Hungarian Conservative

‘Western conservatism and mainstream Chinese political thought share an important characteristic: a culturalist worldview that recognizes what is culturally one’s own and, from this basis, acknowledges and accepts the otherness of Others in a pluralistic world of cultures and civilizations. This is a particular form of cosmopolitanism; one may call it conservative.’

‘What will determine whether the situation plays to Hungary’s favour or not will be the ability of its leaders to balance the concerns of its security partners with the benefits it gains from its economic ones. With its society becoming more dependent on cyber infrastructure, what is undeniable is the necessity to protect it from hostile foreign influence and manipulation. Its western allies offer the greatest opportunity to accomplish that but would likely come at the cost of its Chinese-built infrastructure.’

‘Most importantly, Facebook is a Western company, and we are a Western-style democracy. Facebook’s ideology is basically liberal democracy, as is ours—although the Hungarian Government takes issue with this and represents a version of it based on Christian, conservative values. The number one platform for this world and this set of values for the public is the Facebook universe: we are therefore allies; not good friends, but allies.’

The following is Part I of a three-part analysis that sets out to illustrate the three fault lines that are about to redraw the geostrategic map of the Old World.

‘Hungary is a literal crossroads nation between Europe and Asia due to its geography and culture. It exists on the edge of Western civilization, as can be seen in Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations. In his book, “east” of the Hungarian People starts what he describes as the distinct Orthodox civilization, and nearby also lies the Islamic civilization. Even though Hungary is now a part of the West, it still has links to the East, which is most notable through language as well as cultural origins and heritage.’

Péter Szijjártó emphasised that except for Germany and China, Hungary is the only country where all three German luxury car brands have factories, and three of the world’s top ten electric battery manufacturers are already present in Hungary.

Could it be that Orbán is not the enfant terrible of the EU, nor the Trojan horse of Moscow, but one of the few statesmen left in the trans-Atlantic alliance with some common sense and long-term vision?