Draghi proposes that the EU’s priorities should include the lowering of energy prices, increasing competitiveness, proper governance of industrial policy, and increased defence spending. The EU should no longer rely on others to maintain its security, he argues, since continuing to do so would make it more vulnerable.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has carried out a government reshuffle unprecedented since the outbreak of the war, with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba being the most notable victim. Ukraine’s situation on the battlefield is becoming increasingly difficult, and many believe the Kursk incursion was a significant mistake, ultimately falling on Zelenskyy’s shoulders. Thus the changes in his government may be part of the Ukrainian president’s efforts to sideline political opponents and silence dissenting voices.
‘For peace, a ceasefire is needed first. Only then can a peace plan be developed to end the conflict. Anyone who does not accept this is not familiar with the science of peacemaking,’ Balázs Orbán wrote in his analysis for Mandiner.
German newspaper Die Welt has obtained exclusive information on the planned composition of Ursula von der Leyen’s next Commission. Citing senior EU officials, the article outlines the potential commissioner-designates for key posts, presenting a scenario that could be bittersweet for Hungary over the next five years.
Axios has recently published a story in which the chair of the Harris-Walz campaign calls Democrats ‘the clear underdogs’ in the presidential election. While Harris is performing well in public polling, rumours are that her team’s internal numbers tell a different story. This is also evidenced by the fact that she is making a campaign stop in New Hampshire, a state that is supposedly safe blue in 2024.
Over the weekend, the Israeli Defense Forces found the bodies of six Israeli hostages killed by the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip town of Rafah. In their initial reports major international media outlets were reluctant to spell out Hamas’s responsibility in their headlines, unsurprisingly for those who have been following the conflict and the media coverage attentively from the beginning of the war. This most recent example highlights the mainstream media’s growing tendency to deny or distort reality when it suits them.
The radical right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party got the most votes in the state of Thuringia, and came in close second in Saxony. Experts Ágoston Sámuel Mráz, Bence Bauer, and Zoltán Kiszelly shared their thoughts as the results were coming at an event organized by MCC.
‘Just as liberalism did not succeed in transforming people after socialism, neither did the competing anti-liberal, post-Christian, nihilistic trends. The solution is certainly not political or movement-based: those had already failed by the middle of the twentieth century.’
The informal meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council took place amid heightened tensions in Brussels on 29 August. The mood was set by Josep Borrell’s decision to relocate the meeting from Budapest to the Belgian capital as a signal of disapproval of Viktor Orbán’s peace mission. Ahead of the meeting, pro-war ministers issued statements criticizing the Hungarian government, and the tense atmosphere carried over into the discussions in the meeting room.
Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris blatantly copied Donald Trump’s proposal for eliminating taxes on tips, as well as including a very similar plan for child tax credit in her economic agenda to what JD Vance proposed during a TV interview. That is despite the fact that she is currently leading the national polling aggregate on RealClearPolitics.
‘The demographic shift also suggests a move towards an increasingly multipolar world order. Not bipolar, but multipolar. While the West’s demographic weight is rapidly declining, so is that of its main opponent, China, and to such an extent that its aspirations to take over the role of global hegemon from the United States no longer seem feasible, and its economy may even slide into stagnation.’
In 2022 Swiss-based ACORE discovered a rich lithium deposit near Lopare, a town in the northeast of Republika Srpska. Although the entity led by Milorad Dodik has not yet issued a tender for the extraction of the ‘white gold’, excellent diplomatic relations and statements from Hungarian and Bosnian Serbian leaders suggest that the project could potentially be undertaken in cooperation with Hungary.
From time to time, the left-wing media circulate rumours that the Hungarian government is planning to create single-member constituencies in areas inhabited by Hungarians living beyond the border, such as Transylvania or Carpathia. This time, it was Péter Magyar, the leader of the opposition Tisza party, who initiated the spread of these false rumours, which the government has repeatedly denied. The left has consistently looked down upon Hungarians living beyond the borders, continually blaming them for their own political failures.
A Syrian migrant due to be deported stabbed three people to death in Solingen, Germany last Friday. On Monday Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the left-wing SPD party visited the site of the tragedy, and vowed to crack down on illegal migration in the country.
‘Christian realism is not unprincipled power politics or mere pragmatism, but the intelligent use of power and politics for the sake of representing Christian ideas and the common good (bonum commune), within the bounds of worldly political constraints.’
The escalation has raised concerns of a broader conflict in the region, as Israel declared a 48-hour state of emergency and placed restrictions on public gatherings and transport across the northern regions. Both sides have signalled that further actions may be taken, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to protect the nation at all costs, while Hezbollah indicated that their response to ‘Israel’s provocations’ was only beginning.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has been awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary upon the recommendation of Viktor Orbán. Under Vučić’s presidency, relations between the two countries have significantly advanced, as evidenced by the improved situation of Hungarians in Vojvodina, substantial infrastructural developments, and close cooperation in the areas of migration and energy.
Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto’s recent remarks voicing concern about the Ukrainian incursion into Russian territory have drawn ire from Italian commentators. Under Giorgia Meloni’s leadership Italy has consistently backed Ukraine in both rhetoric and material support. However, her public position also reflects the constraints imposed by her governing coalition, which includes pro-Russia politicians. Meloni’s balancing act requires deft political manoeuvring as she seeks to maintain support for Ukraine while navigating a divided public opinion at home.
An awful lot of rare historical events for one election cycle happened this year in the US, most of which do not favour the incumbent party. Nothing is a better testament to that than the fact that this week in Chicago it will be Vice President Kamala Harris who accepts the nomination, and not President Joe Biden. That is despite President Biden, as billionaire Elon Musk pointed out in a post on his own social media platform X, having been very adamant about staying in the race until just a month ago.
‘The Democrats, who often accuse Trump of populism, demagoguery, and fascism, are increasingly resorting to demagogic, populist, and fascist tactics themselves by instilling fear and turning Trump into a bogeyman, repeating the tired old tropes about him incessantly (not to mention using other means such as deploying law enforcement and the judiciary for partisan purposes against their political opponent). As posted on Facebook by the GOP, on the night of 19 August alone, the word “Trump” was mentioned 147 times at the DNC meanwhile “inflation” three times, “crime” six times, and “border” only eight times.’
Hungarian Interior Minister Sándor Pintér has addressed the European Commission’s concerns regarding the extension of the Hungarian National Cards programme to Russia and Belarus. In a letter sent to Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson, Pintér emphasized that Belarusian and Russian guest workers arriving in Hungary would undergo thorough screening to ensure compliance with EU regulations and would not pose a threat to the national security of Schengen member states.
Donald Trump’s campaign team has accused EU Commissioner Thierry Breton of election meddling after he sent a letter to Elon Musk, stating that Musk had a duty to censor potentially ‘harmful content’ on X ahead of Musk’s interview with the former US president. To make matters more embarrassing, it has emerged that Breton did not even inform Ursula von der Leyen of his actions.
In his Facebook post, Minister for European Union Affairs János Bóka criticized the EU Commission for its mandate concerning Hungary to maintain the capacity to process nearly 8,000 foreign nationals at the border, as per the controversial EU Migration Pact passed by the EU Parliament this April.
‘Europe finds itself at a critical situation, faced with a fundamental choice between unity in progressivism or sovereignty in diversity…Central to this decision is the recognition of Europe’s intrinsic diversity, rooted in centuries of history, cultural exchange, and shared heritage. This diversity, inherently European, forms the essence of the continent’s identity and should be cherished and preserved. Importantly, efforts to import diversity from external sources often lead to fragmentation and discord, rather than enriching European society.’
The cancellation of American singer Taylor Swift’s three concerts in Vienna due to a terror threat has once again highlighted the serious consequences of Brussels’ flawed migration policy. Balázs Orbán, the political director of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, emphasized the need for a fundamental change in the Western attitude towards the future of our society and culture to protect our children.
The recently adopted amendment to the Bulgarian education law is very similar to the Child Protection Act introduced by the Hungarian government in 2021, which prohibits the dissemination of harmful LGBTQ and gender propaganda in educational institutions. The Hungarian child protection law is one of the reasons why Brussels is withholding EU funds from Hungary, and the European Commission is expected to take similar action against Bulgaria.
Within hours of the announcement of Kamala Harris picking Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, the American news site POLITICO published an article comparing Governor Walz’s views of PM Orbán of Hungary to that of Senator JD Vance of Ohio, the Vice Presidental candidate on the Republican side.
After the expansion of the so-called National Card scheme for which Russian and Belarusian nationals have now also become eligible, Budapest came under fire from Brussels politicians who claimed the measure poses a security risk to Europe. However, the conditions under which Russian nationals can enter and work in Hungary have not significantly changed with the introduction of the National Card and are comparable to the visa regimes of other European countries, which in fact allow Russians to apply for long-term visas in a much more generous way than Hungary and yet have never been pilloried for it.
The European Commission will not convene a consultative forum on the dispute between Ukraine and EU members states Hungary and Slovakia over the transit of Russian oil through Ukraine. Brussels’ reasoning is that there is no immediate threat to the energy security of these two countries due to Kyiv’s decision to halt the supplies. These developments indicate that the European Commission has blatantly sided with a non-EU member against two member states, jeopardizing their energy security.
The first Tusványos speech that became famous across the Western world was delivered a decade ago in 2014. In the international, and especially Western media, the speech became (in)famous for using the phrase ‘illiberal democracy’ for the first time. Talking about competitiveness in a globalizing world Orbán said: ‘We are trying to find the form of community organisation, the new Hungarian state, which is capable of making our community competitive in the great global race for decades to come.’