Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán vetoed an EU joint statement on the upcoming Trump–Putin summit in Alaska, breaking with the bloc’s 26 other members. While they welcomed Trump’s peace efforts, Orbán argued the EU should not set conditions for talks it was not invited to, urging instead an EU–Russia summit to ensure Europe’s voice in the process.
On the night of 8 August, the Baltic Air Defence Readiness Unit of the Hungarian Defence Forces was called on its their first live Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) scramble, after an unidentified aircraft not willing to engage in radio communications with air traffic control entered the intranational air space over the Baltic Sea. The aircraft was identified as Russian, and was successfully captured by Hungarian fighter jets.
During an 11 August press conference at the White House, Donald Trump said he had sought advice from Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on whether Ukraine can defeat Russia, calling the insight ‘very interesting’. Trump is set to meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday to discuss a potential peace framework for the war in Ukraine.
In its ‘Beyond the Óperencia’ series, Magyar Krónika is looking at the meeting points of America and Hungary, and at Hungarians in America, from penniless peasants to political emigrants and soldiers of fortune. This part will look at the life of Joseph Pulitzer, who originally left for Mexico to become a soldier but ended up staying in America and becoming a journalist.
‘[T]he…West…has finally reached the Baudrillardian singularity, and become completely absorbed by a self-referential simulation that its own leaders have created. This simulation continues to insulate the leaders of the West, but as rays of underlying reality start to shine through the cracks in the edifice, most people conclude that our political systems are becoming increasingly “fake”.’
Kyiv dismissed claims by Hungarian FM Péter Szijjártó that it refused to investigate the violent death of a Transcarpathian Hungarian man at the hands of conscription officers. The Ukrainian DBR insists a criminal case is ongoing, and forensic examination did not reveal any signs of external physical abuse.
Poland’s new president Karol Nawrocki will be inaugurated on 6 August, dealing a major blow to Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s ability to govern. With Nawrocki poised to wield the veto, hopes for sweeping liberal reforms are fading—and early election speculation is growing.
How has the international community turned against Israel? Did Israel commit crimes against the civilian population in Gaza? What is the importance of Hungary’s friendship with Israel? We asked Israel’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs about Israel’s changing international reputation at the MCC Feszt, organized by the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC).
‘It is impossible to defend democratic legitimacy by hollowing out the very norms that give our institutions their credibility. Germany’s strength after 1949 was not rooted in the moral purity of its political representatives, but in the trust built around procedures, non-negotiable rules, and the idea that the parliament is bound not by political preference but by democratic representation.’
In 1982, Hungary’s state security services launched Operation ‘Crystal’ to surveil an IMF delegation staying at Budapest’s Hilton Hotel. Phones were tapped, documents copied, and economic secrets uncovered—all under the watchful eye of the Kádár regime. The operation reveals the extent of Cold War-era espionage woven into everyday locations.