Hungarian Conservative

Hungary is a hospitable land with exceptionally friendly people, a country known for welcoming millions of tourists annually. That kindness, however, shall not be mistaken for weakness, as over the course of history, Hungary has proved it is a birthplace of warriors, valiancy, and engineering ingenuity that brought about effective military technologies.

Political philosophy that is clearly separated from legal philosophy could not really take root in Hungary either in the Renaissance or in the 18th–19th centuries. Outstanding experiments such as certain writings of Count István Széchenyi or Aurél Dessewffy, the ‘Ruling ideas’ of Baron Eötvös or some excellent political essays by Zsigmond Kemény remained isolated experiments. Ottlik is one of the first Hungarian practitioners of political philosophical thought who can be integrated into the Western traditions of political thinking.

‘The mamaliga (a typical Romanian boiled cornmeal dish) will not explode,’ Communist dictator Ceaușescu famously said in the 1980s, dismissing the potential of the forces that opposed him. But the discontent with the oppressive regime had been brewing for a long time by then, so the sparkle represented by the brave resistance of Hungarian Reformed pastor László Tőkés and his flock was enough to light the fire of the revolution all across Romania.