US President Donald Trump was among the first world leaders to announce that he will attend the funeral of the late Pope Francis on Saturday. Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, will not be present, and despite his close relationship with the pontiff, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will also skip the ceremony.
French right-wing leader Marine Le Pen was found guilty on Monday of embezzling European Parliament funds and barred from standing in elections for the next five years. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, along with other prominent figures of the European right, expressed solidarity with Le Pen and condemned the conviction.
Budapest witnessed rare protests in recent days, as demonstrators rallied against what they describe as a ‘Pride-ban’—an amendment to the law on the right of assembly, which imposes stricter conditions on mass events that violate the child protection law. Among the speakers was the infamous German MEP Daniel Freund, who effectively admitted that Brussels has been working for years to oust Viktor Orbán’s government, with the current demonstrations being no exception.
‘Western media is…in a frenzy about an impending electoral upset in Hungary. Péter Magyar is being touted by some as “the biggest threat Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has faced in 15 years”. Much of this assessment is based on polling for the upcoming 2026 election…Yet when we look at the polling closely, we see that there are major discrepancies which lead one to seriously question its accuracy.’
The EU is increasing its number of peacekeepers stationed in Bosnia and Herzegovina as tensions rise at an alarming pace in the Western Balkans. Sarajevo accuses Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik of undermining the country’s constitution following a series of legislative moves after his conviction by a federal court last week. A close ally of Dodik, Viktor Orbán and Hungary now find themselves at the centre of these tensions, locked in a sharp diplomatic standoff with Bosnia.
The long-running British newspaper The Times has published a very friendly profile piece about Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar, with the headline ‘Meet the biggest threat Hungary’s Viktor Orban has faced in 15 years’. However, they have left out many important facts that put Magyar’s political career in a more realistic perspective.
Hungary is introducing a price cap to combat unjustified food price hikes. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that from mid-March, profit margins on 30 essential food items will be capped at 10 per cent, with measures in place until the end of May.
‘There is an ideological collusion between Ursula von der Leyen and Emmanuel Macron to leave the framework created by the EU treaties…Viktor Orbán is closer to my ideological position than to that of Marine Le Pen,’ President of the French Reconquête party Éric Zemmour talks about the end of the war, the alliances of the right, and Europe’s chances of survival.
Donald Trump is reportedly considering relocating some 35,000 US soldiers from Germany to Hungary. Viktor Orbán has long advocated for strengthening European defence and establishing a joint European army, while also fully meeting Hungary’s NATO commitments on defence spending. At the same time, Hungary remains the only EU country that shares the United States’ position on Ukraine. But how likely is this plan to materialize?
After Viktor Orbán announced that Hungary would hold a public vote on Ukraine’s EU accession, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski suggested holding a similar vote across member states on Hungary’s EU membership. However, Hungary is not alone in viewing Kyiv’s accession as a potential threat to the European economy. Polish farmers also fear the collapse of the agricultural sector, and their votes could be decisive in the country’s presidential election in May.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.
