‘As I myself experienced as the first director of the Hungarian Cultural Centre (Liszt Institute) in Zagreb, which opened in January 2014, Croats have a positive attitude towards Hungarian culture. The Institute is now ten years old, very active, and there is a huge interest in Hungarian culture.’ Read Mandiner’s in-depth interview on Croatian– Hungarian relations with historian Dénes Sokcsevits.
Ferenc Deák, the primary facilitator of the Austro–Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the country’s first Minister of Justice, and the namesake of so many public spaces and institutions in Hungary today, passed away 148 years ago on this day.
Gerő sees classical liberalism as the idea of a constitutionally limited state and individual liberties, based on natural law. According to Gerő, classical liberalism professes the principles of government being accountable to parliament, the separation of powers, and popular rule by suffrage. In that sense, Gerő sees the reform era of Hungary (1825–1848) as the beginning of the equality of civil rights.
‘The kuruc were never mindless rabble-rousers, just like the labanc were never simply unpatriotic traitors. While the merits and good practices of kuruc and 49ist politicians have been been amply publicised and celebrated, the labanc side was often sidelined, and as a result, their perspectives and values are still missing from contemporary politics. It would be worth devoting more attention to the ideas of the Young Conservatives from the Era of Reform. They understood that while our interests must be unwaveringly represented and fought for, Hungary cannot stand alone in turbulent times.’
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.