Hungarian Conservative

Balázs Orbán emphasized at a party political roundtable discussion on Thursday at the 33rd Bálványos Summer Open University and Student Camp that peace advocates will eventually become the majority in Europe, stating that ‘time is on their side’.

For the fourth consecutive year, the European Commission has published its annual report on the rule of law, which comes with few surprises. In addition to Hungary, Brussels is now concerned about the rule of law in Slovakia and Italy, which is unsurprising given that both Member States have governments prioritizing national interests. Poland, on the other hand, has fallen off the EU’s ‘bad guy’ list since Brussels’ favourite, Donald Tusk, came to power. This year’s report leads to a single conclusion: the Commission views the rule of law as a tool for political and financial blackmail.

Bulgaria has offered to help maintain Hungary’s energy security if Ukraine does not resume Russian Lukoil oil shipments to Hungary in the near future. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó called Sofia’s offer a sincere gesture of friendship.

Hungary and Slovakia are taking joint action against Ukraine over its halting of Russian oil shipments to the two EU member states. This move seriously threatens the long-term energy security of both countries, and is considered a violation of the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement by Budapest and Bratislava.

Polish MEP Ewa Zajączkowska-Hernik has been catapulted to fame by her tough speech last week in the European Parliament mercilessly criticizing Ursula von der Leyen. Zajączkowska-Hernik stated, among other things, that von der Leyen should go to jail instead of seeking re-election for her political activities over the past five years. The Polish MEP’s speech has already been viewed by nearly 3 million people on X.

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!’

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.

The majority of Hungarians agree with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Hungarian government in not supporting Ursula von der Leyen’s second term as President of the European Commission. The vote in the European Parliament will take place on Thursday, 18 July, but it is far from certain that the current president will secure the 361 votes needed for re-election.

All indications suggest that Brussels simply cannot get over Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s peace mission. In the latest development, 63 MEPs have written an open letter to EU leaders, urging them to strip Hungary of its voting rights in response to the prime minister’s ‘rogue’ diplomacy. Additionally, the European Commission has instructed its commissioners to skip informal ministerial meetings organized by the Hungarian EU presidency.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s peace mission has prompted EU ambassadors to consider punitive measures against Hungary. According to POLITICO, the envoys criticized the country during a meeting that lasted for more than two hours on Wednesday, but they have not yet devised a specific means of punishment.

In a break with tradition, Viktor Orbán’s speech at the first plenary session of the European Parliament, where he was to present the programme of the Hungarian Presidency, may be postponed. The stated reason is that the Hungarian PM’s speech does ‘not fit into the EP’s timetable’.

According to former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán aims to create ‘maximum discomfort’ for the new European Parliament with his newly established right-wing alliance, Patriots for Europe. Juncker harshly criticized the Hungarian PM as well as former US President Donald Trump in an interview with POLITICO.

The KINCS survey conducted in May clearly shows that Hungarians understand and take seriously the demographic challenges of our time. 78 per cent of respondents believe that the EU faces serious demographic problems that 73 per cent think threaten Europe’s future.

After late-night talks, EU leaders have decided on the top jobs of the EU, with Ursula von der Leyen preparing for a second term as President of the European Commission, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa as President of the European Council. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán criticized the pact between the EPP, S&D, and Renew, which disregards the will of the voters, calling it a ‘coalition of lies and deceit’.

Orbán seems to have reached a compromise with exiting Dutch PM Mark Rutte about the latter’s NATO SecGen candidacy. But as for nominating von der Leyen again as next Commission President, Orbán, did not mince his words last night. He declared on X that ‘the will of the European people was ignored’ on Monday evening, and stated that the EPP eventually teamed up with ‘the socialists and the liberals’.

The European Commission is planning to impose unprecedentedly high punitive tariffs on all-electric cars imported from China. The plan has elicited strong objections from several member states, including Germany and Hungary.

‘I am convinced that the current leadership in Brussels does not take into account the opinion or expectations of the majority of European people, and we even see that they represent non-European interests in Brussels on key issues, such as illegal migration, the war in Ukraine or the EU’s competitiveness,’ Hungarian Member of the European Parliament Balázs Hidvéghi stated in an interview with Hungarian Conservative.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave an interview to the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, in which he stressed that the current European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen has failed regarding everything from war to agriculture. He emphasized that there is no other choice: the European right must take over after the elections.

Belgium, currently holding the rotating EU Presidency, is urging member states to accelerate the Article 7 procedure against Hungary, which could result in the country losing its voting rights in EU decision-making. Pressure on Budapest over Ukraine has been increasing in recent months; Belgium’s call could be seen as part of this effort.

A vibrant panel discussion on 30 May 2024 in Budapest looked at the impact of Brexit on Europe and the EU, and on the importance of nation-states and the conservative movement in a changing Europe.

‘If we treat the deepening understanding of the common value of Rule of Law as we would the space race, with definite winners and losers, then we degrade it. There can be no winners and losers here, really, as every state is a winner and a loser simultaneously in their daily battles on the frontlines of the Rule of Law. Some of these battles are acute, some try to tackle chronic symptoms, and it is very hard to credibly create systems of indexing, wherein each and every state actor may be qualified according to the same, abstract level of success or failure on these merits.’

According to information from POLITICO, EU leaders and some member states want to punish Hungary by giving the country a weak portfolio in the next European Commission. Hungary currently holds the position of Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, but tensions between Brussels and Budapest are rising due to Hungary’s resistance to Ukraine’s accession.

According to Hungarian Finance Minister Mihály Varga, Hungary has received an additional HUF 184 billion from previously frozen EU funds. Varga pointed out that these funds serve as an ex-post contribution to the wage increases for teachers and kindergarten teachers, which were pre-financed from the budget.

On the first day of the Rule of Law as Lawfare Conference experts such as Minister of European Union Affairs János Bóka of Hungary and MEP Ryszard Legutko of Poland discussed how the legal concept of the rule of law has been turned into a political weapon by EU bodies, and analysed the double standards applied to different Member States with rule of law assessment procedures.

‘If we are looking for a more idealistic, right-wing conservative solution to the puzzle, we have to question the current form of the EU as it is. It may be appealing to the economic right, but it contains very little for the social right. This would mean either a radical restructuring of the EU to align towards more of these values or its reduction to a mere economic cooperation platform.’

‘The history of European integration is in fact nothing more than the history of the power struggle of the EU institutions. The powers of the institutions at the core of the current EU have been in a constant state of flux since the beginning of the European project…’

‘We can only hope that the debates concerning the future of the EU will increasingly focus on the goals, and that European politicians will emerge who can formulate them with the faith and courage of the Founding Fathers, ensuring at the same time that the EU remains a community of peace, prosperity, and solidarity.’

Instead of condemning the law that protects Georgia’s sovereignty, the EU should consider adopting similar measures, Balázs Orbán argued in his X post. On Tuesday, the Georgian parliament passed a law mandating registration for organizations that receive substantial foreign funding, triggering significant outcry in Brussels. However, the law, disparagingly labelled as the ‘Russian law,’ bears similarities to the Foreign Agents Registration Act in the United States, which has been in place for nearly a century.

The regulations of the new pact include, for instance, faster processing of asylum applications, more efficient return of those who do not have the right to stay in the EU, and solidarity in the distribution of migrants between Member States.

‘Hungary is set to take over the rotating EU Presidency in July 2024, a development that has provoked mixed feelings among certain political factions…Nonetheless, Hungary has proven to be a formidable participant in these disputes, fully aware of its rights within the EU legal framework and prepared to advocate for them vigorously.’