Hungarian Conservative

Charles Michel has announced his candidacy for the European Parliament in this year’s elections, leaving his seat at the head of the European Council vacant. This raises the prospect of Viktor Orbán taking up the post, causing panic among the European left.

While attending a meeting of European Union justice ministers, Minister Bence Tuzson spoke to journalists about a number of important issues, including the recent increase in the terror threat in Europe, the frozen EU funds due to Hungary, and the country’s upcoming Council of the EU presidency.

Hungary has been a committed promoter of the European Union’s enlargement in the Western Balkans, and sees it as a fundamental interest of European security and economy, Judit Varga, a Fidesz lawmaker, told Hungarian news agency MTI after talks in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The European Parliament’s new campaign proposal would not only end the foreign affairs veto by amending the EU treaties but would also give the EU more power in the area of the rule of law and migration. As part of that overreach attempt, it would also suspend Hungary’s right to hold the EU presidency.

It seems that the majority of MEPs are aware of the legal and political limitations of the options for action outlined in the Meijers Committee’s analysis, but are committed to continuing to exert political pressure on Hungary and Poland in the coming months.

According to Fidesz deputy group leader in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Zsolt Németh the future of conservatism in Europe is bright, as right-wingers on the continent are ‘coming closer together’; and that therefore the slogan of the Budapest seminar could rightly be ‘Conservatives of Europe, unite!’