Hungarian Conservative

In her remarks, Minister Varga paraphrased the words of Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of the European Union, who said that Europe will either be Christian or not be at all.

Despite OTP’s continued support of Ukraine, the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention has recently classified the Budapest-based bank as an ‘international war sponsor’ for not shutting down its Russian subsidiary.

Europe and Hungary were fortunate to have a mild winter, but ‘a country’s leadership cannot make an unequivocal bet that this will always be repeated,’ Energy Minister Lantos warned. Therefore, the government has decided to raise the level of the security gas reserve. Previously, the country stored 10 per cent of its annual consumption as a security reserve, which was now raised to nearly 2 billion cubic metres, or 20 per cent of consumption, while consumption itself decreased.

According to Slovakian Hungarian-language website Új Szó’s information, Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová officially announced on Sunday afternoon that she would entrust the management of the country to a technocratic government until the early elections, following a meeting with Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollár and outgoing Prime Minister Eduard Heger.

On Day 2 of CPAC Hungary 2023, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó proudly proclaimed that ‘Hungary has come out of every crisis stronger than it had entered’. Family was also a prominent topic, as well as the need to protect life and Creation.

Some EU member states are looking to abolish the veto power of smaller countries in the area of common foreign and security policies. They argue that this would speed up the process of passing laws, however, there are many hurdles to consider.

‘Belligerents in a war never like to acknowledge that there is some intermediation and thus that there is some work to do together with the other side. And therefore, it is always difficult. In that sense, we didn’t experience anything new in the context of Ukraine.’

Péter Szijjártó welcomed Novartis’ announcement that the Swiss pharmaceutical company is establishing a new regional research and development centre in Budapest, from where it will coordinate its research projects in Southern Europe and Africa.

The event featured, among others, former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, Croatian MP Stephen Bartulica, and Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga. Minister Varga called Hungary ‘an island where freedom still lives’; while referring to the Brussels bureaucracy and mainstream media as ‘an octopus with 100 tentacles that we have to fight’.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán hosted a working lunch for the European participants of CPAC Hungary, and two special guests.

The Prime Minister gave this piece of advice at CPAC Hungary 2023 to his conservative allies around the world on how to defeat the woke mind virus: ‘All it takes is to write well-visibly on the flag with enormous letters before the elections: no migration, no gender, no war.’

In his interview with Richard Quest, Péter Szijjártó asked the rhetorical question: ‘Do you think all this would be possible if there were systemic corruption? Because if there is systemic corruption, there is no growth, investors do not come, and they do not bring their money here.’

The prime minister talked about how Hungary has a vested interest in achieving peace in Ukraine, since the war diminishes the value of Hungary and endangers the ethnic Hungarians living in the area.

According to the law sponsored by the justice minister, an extended state of emergency is needed to handle the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the war in Ukraine and to tackle the economic consequences of the armed conflict. The bill was designed to ‘ensure all means to assist and accommodate refugees, fence off the negative economic impacts.. and help the country leave behind the effects of the war as soon as possible,’ the draft legislation’s preamble said.

The leaders of five EU member states, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania, requested in mid-April that the European Commission take action on Ukrainian grain entering Europe duty-free and causing harm to local farmers.

Peter Maurer, former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross was invited to a discussion in Budapest by the Mathias Corvinus Collegium. He shared some highlights of the ten years of his presidency and the challenges he faced during his tenure.

The foreign minister called the preservation of communities that stayed together in ‘every storm‘ extremely important at the opening of the renovated Old School in Western Hungarian Hegykő. The project was completed with a 220 million HUF Hungarian government–European Union grant.

Bence Rétvári recalled at the farewell ceremony of the Hungarian police contingent heading to Serbia that a mission was launched in January this year in cooperation with Austrian and Serbian police officers to jointly protect the southern borders of Serbia to combat illegal migration and human smugglers.

The Hungarian economy is among the most open ones, however, it is following technological advancements relatively slowly. This could be dangerous, but if Hungary adopts state-of-the-art technology with the help of public investments, there is a great opportunity for development.

At the prestigious Litomeřice competition over 200 breweries from a series of countries from the Czech Republic to Spain competed with nearly 1,200 beers in 39 categories, and Hungarian Szent András Brewery’s new cider won a gold medal.

Carsharing is a simple, user-friendly and cost-effective alternative to owning a personal vehicle. All it requires is a smartphone and a credit or debit card.

Apart from causing tragic suffering for the locals and posing a major threat to foreign nationals living in Sudan, the civil war is unfortunately also expected to result in an increase in the number of people trying to enter the EU illegally.

Wizz Air announced a partnership with Firefly Green Fuels. Firefly produces sustainable aviation fuel from sewage sludge. The aim of the partnership is to further decrease the carbon footprint of the aviation company.

Alexandra Szentkirályi reiterated that Hungary still does not and will not ship weapons to Ukraine nor will it allow other countries to ship weapons through its territory.

The Justice Minister announced on social media that the government will submit further, child protection-related legislative proposals to the National Assembly in the autumn. ’Hungary will have the strictest child protection regulations in Europe because there is no compromise in child protection,’ she wrote. She also pointed out that more and more evidence is emerging that the Hungarian opposition had accepted 4 billion forints in ‘mysterious’ foreign donations to represent foreign interests and policies in Hungary.

The Political Director of the Prime Minister, Balázs Orbán has been appointed to oversee the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT), which is also changing its name back to the pre-2014 one of Hungarian Institute of International Affairs (HIIA). The new president of the organisation will be Gladden J. Pappin.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made a surprise visit to Kyiv, Ukraine to meet with President Zelenskyy, where he expressed his strong support for Ukraine’s accession to the military alliance. Viktor Orbán, who has been a vocal proponent of peace negotiations and is fully aware that such remarks are seen as a provocative move by Russia, took to Twitter to voice his strong dissent.

Monday’s negotiations were a very important milestone in building trust between the EU and Hungary, Judit Varga said, who added that she does not expect any new conditions from the European Commission regarding the Hungarian justice package.

Viktor Orbán emphasised at the event organised by the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry that six out of ten students who finish their primary education continue their studies in vocational education in Hungary, with technical schools being the most popular choice.

‘Hungarian-Serbian strategic energy cooperation is one of the guarantees that Hungary’s supply will remain secure in the next period,’ the minister said.