Simplistic labels like ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’ for a rules-based, nations-centric approach are to be rejected—one can learn from former foreign minister of Hungary János Martini’s new English language book Nation and Europe: In Lieu of Memoirs which was presented to the audience on 18 September at Danube Institute.
In his introduction, Hölvényi emphasized that in recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic and wars have weakened people’s faith and religiosity. Rebuilding and strengthening faith will take many years of work, but change must always start from within, he noted.
Besides supporting EU’s EDIRPA and ASAP initiatives, Hungary has also been participating in joint capacity building and procurement programmes with France and Germany.
According to Hungarian Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, Hungary and Georgia’s cultural similarities make the bilateral dialogue easier. Both nations speak a unique language, have a ‘closed culture’, and are committed to the values of Christianity, he stressed.
As the European Commission’s politicization takes place without real democratic political legitimacy, serious dilemmas arise: what exactly are the interests of the President of the European Commission, and whom does she represent when she gives her annual State of the Union Address?
Szijjártó urged the start of genuine European Union accession negotiations for Albania and North Macedonia. He emphasized that Europe is facing extraordinary economic and security challenges, making the stability and peace of the Western Balkans more crucial than ever.
The European Parliament’s new campaign proposal would not only end the foreign affairs veto by amending the EU treaties but would also give the EU more power in the area of the rule of law and migration. As part of that overreach attempt, it would also suspend Hungary’s right to hold the EU presidency.
The year 1000 is not only memorable for Hungarians: at the turn of the first millennium, unexpected events took place in the whole of Europe, including on the fringes of the continent barely touched by Latin Christianity, in Poland and Hungary, where Christian conversion had been going on for years.
Timmermans’ name might ring a bell with our readers, as he has frequently criticised the Hungarian government and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
‘A significant part of European culture is fading away. The Greek tradition of philosophy, knowledge, curiosity, is being lost. We live in the period of cancel culture, of narrowing down what can be contested or argued or put into question. In terms of reason, of statecraft, state building, practical political rationality, much has also been lost.’