—and with its female agents: witches.’

Ursula von der Leyen claims only voters decide a nation’s leaders—yet recent EU actions tell a very different story. From Romania’s annulled election to Germany’s institutional crackdown on AfD and France’s judicial assault on Marine Le Pen, the Union shows an increasingly authoritarian instinct that undermines democratic choice.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused Brussels of ‘systematically raping European law’ after the Commission triggered an emergency clause to indefinitely freeze Russian assets—bypassing unanimity and clearing the way ahead of its controversial Ukraine reparations loan.

With 21 out of the 40 Republican State Senators joining the ten Democrats, a new congressional map for the state of Indiana that would have presumably given two more seats to the GOP has been rejected by the Indiana General Assembly. This is a major setback for President Trump’s party, in a midterm election that is shaping up to be a lot closer than it was during his first term.

Western media spent the week circulating baseless claims about Hungary, from a fake ‘longer’ US security strategy urging EU exit to Bloomberg’s allegation that Viktor Orbán plans to replace parliamentary democracy. The narratives appear designed to damage the government ahead of 2026.

‘For the Budapest-centric circles I move in, the strategy paper consists mainly of familiar assumptions and positions.’

At a joint event organized by MCC and Mandiner, Former President of Hungary János Áder introduced his new book summarizing a decade in office through interviews that revisit constitutional dilemmas, national commemorations and private memories—from the Auschwitz memorial to the Trianon centenary speech and encounters with Hungarian communities abroad.