The editors of The Guardian must have overlooked it, so Hungarian Conservative is now publishing the response of Danube Institute visiting fellow, alumnus of the Budapest Fellowship Program Michael O’Shea to Bence Szechenyi’s now infamous defamatory op-ed.
While Hungary is a country with plenty of complexity and, like any other place, has its issues and imperfections—as well as treasures—I have two choices: criticize and judge from afar, or engage and learn. I choose the latter.
His explosive claim that MCC ‘funds academics who disseminate Orbán’s positions’ is as unoriginal as it is untrue. In my over two years of experience with MCC—ten months of which I worked directly with the School of Social Sciences and History—I found my professional and academic colleagues to be free thinkers who, while moderate to conservative, often engaged in spirited debate on issues ranging from climate change to education policy.
Kyiv stayed true to its doubtful reputation and promised ‘appropriate responses’ to the three V4 countries extending their ban on Ukrainian agri-food imports. ‘If the decisions of our neighbours are not neighbourly, Ukraine will respond in a civilized manner,’ Zelensky said.
According to the European Conservative Reformist Party, similarly to what the Hungarian government advocates, what Europe needs is not a federalist dogma, but sovereign nation states taking into consideration the peculiar needs and characters of regions and communities, for the sake of a prosperous and competitive continent.
‘The Maidan—‘the square’ as people refer to it—became a plaza of fallen heroes in 2014: pictures commemorating the 108 protestors killed by law enforcement during the Revolution of Dignity remind everyone that for Ukrainians the struggle for self-determination didn’t start in February 2022.’
‘Indeed, things are getting so difficult for Xi’s authoritarian directives…China’s economy actually fell into deflation in July, while factory-gate prices also extended declines—its debt is three times its GDP in 2022. Beijing’s consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, fell 0.3 per cent in July, the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS) said, after having flatlined in June.’
‘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.’
‘The rapport between the governments of the world and Iran cannot be limited to the financial sector; they must address Iran’s brutal crackdowns of its own population, its sponsorship of global terrorism, its setting up a parallel-state within Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, its militia forces in Iraq, which with the assistance of the Badr Organization occupy government posts imposing their sharia-based tenets, and its delivery of weapons to Russia to use against Ukraine.’
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya, former Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, died in exile in Portugal in 1957 and was buried there. One of his last wishes, however, was for his ashes to be brought home once his beloved country was liberated from Soviet occupation.
‘Liberalism demands we remain open to hearing differences of opinions and the ability to mediate them through democratic institutions. Openness, however, does not equate to acceptance, especially if the opinions are incompatible with the truths of the natural law, as John Locke had forewarned.’
While differing perspectives persist on the most suitable approach to drug policy, Hungary’s firm commitment to a conservative approach by combining enforcement and treatment remains essential for addressing drug-related issues effectively. Probably not unrelatedly, the country is one of the safest in the EU according to the Economic Global Peace Index.
It would have been too great of a risk for Szoboszlai to go against his teammates and refuse to take a knee on his Premier League debut. While playing for the Hungarian National Team, however, he did just that: he, along with his teammates, refused to kneel before the two Nations League games against England in 2022, and they won both times.
Arguably, architecture in Budapest has always been used as a means of political and cultural expression. Thus, restoring the Castle District can be viewed as a way to reclaim Hungary’s lost heritage and reconnect with its historical identity.
Despite the left-wing’s denunciation of Orbán as a despot because of his censorship, or for that matter that of Abdullah II, the one-sided free speech absolutism that is being promoted by the same left is nothing more than a capitulation to moral nihilism, a reason why Facebook has been removing Hungarian conservatives from its platform.
Hungary’s complex Ukraine policy is influenced by its desire to protect ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia. Can Ukraine’s compliance with Hungarian demands lead to more support and cooperation, especially given Hungary’s historical experience with Russian aggression?
‘Thanks to their huge user base, the largest social media sites have become unavoidable power factors, having enormous potential to influence public thinking. They can determine who, how and what can say, although this is done mostly indirectly, through business-interests- driven algorithms. Yielding to the pressure of progressive and woke ideologues, most service providers also develop principles of behaviour expected on their platform, and those who allegedly do not conform can be cancelled.’
‘Nation-states will be reduced in their functionality, becoming of secondary importance as entities, and the principle of territorial existence will slowly dissolve into a new, boundless uniformity. To use a rather un-English term, we are going to witness the deterritorialization of the world—a world deprived of the territories of its constituents, at least if we are to believe the new utopians.’
We have heard time and again the phrase ‘trust the science’ during the COVID-19 pandemic, so it is time for pro-life people to prove what science really means. It is indispensable that we who want to see an end to the carnage arm ourselves with the toolkit of science and logic, but without using manipulative techniques.
According to the Annual Persecution Report of ChinaAid, a non-governmental Christian non-profit that focuses on human rights abuses and religious freedom in China, government pressure on Christian churches and faithful to yield to political ideology has only increased since the signing of the 2018 agreement between the Holy See and Beijing.
‘The American left is seeking what they call ‘Social democracy’ and claim it is not ‘democratic socialism’, but everyone knows it is indeed the same ideology. This socialist ideology reflects that of Rousseau’s, who had an abstract idea of society’s restoration towards man’s ‘natural equality,’ but this idea is fundamentally flawed. As Edmund Burke, the prominent British political thinker, wrote in response: “their abstract perfection is their practical defect”.’
‘Hungary’s support for Georgia makes sense in a number of ways. With both nations having brutal histories of Russian domination, Hungary understands the struggles Georgia has had in coming out of Moscow’s shadow after so many years behind the Iron Curtain. While Hungary offers support to a fellow former communist satellite state to realise a future better than its past, Georgia offers Hungary and Europe the resources needed to maintain that future.’
It could be rightly expected that the interpretation of law in the EU be guided by the foundations of European civilisation, namely morality embedded in Judeo-Christian culture. This morality is summed up in the Cain–Abel paradigm, which can inform the understanding of European justice systems when deciding how European laws should be applied or modified in the interest of Europe.
‘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.’
‘By compromising its freedoms of speech and expression as a means by which to satisfy its international partners, Sweden and Denmark are revealing themselves to be far more ruthlessly utilitarian, and far less naïvely socialistic, than most observers might think.’
‘In fairness, to say that Washington, Brussels, and Budapest have some pre-existing policy disagreements is a laughable understatement. Nonetheless, the question remains: Why is Hungary growing closer to China as the West grows further away? The short answer is: it’s complicated.’
It is quite clear that the Ukrainians would have never survived this long against the Russian aggression without the financial and military assistance of the US. Yet the Biden administration has thus far offered no strategic argument on behalf of the costs and risks, let alone what is the overall end objective of the war.
‘Whatever form it takes, whatever its emphasis, American exceptionalism does exist, and it is definitely reflected in the attitudes of both ordinary Americans and American politics. It is what American sociologist and political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset simply called ‘Americanism’. This whole sense of exceptionalism is part of the American identity.’
Unlike ‘unitary’ bombs, cluster munitions are not single shells; instead, they consist of a dispersive mechanism that releases numerous grenade-like bomblets mid-air, designed to explode upon impact. However, many of these smaller submunitions fail to detonate upon landing, remaining in the ground for extended periods, posing a threat to the civilian populations be they farmers, children playing or any passers-by.
This new generation renewed Hungarian politics not only in the use of language but also in the nature of governance. It was open about its value choices and did not accept that politics was merely the dispassionate administration of affairs. After decades of humiliation, it wanted to once again raise the Hungarian nation to the heights that its thousand-year history destined it for.