Hungarian Conservative

The Budapest Treaty was a bilateral accord between Hungary and Czechoslovakia, aiming to establish the contractual framework for the construction of a complex waterworks system along the Hungarian–Czechoslovak section of the Danube. After Hungary unilaterally annulled the treaty signed on 16 September 1977, a complex dispute that has not been completely resolved to this day ensued.

This Saturday marks the 34th anniversary of the Pan-European Picnic, when East German refugees, attempting to defect to West Germany, were allowed to enter Austria by the Hungarian authorities. The Picnic is also a symbol of a borderless, free, united and Christian Europe.

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.

The Orbán administration has committed to spending at least two per cent of the country’s GDP on defence by the end of 2024, a commitment made in 2014 by all NATO members but something many NATO countries have not yet honoured. Hungary, in fact, is set to achieve the two per cent threshold by the end of this year, before the deadline.