Hungarian Conservative

‘Hungary has the ability to initiate some proposals to its neighbours regarding what steps to take to reduce the harmful effects of the war. The region needs to agree on what the long-term interests of its countries in the region are in the shadow of the war in Ukraine,’ China’s foremost political scientist holds.

NATO accession, defending the countries of Central Europe, success in academia and standing up for one’s heritage. These topics interest many these days, and Joanna Siekiera is an expert on them. In this interview she discusses the ‘blocking’ of Swedish NATO accession, the influence of smaller EU countries globally, academia and cybersecurity.

‘The Visegrad Group has reached a tipping point in the face of growing geopolitical and security challenges. The external and internal dynamics of the regional alliance of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia have encountered obstacles where the need for unity clashes with competing views, aims, and pressures.’

The annual Three Seas Initiative Summit and Business Forum was held with the participation of thirteen countries situated between the Baltic, Black, and Adriatic Seas, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria, Croatia, Romania, Greece, and Bulgaria. President of Hungary Tamás Sulyok also participated in several bilateral meetings during the event.

In the second half of 2024 a regional power exchange known as the BlueSky Project is poised for launch, involving Hungary, Slovenia, and Serbia. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó stated in Budapest on Tuesday that the initiative will notably enhance regional security of energy supply.

Roger Scruton had a special interest in and affection for Central Europe, cultivating a symbiotic relationship with the region. His work influenced the political, cultural, and social dynamics of many CEE countries just as profoundly as they shaped his own work and worldview. In tribute to the British conservative philosopher, a conference was held in Budapest, with a specific focus on Scruton’s ties to Central Europe.

While it is evident that the parties do not share the same perspective on the Ukrainian question, this difference of opinions could be overcome by concentrating on common interests in other areas. Although embarking on this path requires compromises and the harmonization of interests, with no particular policy proposal in that regard adopted at this time, the summit had symbolic significance, sending the message that the V4 alliance is still relevant.

In Scruton’s philosophy…the social practice of legislation and jurisdiction could not be realized outside the national framework, because—regardless to their origins—the interpretation and the enforcement of the set of legal rules and moral duties, even human rights, are bound to nation states…

One of the EU’s appeals is its ability to integrate economic regions in its immediate neighbourhood, where it can reap mutual benefits. This is also true for the candidate countries of the Western Balkans, whose future membership has geopolitical and security policy benefits in addition to economic advantages.

‘Europe’s most powerful nation is now led, without exaggeration, by political extremists. The heads of the other large nations, France and Britain, are all cynical, complacent, and indifferent to the problems of their citizens to a degree not seen here since the French Revolution.

It is an interesting situation for us. So far, we have been the ones always divided up: by the Ottomans, Habsburgs, Germans, and French. Now they are the ones being sliced up and bid on by the hungry peoples of the Third World and the coldly calculating networks of people smugglers.’

The 2023 elections in Slovakia were looked upon with great anticipation by both the conservative and liberal sides. The stakes were high: whether the Central European country would remain on a progressive road or take a national turn.

‘If we disrupt the triple unity of competitiveness, preserving the quality of our created world, and ensuring food security, then the system will not be sustainable. Farmer protests draw attention to the fact that access to agricultural subsidies is too difficult, and with the prioritization of Ukrainian interests, European farmers feel that they are not receiving sufficient protection,’ Agriculture Minister István Nagy stated in a press briefing in Brussels.

While the supposed freedom of a materialistic culture will tend to undermine any sense of the sacred, we can be aware of the false idols and choose to tend to our souls. Scruton, indeed, left us a final work on this very topic.

Reflecting on the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting this week, the left-leaning news portal decided to make an explicit statement about their perceived—and desired—reality by creating a ranking of the ‘do-gooders’ and the ‘dirty dozen’ of the world leaders gathered in Davos—and, of course, a Hungarian politician just had to be included in the selection.

Minister of Agriculture István Nagy of Hungary shared that the countries of Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania sent a letter to the European Commission, urging it to intervene and help mediate the effects of the mass quantities of cheap, low-quality grain from Ukraine entering the European market.

The new Criminal Code of Hungary is one of the strictest in Europe, leading to more criminals being sentenced to incarceration for longer periods of time, necessitating larger prison capacities.

Bejgli, the mouth-watering poppy seed pastry, is one of the most favourite Christmas delicacies in Hungary.

The participants of the conference agreed to hold regular meetings to assess migration processes, said President of the Visegrád Four and Interior Minister of the Czech Republic Vít Rakušan in Budapest on Monday.

In general, the negative image of Hungary currently prevailing in Germany and Europe provides a summary explanatory model for why German conservatives have such reservations about Hungarian politics…When supporting Hungarian positions, German conservatives not only have to make significant discursive efforts, but sometimes also see the foundations of their own political projects as thereby threatened. The risk thus often seems too great for many.

The history of the palace in Dég, Hungary is not only intertwined with that of the Festetics family, but also with Freemasonry in Hungary, as the palace’s builder, Antal Festetics, was the right-hand man of the movement’s Master Chief in the country. Magyar Krónika paid a visit to the newly renovated Festetics Palace in Dég.

‘The foremost step is to acknowledge, from a political standpoint, that we are in an increasingly complex world: under these circumstances, India, Europe, Central Europe and Hungary can indeed work together,’ Professor Raja Mohan, a leading expert on Indian foreign policy suggests.

The idea of founding a country from scratch in order to establish a homeland for a nation that does not exist yet is an act that would be seen by most as patently insane. But looking a little further into the past, it should be clear to all that there is indeed such precedent; and a very notable one, in fact: the United States.

After meeting with his Bulgarian, Slovak and Romanian counterparts to coordinate their joint stance on the extension of the ban on Ukrainian grain imports, István Nagy stated in a video that Hungarian farmers can count on the government to defend their interests.

‘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.’

OSF pulling out of the continent is good news for sovereigntist governments, but it may be too early to rejoice.

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.

‘If I heard about a country that produces and develops military technology together with Germany and Israel, I would think twice before I would mess with it. And this is good news for all Hungarians,’ Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán underlined at the opening ceremony.

Another summit of the intergovernmental cooperation between Austria, Hungary, and Serbia took place on 7 July in Vienna, Austria. Apart from the heads of state and government, the three nations’ ministers of foreign affairs, and domestic and law enforcement leaders also took part in the conference, held at the Austrian Chancellor’s residence. The Vienna Summit was organised in the wake of Hungary and Poland officially objecting to the migration package at the European Commission’s 30 June session.

Balázs Orbán opined that the economic competition between the Western and non-Western world is becoming balanced, thus the world is returning to a state of equilibrium. He recalled that in 1990, the Western world accounted for 50 per cent of the global economic power, whereas this year it is only 30 percent, and this loss of influence is visible in several areas.

Through the new Hungarian centre, employees can provide even more support for the adoption of AWS cloud services to organisations of various sizes in Hungary, including startups, businesses, and public sector organisations.