Hungarian Conservative

On 18 July the European Parliament re-elected European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen with 401 votes in favour. In her speech before the vote, von der Leyen made numerous political promises for the next five years but also, of course, criticized Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s peace mission.

A clip of PM Orbán of Hungary citing George Soros’ European migration plan published in 2015 in Project Syndicate was recently shared on the social media site X in reference to the election results in the United Kingdom and France, and garnered over 25,000 likes within 12 hours.

Two elections this week at the Council of Europe will determine the institution’s future orientation. On Tuesday, 25 June the new Secretary General of the Council of Europe will be elected for a five-year term. On Wednesday, 26 June three new judges for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will be elected for a nine-year term. Senior Research Fellow at the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) Nicolas Bauer points out the risk of a leftist takeover.

László Kövér stated that the 20th century has shown Hungarians that a liveable future cannot be achieved in the battlefields. The future is in the homes being built and in nurseries, kindergartens, and schools, not in destroyed, burnt-out towns, the House Speaker stressed.

‘Maintaining and building on Trump’s realignment will require legitimate working-class voices under the GOP tent. Trump is a veritable hero to many working-class Americans, but he is the first to note he is a billionaire real-estate and television mogul. Vance’s life story and personal triumphs are remarkable, but he ultimately sports a Yale law degree and a résumé with corporate-law and venture-capital credentials. The changing Republican Party is short on figures like Mark Robinson.’

The typically left-leaning pollster also found that 46 per cent of Hungarians have a positive view of the European Parliament, as opposed to 14 per cent who have a negative view. According to the same poll, public health is the number one issue for Hungarian voters in this election.

Despite focusing his campaign on fighting against corruption and for more transparency in politics, opposition firebrand Péter Magyar decided to jump into the 2024 EP and municipal elections in a very unusual: he founded a civil organization around himself, then that organization partnered with a ‘phantom party’ founded in 2021 to get Magyar’s candidates on the ballot.

Donald Trump is currently leading Joe Biden in the RealClearPolitics polling aggregate by a wider margin than what Republicans ever held against Democrats leading up to the 2022 midterms, 4.3 points. Independent and third-party candidates also give the GOP a better opportunity for victory than in 2022.

Péter Szijjártó opined that, given all the elections taking place in the world from the United States to Europe, this year will be the political equivalent of the Super Bowl.

Geert Wilders has reached the peak of his 25-year political career. However, the Party for Freedom, which does not even have a quarter of the seats in parliament, will need to find several coalition partners to win a majority. Can it be done?

Both incumbent governors, Republican Tate Reeves of Mississippi and Democrat Andy Beshear of Kentucky were reelected last night, in line with the incumbent advantage trend of gubernatorial elections in the US. However, Republicans had to endure a disappointment in the Virginia state legislature elections, as they lost their majority in the House of Delegates and failed to at least tie the Senate.

Hungarian political analyst and commentator András László pointed out that according to a recent survey, a coalition of ECR, ID, and Fidesz MEPs could become the strongest political group in the European Parliament in 2024.

‘According to recent polls, neither United Right nor Civic Platform will be able to form a government on its own…Donald Tusk’s situation seems easier in that he may have a realistic chance of including both the aforementioned Lewica and the Third Way alliance in the future governing coalition. This does not mean, however, that it would be easy for him to govern with these parties, and indeed such multi-party coalitions—let us not forget that the KO is itself an alliance—are often not very stable and long-lived.’

This new generation renewed Hungarian politics not only in the use of language but also in the nature of governance. It was open about its value choices and did not accept that politics was merely the dispassionate administration of affairs. After decades of humiliation, it wanted to once again raise the Hungarian nation to the heights that its thousand-year history destined it for.

The current system involves separate national elections with varying rules and representation. The proposed changes aim to create a single European election, but critics argue that it would diminish the role of member states and distance voters from politicians. The majority of member states oppose the reforms.

Following the results of the 2022 parliamentary election, the American NGO Freedom House decided to downgrade Hungary’s controversial ‘democracy index’ from last year’s report. Meanwhile, Poland’s and Ukraine’s have been increased.

The events of the 1990s are becoming part of history everywhere, including in Hungarian politics. It has been a quarter century since Viktor Orbán formed his first administration in 1998, which was then followed by four more after 2010.

Both Nézőpont Intézet, typically associated with the governing party, and Medián, generally viewed as closer to the opposition, put Fidesz ahead of the strongest opposition party, the Democratic Coalition (DK), by over 35 percentage points.

Brazil is facing presidential elections on Sunday. The outcome of the clash of the titans, Bolsonaro and Lula, who seem to be complete political opposites, will have a huge impact on the country, yet holds few consequences for the world.

As Sweden prepares for general elections in September, predictions about who the winner will be fill the media. It is most likely that the deciding factor will be the competing parties’ stance on illegal immigration.