Hungarian Conservative

While political festivals are not unique per se, there is something unique about how the Hungarian right organizes its gatherings. Their continuing success is not due to populist chauvinism, or to making them mere echo chambers. In fact, plenty of world views, including opposition voices highly critical of the Orbán administration, clashed on stage in front of captivated audiences many times this summer.

‘What should Hungarians do? The question—and Orbán’s visionary answer—has meaning beyond Hungary, in ways that Americans and other Westerners only dimly recognize now. And it goes back to the prime minister’s 2014 advocacy of “illiberal democracy” for Hungary.’

Brussels should emerge from this leadership crisis as soon as possible, and from this perspective, next year will be crucial, Balázs Orbán said in reference to the upcoming European parliamentary elections.

The nation celebrated at Tusványos, the Hungarian one, drapes over various states in the Carpathian Basin and consists of a plurality of ethnic and religious groups, fully including not just Christian Magyars but also Jews, Ungarndeutschen, and Roma with roots in the region. Foreign guests like me, who come from outside the Hungarian nation or family of nations, could also feel welcome, because, if devoid of chauvinism, nationhood offers fertile ground for inter-national solidarities and sympathies.

After Viktor Orbán delivered his address at Tusványos, opposition parties did not hesitate to slam the PM and the speech.

The PM’s press chief, Bertalan Havasi told MTI that in a letter sent on Saturday, Viktor Orbán expressed his gratitude to Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu for having received him in Bucharest earlier this week, and for having ‘ensured the safety and security of the Tusnádfürdő Free University and making it possible for me to deliver my remarks today in undisturbed and peaceful circumstances.’

The third day of Tusványos remained as eventful as the previous one, with many prominent Hungarian government officials taking the opportunity to share their thoughts on stage. What follows is a brief recap of the most important points they made.

After the recent repeated defiling of the Úzvölgy military cemetery, Hungarians in Romania are now bracing themselves for another provocation in Tusványos.

Gergely Gulyás spoke about how if we value our past, then film is one of the most important means of presenting it. He continued by saying that it’s a different question how far back in time one can go.

A brief summary of the most important remarks made by government officials on the second day of the 32nd Tusványos Summer Festival in Transylvania.

The 32nd Tusványos festival, organised under the motto ‘The Time for Peace,’ will offer around five hundred public and cultural events until the end of the week.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to arrive in Hungary this evening, marking the end of his European tour. In anticipation of his visit, Xi penned an opinion piece in Magyar Nemzet, in which he discusses the significance and ways of strengthening relations between the two countries.

‘The complicated political system, and the fact that the people are called three separate times to the polls this year may lead to the success of the more radical messages, because they are simple and smartly formulated. However, according to a survey conducted in April, more than half of those surveyed stated that in the European Parliament elections, they would vote for the party to which their preferred candidate for mayor belongs. This reflects the tendency of trusting local policy makers rather than politicians at the national level who constantly argue with each other in the capital city.’

‘Hungary has the ability to initiate some proposals to its neighbours regarding what steps to take to reduce the harmful effects of the war. The region needs to agree on what the long-term interests of its countries in the region are in the shadow of the war in Ukraine,’ China’s foremost political scientist holds.

92 years ago today, Hungary’s first freely elected prime minister in the post-communist era, József Antall, was born. His legacy continues to wield significant influence in Hungarian politics today.

One simply cannot put something as complexly different as the Chinese intellectual field onto either the American left–right axis or the West-European ideological taxonomy. Ultimately, the Chinese field is a different world, albeit one that bears affinities with, and shows much interest in, us Western conservatives.

According to the Hungarian Prime Minister, it is ‘easy to predict’ that Vietnam will emerge as one of the winners of the coming era. ‘Such transformations herald opportunities as well as risks. We see the new world economic era as an enormous opportunity for Hungary, since Hungarians are an Eastern people by origin,’ Viktor Orbán nailed down.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has called for the creation of a common European army. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the question of how Europe can defend itself against the threats it faces has become increasingly pressing.

The screening experience was boosted by a short video message from Zoltán Seress, the actor who plays prime minister József Antall, the main character. He sent his warm greetings to the overseas audience and explained how much prime minister József Antall’s character affected him, both in his acting capacity as well as in his civilian life.

On the day before Pásztor’s death, the commemoration of the Vojvodina massacre of ethnic Hungarians in WWII took place in Csurog on Sunday, 29 October.

‘It is one of history’s great ironies that Budapest, from which hundreds of thousands of European Jews were shipped to their deaths by the Nazis and their Hungarian collaborators, Jews can walk the streets this dreadful autumn without fear. This is an achievement for which Hungarians can and should be proud. Don’t expect European leaders to give Orbán credit. In fact, they will probably increase their public odium directed at him.’

Szili, who has participated in the commemoration event in previous years, recalled the inhumanity of the displacements and discussed the lasting consequences of the Beneš Decrees, the necessity of retaining ethnic-based politics, as well as the current state of national minorities and their possibilities for improvement in connection with the upcoming European Parliament elections next year.

The brand new edition of our magazine features articles by famous American columnist Rod Dreher, advisor to the European Parliament and Ludovika University of Public Service researcher Lénárd Sándor, and Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business professor Ray Kinsella; as well as an interview with French historian of philosophy Professor Rémi Brague. You can pick up the latest edition of Hungarian Conservative magazine at your local bookstore or newspaper stand; or, you can subscribe to our quarterly magazine on our website to make sure you never miss an issue.

The Third Danube Institute Geopolitical Summit took place last week in the Castle District of Budapest, with such illustrious guests sharing their insights as former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, former Czech President Václav Klaus, Head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Hungarians Abroad Zsolt Németh, and Lewis Libby, researcher at the Hudson Institute and advisor to former US President George W. Bush.

‘Hungary is a literal crossroads nation between Europe and Asia due to its geography and culture. It exists on the edge of Western civilization, as can be seen in Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations. In his book, “east” of the Hungarian People starts what he describes as the distinct Orthodox civilization, and nearby also lies the Islamic civilization. Even though Hungary is now a part of the West, it still has links to the East, which is most notable through language as well as cultural origins and heritage.’

At the opening of the academic year of the University of Public Service, Balázs Orbán highlighted the importance of the state gaining the trust of its citizens and foreign partners, and its task to facilitate the building of relationships in the fields of economy and culture.

The PM, speaking at the Tranzit festival, pointed out: the first thing young people need to clarify is whether there is a homeland, and whether being Hungarian matters. According to Orbán, one needs to ask oneself the question whether being Hungarian is the result of a biological coincidence, or that by being born Hungarian, one entered a situation, a context, a flow. Once a person has clarified this, it is possible to stand firmly on the ground, he declared.

Hungary as a small country does not make decisions for global order as a whole, but it has a unique message for many other small and medium-sized countries that are in the same situation as Hungary, with the same interests in openness to other countries, connections with other countries, their existing alliances, and which also have an interest in preserving their culture and identity, Gladden Pappin suggests.

Lajos Ódor, who was appointed Prime Minister by the President of Slovakia in May in the midst of a political crisis, made some statements in a public discussion at a festival which suggested that Viktor Orbán is isolated on the world stage in his views. Fidesz MP Tamás Menczer reacted in a poignant Facebook post.

‘Tusványos advertises itself saying “the participant coexists peacefully with the organiser, the politician with the politician, the speaker with the singer, the cotton candy with the anklet, the loudspeaker with the bright lights, the bear with the forest…” And this is precisely what I saw as I talked with locals, ranging from the elderly to young mothers with children, all enjoying this festival, some happy to attend the lectures while others openly opposing the the politics of Fidesz, but none unfriendly.’