‘In today’s culture, one has to explain how the modern existential paradigm does not hold the truth to sustain a prosperous life or society. With radical and individualistic generations being raised, nothing is more effective than to point out how existential nihilism does not bring happiness, meaning or prosperity. Cheap surface moralism should therefore be replaced by a transcendental framework of meaning and purpose.’
After Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated on Wednesday that Ukraine was ready to negotiate with Russia if Moscow ‘acts in good faith’, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded on Thursday that Russia was willing to negotiate with Ukraine even if Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains president. Viktor Orbán’s peace mission has undoubtedly contributed to these positive developments towards peace, and the Hungarian Prime Minister could play a crucial role in mediating further talks.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that Ukraine is ready to negotiate with Russia if Moscow acts in good faith, following his meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi. Kuleba’s visit to China sheds new light on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s peace mission: Orbán could play an important role in organizing the next peace conference, where Kyiv would welcome Russia’s participation.
Mainstream political groups in the European Parliament have once again defied the will of the electorate, preventing Patriots for Europe (PfE), the EP’s third largest group, from gaining top jobs in parliamentary committees. Kinga Gál, PfE’s First Vice-Chairman, stated that they will challenge the decision at the Conference of Presidents and did not rule out taking the case to the EU’s top court.
‘Hungary is the tell-tale sign that legal norms and moral niceties have fallen prey to corrosive ideologies, but other would-be leaders who attended CPAC this year and were inspired by its statesmanlike example should not be fooled. If they win, they are next.’
This is not the first time the American Embassy engages in such odd conduct. Its anti-government billboard campaign in April 2023 was similarly negative, short-lived and ineffective.
Balázs Orbán, the political director of the Hungarian Prime Minister, discussed Viktor Orbán’s peace mission and its impact in a lengthy post on X. He wrote: ‘The winds of change are upon us; it’s time for European leaders to overcome years of war psychosis!’
Despite the series of peace plans formulated over the last years, the positions of the presidents of the warring nations, Zelenskyy and Putin still look irreconcilable. As Prime Minister Orbán highlighted on numerous occasions, however, ‘peace won’t happen of its own accord’ and ‘without dialogue it is very difficult to see how they will move in the direction of peace’.
After some details had been circulating in the press for days, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán decided to release his ten-point proposal and assessment he had sent to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, following his peace mission. The document is the most detailed plan for achieving peace in Ukraine that has ever been made public since the war broke out in February 2022.
Reportedly, the visa waiver scheme is part of President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s efforts to better relations with Western Europe. The citizens of three EU Member States, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, have been allowed visa-free travel to Belarus since 2022.