Hungarian Conservative

According to press reports, Giorgia Meloni is in an endeavour to persuade Viktor Orbán to withdraw his veto on the €50 billion EU aid to Ukraine, offering a unique deal in return. Kyiv could soon face severe challenges or even collapse without substantial foreign financial assistance.

Miklós Szánthó announced that the conference will be taking place between 25–26 April, and the keynote speaker will be Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary.

Emmanuel Macron will preside over the national tribute ceremony for Jacques Delors at the courtyard of the Invalides Cathedral in Paris on Friday morning.

At the year-end press conference, PM Orbán explained why he chose to veto the €50 billion aid package to Ukraine at the recent EU Summit, how he views the potential Ukrainian and Swedish NATO accession, and what he believes the biggest struggles of 2023 were. He also talked about what hopes he has for the new year of 2024.

The Prime Minister said the EU was in the habit of making bad decisions, and he listed the 2008 financial crisis and migration as examples, as well as the decision regarding the war in Ukraine to go ‘towards war and sanctions’ rather than in the direction of peace.

Arriving for the two-day EU summit, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary’s position is very clear. ‘When we talk about enlargement, the Hungarian stance states that it is a merit-based, sophisticated, legal procedure,’ he explained.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday said it was a mistake for the European Commission to be pushing for EU leaders to put Ukraine’s European Union accession on the agenda, opining that the bloc should first sign a five to ten-year strategic partnership agreement with the country.

According to the Hungarian government, ‘preserving the ethnic foundations is our joint responsibility’, and as long as that exists, the politics based on ethnic groups also has a future, the Hungarian prime minister said.

According to the PM, while ‘lost sovereignty was in the focus of the last century’, Hungary regained its sovereignty at the end of the 20th century, so ‘this decade is about retaining that sovereignty’. The lesson that can be learned from the dissolution of the Socialist bloc and of the Soviet Union, Viktor Orbán suggested, is that ‘it is worth being radical, recalling the activism and courage of the system-changing Fidesz politicians.

In his regular Friday morning interview with public Kossuth radio, Viktor Orbán addressed issues such as migration, the economy and Ukraine’s EU accession.

The Hungarian Prime Minister and his team are clearly in a creative mood: they have published a funnily irreverent Star Wars-themed TikTok video, built on some key sentences in Viktor Orbán’s 23 October speech.

In his speech at the Summit of the Organization of Turkic States, Viktor Orbán stated that Europe is facing difficult dilemmas, and the answers provided will have a strong impact on the relationship between the Turkic world and the continent. The PM emphasized that from a European perspective, global security is currently in the worst condition since the end of the Cold War.

Viktor Orbán declared that Hungary’s energy supply is a key issue and noted that it is important for Hungary to be able to receive oil not only from Russia but also from Kazakhstan. He added that the volume of this is not significant yet, but the channels have been opened, and this is a significant step for the country’s security.

‘It is one of history’s great ironies that Budapest, from which hundreds of thousands of European Jews were shipped to their deaths by the Nazis and their Hungarian collaborators, Jews can walk the streets this dreadful autumn without fear. This is an achievement for which Hungarians can and should be proud. Don’t expect European leaders to give Orbán credit. In fact, they will probably increase their public odium directed at him.’

In his regular interview on public radio, the Hungarian Prime Minister pledged to defend Hungary’s borders, to resist pressure from Brussels aiming to change his government’s policies, insisted that Ukraine cannot win on the battlefield, and announced a new National Consultation.

Orbán told his audience in Veszprém that Hungary was the ‘first and only’ country trying to ‘hold back the European people from willingly marching into an even greater war’. Referring to the ‘chivalry of the Hungarian people’, he said that ‘again and again those whom we saved turn against us’ when ‘we are defending them’. He went on to state that Hungary had defended Europe against migration ‘and we were the first to propose peace instead of war, which might have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.’

Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin last met in person on 1 February 2022 in Moscow, before the outbreak of the war on Ukraine. This time the two leaders discussed energy matters and bilateral cooperation. During their meeting, the Hungarian PM also emphasized the need to put an end to the fighting and achieve peace.

Viktor Orbán stated in Beijing that during President Xi Jinping’s tenure, Chinese–Hungarian relations have reached ‘unprecedented heights,’ which is extremely beneficial for Hungary. Orbán expressed gratitude to his host for the constant and unwavering support that Xi Jinping has provided for the development of bilateral relations.

The prime minister emphasized that China is Hungary’s ninth most significant trading partner, and in 2023, China became Hungary’s largest foreign direct investor once again. Companies with Chinese ownership provide employment to nearly 20,000 people in Hungary.

In his regular Friday morning radio interview, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán noted that sympathy protests for terrorists are taking place throughout Europe. By contrast, he declared, Hungary will not allow such demonstrations.

Viktor Orbán met the Georgian prime minister this week. He is expected to also attend a forum in China, where Vladimir Putin will also be present. This could be the first time the two meet since the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, speaking in Granada at a meeting of European Union member state leaders, asserted that there is no hope for an agreement among the heads of state and government on the issue of migration.

In his meeting with the President of the European Council, Orbán reiterated Hungary’s position on issues such as EU funds for Hungary, the increasingly serious migration crisis at the continent’s borders, Europe’s economic and competitiveness decline, and the EU budget.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with Marine Le Pen at the Carmelite Monastery in Budapest on Wednesday, to discuss, among other issues, the need for ‘a united and robust response’ of European right-wing parties to the misguided policies of Brussels ahead of the upcoming European parliamentary elections.

Since the regime change, we have had eight heads of government, of whom only Viktor Orbán has had more than one term. With his current term running until spring 2026, he has every chance of becoming a historical record holder after 16 years in power.

Orbán began his speech by asserting that ‘this year has enormous amounts at stake because the Soros empire, in collaboration with the governing American Democrats, is launching an attack on right-wing media and enthusiastic national parties in many European countries, portraying themselves as Goliaths’.

American political pundit Tucker Carlson sat down again for another interview. This time, they discussed the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war, the national pride of Hungarians, the indictments against Former US President Donald Trump, and more.

The PM, speaking at the Tranzit festival, pointed out: the first thing young people need to clarify is whether there is a homeland, and whether being Hungarian matters. According to Orbán, one needs to ask oneself the question whether being Hungarian is the result of a biological coincidence, or that by being born Hungarian, one entered a situation, a context, a flow. Once a person has clarified this, it is possible to stand firmly on the ground, he declared.

After two years, the Hungarian Prime Minister once again sat down for an interview with former TV host Tucker Carlson.

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.