Hungarian Conservative

With Donald Trump having secured his first victory in the Republican primaries, the European left is drumming up fear of the former US President’s possible return to the White House. In contrast, for Hungary, there can only be one positive outcome of the 2024 US presidential election: a Donald Trump victory.

Despite three other major candidates still in the running on the Republican side, Former President Donald Trump still got an overall majority of the vote, 51 per cent. An easy primary election victory for an out-of-office candidate is a very good sign for the general election as well.

After Poland’s left-wing government launched an overt campaign against the country’s public media, Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is attempting to ban opposition journalists from parliament. The left’s attacks on critical right-wing voices are intensifying, and the Hungarian opposition would certainly not shy away from emulating the Spanish and Polish examples.

Rarely has a single year carried such profound implications for global security and the future as the one that lies ahead. With conflicts erupting across the globe, the foundations of the international order are being relentlessly tested. Compounding
these challenges, 2024 is marked by the impending presidential elections in two formidable and opposing powers, the United States and Russia. Similar gravity can be attributed to the European Parliament elections scheduled for the same year, where a realistic opportunity exists for the reinforcement of right-leaning forces.

“For all the trials the Christians have endured—from famine during the Ottoman Empire to British bombardment during World War I and the rule of Hamas—the potential future for our Christian brethren in the Holy Land after the war is eventually over seems bleak.’

‘What should Hungarians do? The question—and Orbán’s visionary answer—has meaning beyond Hungary, in ways that Americans and other Westerners only dimly recognize now. And it goes back to the prime minister’s 2014 advocacy of “illiberal democracy” for Hungary.’

In a 4–3 decision, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that former POTUS Donald Trump’s name cannot appear on the ballot for the Republican primary election in the state in March, as, according to their interpretation, he engaged in an insurrection in January 2021. The Trump campaign has already announced that they would appeal to the US Supreme Court; and Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó has denounced the decision.

The brand new edition of our magazine features a piece by Miklós Szánthó, director general of the Center for Fundamental Rights, who wrote about the subversive nature and history of the new Woke ideology; as well as a statistical analysis of the difference in the ways democracies and autocracies wage war by political scientist and military historian Bruce Oliver Newsome, and two Christmas-themed articles as well, as per the holiday season. You can pick up the latest edition of Hungarian Conservative magazine at your local bookstore or newspaper stand; or, subscribe to our quarterly magazine on our website to make sure you never miss an issue.

Famous American political pundit Tucker Carlson interviewed the father of Gonzalo Lira, a Chilean-American political commentator imprisoned in Ukraine for his opinion. The father told Carlson he believes the US State Department is complicit in the plight of his son. Elon Musk himself spoke up in support of Lira after the interview, which prompted Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) to respond as well.

‘Before a military operation is even conceivable, Washington and the EU Member States must abandon the so-called “good relations” with Iran. There is nothing good in a “relation” where the other side is going to profit from it, and thereby continue to sponsor terrorists. After all is said and done, then, perhaps we can discuss, or even assume, good relaions.’

A four-day humanitarian ceasefire has been agreed upon by Israel and Hamas, as confirmed by both parties and the mediator Qatar as well. The Palestinians agreed to the release of 50 Israeli hostages, mostly women and children, while Israel agreed to set free 150 Palestinian prisoners. However, PM Netanyahu of Israel insists his country is still at war.

As Kenneth M. Pollack phrased in his The Hill article, ‘a ceasefire now would only lead to more war and more killing in the future.’ Pollack added that ‘when you reward an aggressor and prevent the attacked from fighting back, you simply encourage that aggressor to attack again, and encourage other would-be aggressors to do the same.’

‘On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump made many promises to the Jewish and pro-Israel community. Promises that many politicians have made to us for decades but never had the guts to follow through on; but not Trump, he followed through. He made promises and he kept them.’

‘All major US media outlets keeping quiet about the imprisonment of an American citizen for a political opinion—he was never even accused, let alone proven to be coordinating with the Russian state—is scary. How is it that not one journalist in American mainstream media is willing to write a single, factual, non-disparaging article about the plight of Mr Lira?’

‘I think that’s why the European Commission does not take the approach with Eurobarometer that the Hungarian government is taking with the National Consultations—because they would realize that Europeans are more supportive of centre-right policies than they would want to put their name and admit to.’

At a campaign rally in Clive, Iowa on Monday, President Trump called PM Orbán ‘the strongest leader, a very powerful man,’ as well as ‘a great gentleman’.

On Wednesday, the Dohány Street Synagogue filled with people for a solidarity service held by the Hungarian Jewish communities. Dr Andor Grósz, head of the Hungarian Jewish Federation MAZSIHISZ, said: ‘The mourning and grief of the Jewish community is shared by Hungarian society,’ adding that the Hamas terrorists ‘brutally violated the Ten Commandments, a gift of the Torah to mankind.’

‘All things being equal, the roots to the actual deadly conflict are profound, as already mentioned. Yet it does not help the cause of peace to keep doing business with Iran, just as the United States has done under the Obama administration and is still doing under the present one.’

‘Christian nationalism is a type of religious nationalism in which the end goal is to achieve an absolute Christian theocracy within a society. Its advocates primarily focus on the internal politics of society, such as legislating civil and criminal laws that reflect their view of Christianity and the role of religion in political and social life, which calls for, at least in their mindset, a strongman like Putin.’

Meanwhile, PM Orbán of Hungary offered his moral support for Israel, writing ‘our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Israel in these dark hours’.

The Afghanistan War started exactly 22 years ago. Two years after it came to an end, our analysis looks back at the invasion and the botched nation-building, attempting to pinpoint the reasons of the ambitious project’s failure.

The former President has faced a deluge of legal accusations, both criminal and civil, to the point where it is almost becoming comical. Donald Trump has been indicted four times by now on nearly 100 felony charges. However, this seems to be helping his re-election prospects, as opposed to hurting them.

The Third Danube Institute Geopolitical Summit took place last week in the Castle District of Budapest, with such illustrious guests sharing their insights as former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, former Czech President Václav Klaus, Head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Hungarians Abroad Zsolt Németh, and Lewis Libby, researcher at the Hudson Institute and advisor to former US President George W. Bush.

In her remarks at the UN, the Hungarian President emphasized her intention to amplify the voices of those who endure war, recalling her recent visit to Ukraine. As her second message, Novák drew attention to the dangers threatening societies when families are broken, schools neglected, and churches discredited.

‘The Maidan—‘the square’ as people refer to it—became a plaza of fallen heroes in 2014: pictures commemorating the 108 protestors killed by law enforcement during the Revolution of Dignity remind everyone that for Ukrainians the struggle for self-determination didn’t start in February 2022.’

‘Indeed, things are getting so difficult for Xi’s authoritarian directives…China’s economy actually fell into deflation in July, while factory-gate prices also extended declines—its debt is three times its GDP in 2022. Beijing’s consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, fell 0.3 per cent in July, the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS) said, after having flatlined in June.’

It is evident that the 2024 field of candidates is double-edged. While it is incredibly crowded and diverse, it is dominated by Biden and Trump.

‘Nation-states will be reduced in their functionality, becoming of secondary importance as entities, and the principle of territorial existence will slowly dissolve into a new, boundless uniformity. To use a rather un-English term, we are going to witness the deterritorialization of the world—a world deprived of the territories of its constituents, at least if we are to believe the new utopians.’

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.