Hungarian Conservative

The rhetoric of spiritual mobilization, of Russia’s responsibility for the fate of the world, and of the ‘burden of the Russian people’ is becoming dominant once again as it was many times before during tragic periods in Russian history. Economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation as the punishment for the annexation of Crimea and the war in Ukraine are interpreted by the Russian regime and the majority of Russians as confirmation of progressing Anomia in the West, and will strengthen the Katechonic argument.

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.

The third annual MCC Feszt in Esztergom, Hungary is expected to have 40,000 people in attendance, more than ever before. The Day1 programme featured many well-known musical acts as well as a panel a discussion about the major shifts in the state of geopolitics, with Gladden J. Pappin, Dean Karalekas, Benjamin Freidman, and Michael Hume.

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.

While Sofia, Prague, Bratislava and Ankara seemed to be eager to send more aid to Ukraine and support the war-torn country in its NATO bid, the NATO summit in Vilnius must have been a disappointing ending to a promising start for Zelenskyy.

The PM drew attention to the fact that Hungary spends over two billion euros to protect the Schengen Zone from illegal immigrants. ‘We haven’t received a single cent from Brussels. Why should we pay more? We have to spend all our money on protecting the borders, protecting Europe and Germany,’ Orbán stated.

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.

Previously, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary voiced his support for the presumptive Republican challenger, Former President Donald Trump. Both statesmen are making the case that their preferred US Presidential candidate would be better for peace in Eastern Europe.

The Hungarian government blocking the latest round of sanctions comes only days after the Orbán administration vetoed the release of €500 million of military aid to Ukraine. The blacklisting of the Budapest-based OTP Bank by Ukrainian officials is behind both of these decisions.

Both statesmen won their respective elections by around 19 percentage points last year, but the similarities do not end there. Their stances on immigration, the Ukraine war, and, most notably, the restriction of teaching gender theory in schools, have been very much akin to each other in the past.

In essence, Orbán’s government is signalling a willingness to cooperate with the internationally sanctioned Iranian regime even in areas such as nuclear policy. 

Diplomacy has always been a complicated game of chess, not every move is going to be a winning one. It goes without say that there are advantages in implementing realpolitik, even with oppressive regimes. The paradox is that it can also make them even stronger.

There has been no doubt from the first moment that Hungary is committed to Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, argues Zsolt Németh, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Hungarian Parliament in an interview about the decades of Hungarian NATO membership, the Hungarian peace diplomacy and the prospects of the Finland & Sweden Accession.

‘Hungary’s political leadership is strong enough to keep our country out of the war. I say this in all humility, but also with confidence,’ the Prime Minister declared.

Péter Szijjártó expressed hope that members of the European and transatlantic community would adopt the Hungarian stance, adding that currently, on this hemisphere, war rhetoric is much louder and stronger than peace rhetoric.

Retrospectively, one can say the coup had been in the making. But how unexpected it was is plainly demonstrated by an epic video on YouTube, in which a fitness trainer is holding a public dance workout session, totally oblivious to the motorcades of military vehicles roaring in the background, later capturing strategic buildings and institutions.

The war in Ukraine has been ravaging European economy for the past year. Marking the recent one-year anniversary of the invasion, this article looks at the economic sanctions imposed upon Russia and assesses their effect.

Ambassadors Varga-Haszonits and Fałkowski were the only diplomats to be present at the Tehran event with President Raisi. Despite that, other European nations also refrain from fully committing to cutting ties with the Middle Eastern nation.

The United States and the United Kingdom recently sanctioned Bulgarian citizens for their alleged abuse of public funds under the Global Magnitsky Act.

It is difficult not to interpret the visit of Samantha Power, the current head of USAID, to Budapest last Thursday and Friday as an American telling-off.

Naftali Bennett made shocking claims about his derailed mediation efforts in the Ukraine conflict in a five-hour interview, uploaded to his own YouTube channel.

Upon the advent of the new decade, it was expected that the 2020s would be challenging even without a major economic crisis or another high-impact, low-probability event after the COVID–19 pandemic.

Ideologies offer a simplified, one-dimensional view of the world. In reality, international relations are determined by a multitude of complex factors, and are often based on pragmatic considerations.

The debate here is not one of having a strong military, which, to borrow President Woodrow Wilson’s famous phrase, is necessary to make ‘the world safe for democracy’. Rather, it is how military expenditure, or militarism, becomes an end in itself.

Swedish media has suggested that Moscow may be behind the Saturday burning of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.

Conservatives are those who uphold tradition, the nation, and the values of the Bible. If we take care to uphold those principles consistently, it will become increasingly difficult, and eventually impossible, for those who advocate other principles, to present themselves as conservatives.

‘Weapons that Europe has at its disposal cannot become a threat to anyone so long as the continent’s democratic societies won’t demonstrate a capacity and determination to make use of them,’ Alexis Carré said.

How will the struggle between Russia and the West play out? The answer to that may depend on Hungary.

Energy-intensive industries are starting to migrate to America because of the much cheaper gas and electricity available there—POLITICO cited Belgian chemical giant Solvay as an example, which recently announced that it would no longer make any investments in Europe and would take all its production to America.

In addition to meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv alongside other European leaders, Katalin Novák spent the weekend visiting ethnic Hungarian settlements in Transcarpathia.

Hobbes refuted traditional higher law tenets and motivated people to accept the established laws and customs of their nations, even if they appear oppressive, for it is the only way peace and security can be obtained in society. The state thus becomes successful at the expense of justice, as it is today in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the People’s Republic of China, and the Russian Federation where power divorced from justice maintains order through oppression.