Hungarian Conservative

Over this past weekend that saw the 20 August celebrations and the grand opening of the Budapest World Athletics Championships, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with the leaders of several countries, creating a one-off diplomacy summit in Hungary.

The energy cooperation between the two countries will gain a new dimension as gas supplies will soon also originate directly from Turkey, following the finalisation of an agreement between MVM and Botas for the purchase of 275 million cubic metres of gas next year.

At an extraordinary press conference, the minister referred to this event as a great collective success for all Hungarians, highlighting that Budapest is now ready to host one of the world’s largest sporting events thanks to environmentally friendly, sustainable, and large-scale sports infrastructure developments.

The Prime Minister stated that both the European and Hungarian economies are influenced by the Russo-Ukrainian war. If the war were to end, both economies could show their ‘better side.’

‘The Ukrainian Puzzle: Hungary’s Perspective on a Changing Neighbour’ is a book that intends to present the Hungarian perspective on Ukraine to the Ukrainian and international public, arguing that this perspective has not changed ever since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1991. While it is hard to disagree with the main idea of the book, the methodology employed to convey it leaves something to be desired.

According to the ministry’s statement issued on 4 August, in July the average prices of products in 62 product categories decreased by an average of 7.7 per cent. This reduction was a result of price decreases in 53 product categories within one month. The decrease in food prices had a 0.7 percentage point impact on reducing inflation and a two percentage point impact on reducing food inflation according to the weighting of the shopping basket used by the Central Statistical Office.

‘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.’

The ministry emphasised that combined cycle gas turbine power plants can be built relatively quickly, have exceptionally high efficiency, low specific carbon dioxide emissions, and their capacity can be adjusted to consumption levels.

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.’

The debates between the Hungarian government and the European Commission often grab the headlines in the international media these years, with the issues of contention between Budapest and the EC usually being co-existence, sovereignty, and shared responsibility. However, there is indeed nothing new under the sun: Hungary had to grapple with such issues under the more than 300 years of Habsburg rule.

The conservative Prime Minister of Italy is aiming to ease the migration pressure on Europe by having the migrants’ transit countries and countries of origin more involved in managing the migration flow. She has already made some headway on this front.

At first glance, the declaration of wanting to see Ukraine in NATO does not seem much more than what the country was already told in 2008. But the truth is that Ukraine is closer than ever to joining the Alliance, which was indicated not only by the unanimous adoption of the closing communiqué, picturing Ukraine’s future within NATO, but also by the fact that Ukraine can skip the preliminary Membership Action Plan (MAP) that every other post-Soviet country had to undergo and negotiate defence issues as an equal partner in the established NATO Ukraine Council.

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.

At the UNSC session on the situation in Ukraine, the Hungarian foreign minister stated that the resolution of the armed conflict is not to be found on the battlefield but at the negotiating table.

A new photo and video exhibition titled Am I My Brother’s Keeper, curated by Yitzhak Mais, a prominent Israeli historian and former director of Yad Vashem’s historical museum, captures the unique moments of international cooperation to help Ukrainian Jewish refugees.

‘We have managed to make a decision that does not carry the risk of war escalation, and the member states have made it clear that Ukraine can only receive an invitation to join NATO if the country fulfils all the necessary conditions and if the allies unanimously agree on it in the future,’ the Hungarian foreign minister stated.

Erdoğan spoke about the issue of Sweden’s NATO membership during a press conference held at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport before travelling to the alliance’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. He stated that Turkey would approve Sweden’s NATO membership if the European Union resumes accession negotiations with his country.

The purpose of Cum hiis superioribus annis, a papal bull issued by Pope Callixtus III in 1456, was to exhort Christians to pray, as the success of the Hungarian crusader army against the Turks was key for the future of Christian Europe at the time. To this day, the noon bell tolls every day to remind us that, as so many times in history, the Kingdom of Hungary stood up valiantly and proved itself one of the bulwarks of Christian Europe.

Given Erdoğan’s pro-Ottoman policies, many were a bit surprised that the first to congratulate him in his victory, even two weeks before the runoff when he was projected as the frontrunner, was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The paradox in this is that both are ardent defenders of their respective faiths that have historically been in conflict with each other.

‘Many people have died, almost every family is mourning someone, and providing for the family is a daily struggle…we are talking about people who fled the horrors of war, their hometown, and even often their country, and yet we saw that even a gesture of help is sufficient to encourage them to accept the uncertainty and difficulties and return to their homeland. No sane person does this unless they believe in something, and these people believe in providence,’ State Secretary in Charge of Aid to Persecuted Christian Communities Tristan Azbej said in a recent interview.

Senator James E. Risch of Idaho cited his frustration over Hungary not moving forward with approving Sweden’s NATO accession as his reason to block the $735 million arms deal. However, in the meantime, Hungary has signed a letter of intent for air force equipment acquisition with France.

A lot remains unknown about the release by Russia of the Hungarian Ukrainian soldiers, including the role that Metropolitan Hilarion played or what the exact status of the freed men is. One things is certain: human lives have been saved amidst the tragic conflict.

The Hungarian National Team’s 22-year-old captain has been valued at €73.8 million by the International Centre for Sports Studies’ (CIES) Football Observatory, making him the 50th most expensive player in the world. This is all amidst rumours about his move from RB Leipzig to the Premier League team Newcastle United.

The MCC Budapest Peace Forum featured 70 speakers, 35 foreign experts from 20 different countries. Academics, public figures, and famed experts all took a stand for the importance of peace, and shone a light on the consequences of war from the different aspects of their respective expertise.

I personally believe Putin would have invaded the Ukraine, as he did Crimea in 2014, whether he felt ‘provoked’ or not, especially after he lamented the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 as ‘the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [twentieth] century’. One can conclude that the former KGB colonel, with his reverie to rebuild the former Soviet empire, was looking for an excuse to do so. And the US-led West provided it to him.

Hungary has recently been making its presence known in the world of international aid, with its most recent efforts being in earthquake-ravaged Turkey. The small nation has focused its initiatives on providing aid to oppressed Christians, which now face record-level highs of global persecution today. Global aid has poured in to relieve the suffering of the region’s minorities following the end of the war against ISIS, during which the region’s Christians, along with other minority communities such as the Yezidis, suffered barbaric crimes.

Viktor Orbán explained why his politics will eventually be proven right: ‘We were the only ones who said that borders must be protected during the migration crisis. Later, more and more EU member states realised that we were right. The same will happen regarding the war’, he underlined.

The Prime Minister travelled to Doha on Sunday, where he is taking part in an official visit upon the invitation of Qatar’s Prime Minister and delivered a speech at the Qatari Economic Forum upon the invitation of the Qatari Emir.

The Hungarian President emphasised at the HLM on the review of the Sendai Framework in New York that despite Hungary being rather small, it always rushes to the aid of countries in need.