Hungarian Conservative

‘Hungary is a literal crossroads nation between Europe and Asia due to its geography and culture. It exists on the edge of Western civilization, as can be seen in Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations. In his book, “east” of the Hungarian People starts what he describes as the distinct Orthodox civilization, and nearby also lies the Islamic civilization. Even though Hungary is now a part of the West, it still has links to the East, which is most notable through language as well as cultural origins and heritage.’

Michigan State University law professor Adam Candeub recently gave an interview to the Hungarian periodical Mandiner, in which he touched on a wide array of important issues, such as immigration, preserving cultural values, and the European Union trying to pressure Hungary into giving up its sovereignty.

This is not the first instance of the ambassador offering an unsolicited opinion about Hungary’s past. Last year, he published a message regarding the 1956 revolution, drawing parallels with the Russo-Ukrainian war, and this spring he lauded the Soviet Red Army that occupied Hungary in 1945.

Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya, former Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, died in exile in Portugal in 1957 and was buried there. One of his last wishes, however, was for his ashes to be brought home once his beloved country was liberated from Soviet occupation.

This Saturday marks the anniversary of the death of Prince Emeric, the first Hungarian heir to the throne, who died at a tragically young age. His death during a hunting accident gave rise to conspiracy theories about his assassination and turned the wild boar into an unusual political actor and symbol in Hungarian history.  

‘Regardless of whether the outcome is positive or negative, I believe a historian’s duty is to try to reconstruct what happened through primary sources from the archives, as objectively as possible.’

A recently released Russian history textbook defaming the Hungarian 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight has caused serious public uproar in Hungary, with many on the right and the left denouncing it as a falsification of history.

During the event, Marek Kuchciński and International Director at the University of Public Service (NKE) Ákos Mernyei planted two oak trees in the park of the Renaissance castle of Krasiczyn. One tree symbolizes the friendship of the nations in the region, while the other represents the Polish–Hungarian summer university organised in Krasiczyn since 2018.

The PM, speaking at the Tranzit festival, pointed out: the first thing young people need to clarify is whether there is a homeland, and whether being Hungarian matters. According to Orbán, one needs to ask oneself the question whether being Hungarian is the result of a biological coincidence, or that by being born Hungarian, one entered a situation, a context, a flow. Once a person has clarified this, it is possible to stand firmly on the ground, he declared.

The year 1000 is not only memorable for Hungarians: at the turn of the first millennium, unexpected events took place in the whole of Europe, including on the fringes of the continent barely touched by Latin Christianity, in Poland and Hungary, where Christian conversion had been going on for years.

The coronation ceremony of the Kings of Hungary was a highly formalised and strict ritual, which conferred sovereignty onto them via the Holy Crown. It represented the bond between king and nation, and the monarch’s duty to uphold the laws, customs, and liberties of Hungary.

The Habsburg Court regarded Protestantism simply as the ideological expression of the nobility, that is, the ‘spirit of rebellion’. In addition, it was part of the absolutist thinking of the era that only a mono-religious country could be politically united.

Our nation marked the 1023rd anniversary of the foundation of its state. Celebratory events were held all across the country, from Esztergom to Debrecen, with the greatest festivities taking place in the capital city of Budapest. There, the holiday crowd was treated to an Air Show by the pilots of the Hungarian Air Force and Europe’s largest fireworks and lights show, among other things.

King Saint Stephen’s ‘Admonitions’, with more than half of its chapters addressing Christian faith and the church, transcends legal and religious realms, potentially safeguarding familial unity for generations.

Surprisingly, the earliest royal secular knightly order in Europe was founded in 1326 in Hungary, a country just emerging from civil war, by King Charles I, in honour of St George, the patron saint of knights since the crusades.

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.

During a ceremony held in commemoration of the foundation of the state where high state awards were conferred, Chief of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás stated that as Hungary is celebrating the 1023rd birthday of its nationhood, the nation must take stock of its history. He also added that the anniversary of the foundation of the Hungarian state is an apt occasion to express gratitude to those who, with years of effort, have served their communities, big or small, through exceptional achievements.

At the historic 1926 event, the Hungarian men’s water polo team got the gold by beating all other teams in the tournament, while swimmer István Bárány triumphed in the 100-metre freestyle competition.

Francis Joseph, King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria, was born on 18 of August in 1830. He left a complex legacy, but, at least in Hungary, he is mostly remembered as a benevolent fatherly figure.

The Hungarian American media mogul donated $1 million of his own wealth to Columbia University to establish a Journalism School exactly 120 years ago today. Pulitzer went through a lot to amass that wealth, having arrived in the United States as a foreign recruit for the Union Army in 1864, penniless and barely speaking a word of English.

‘Nation-states will be reduced in their functionality, becoming of secondary importance as entities, and the principle of territorial existence will slowly dissolve into a new, boundless uniformity. To use a rather un-English term, we are going to witness the deterritorialization of the world—a world deprived of the territories of its constituents, at least if we are to believe the new utopians.’

His courtly representation, international Gothicism, and the reception of the Renaissance in Hungary can be considered Matthias’ most brilliant achievements, which were also highly appreciated by his contemporaries. It is undoubtedly a unique phenomenon of 15th-century Hungarian history that the Italian Renaissance had such a great impact in the country.

Baron Bálint Balassi de Kékkő et Gyarmat is celebrated as the pioneer of Hungarian romantic poetry, a valiant soldier, a daring lover and an accomplished polyglot. His life and achievements embody the true spirit of the Renaissance, and read like a tale of romance, valour, and fighting spirit.

The upcoming celebrations on 20 August centre around one of the most magnificent buildings in Budapest: Saint Stephen’s Basilica. That is also where The Holy Dexter, the right hand of Saint Stephen, the first king of the Kingdom of Hungary, is kept.

As every year, the Cake of Hungary is selected ahead of August 20, with those attending the holiday events being the first to taste the creations of Hungary’s best pastry chefs. The competition this year was won by the torte named Tipsy Fig Respectus of the Levendula és Kert (Lavender and Garden) cake shop from Szigetszentmiklós, located on Csepel Island. Essential ingredients of the cake include Aszú wine, figs and honey.

‘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.’

‘Veszprém is clearly looking for its place. However, it is close to Budapest, Vienna, Győr, and Lake Balaton, the landscape is also beautiful and its location and millennia of tradition all predestine it to be a cultural capital and a gastronomic centre. It has all the necessary ingredients.’

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 third annual MCC Feszt in Esztergom, Hungary is expected to have 40,000 people in attendance, more than ever before. The Day1 programme featured many well-known musical acts as well as a panel a discussion about the major shifts in the state of geopolitics, with Gladden J. Pappin, Dean Karalekas, Benjamin Freidman, and Michael Hume.

‘There was something about the past that could only be conveyed by being where it took place. Although I had already studied the horrors of the Holocaust and the Second World War, being in the actual face of such evil, in the literal place of it, shook me to my core.’