Hungarian Conservative

The spring session of Parliament began on Monday. The Prime Minister stated that the Hungarian government is on the side of peace, and pointed out that peace is also the only way inflation can be stopped within the EU.

The King’s openly political engagement in Wiltshire confirms the prediction that Charles III may very well become a ‘meddling’ ruler, unlike his predecessor, Queen Elizabeth II.

The Ukrainian President extended an invitation to Viktor Orbán. While the relationship of the two countries is strained, Orbán said that he is open to the idea of visiting Ukraine.

In preparing for the tumultuous years to come, a strong emphasis on developing and training native talent, and raising up a generation of leaders capable of serving their country well, will put Hungary in the best position for navigating this unexpected new world.

The Hungarian Prime Minister delivered his state of the nation speech on Saturday. His topics included the war, the future of the country, domestic and geopolitics and his commitment to developing the countryside.

Gergely Gulyás spoke at a conference organised by the Mathias Corvinus Collegium and stated that Hungary’s dependence on the EU is not due to its 1.4 per cent contribution to the Hungarian GDP, but rather because Hungary is a part of a unified Europe and Schengen area, and the common market is essential for Hungary’s economy.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister travelled to Minsk on Monday to meet with his Belarusian counterpart, Sergei Aleinik, with whom he held a joint press conference. Péter Szijjártó stated that the most critical duty of the international community is to save lives, which calls for an immediate end to hostilities and the commencement of peace talks.

On 9 February, Mathias Corvinus Collegium organised a discussion with Henri Vanhanen, a research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. The Finnish expert offered some valuable insights into why Finland wants to join NATO now, and how the thought process in that direction evolved over the years.

During the European Council summit on Thursday, EU leaders welcomed the Ukrainian president to Brussels, showing support for the West’s ally as Ukraine gets ready for an anticipated Russian offensive.

The Hungarian Prime Minister was put under scrutiny for not applauding the Ukrainian President—however, he was not the only one, as some Western journalists and politicians have claimed.

Austria’s Chancellor was the first Western leader to meet with Putin after the invasion. Now, despite strong criticism, Russian representatives were granted visas to Austria to attend the OSCE summit in Vienna in February.

While many Western countries cancelled great Russian masters, Hungary continues to perform and publish the eminent works of European culture.

Up to 40 countries could boycott the Paris Olympics unless Russian and Belarusian athletes are completely banned. The calls for a ban disregard the premise that no one should be discriminated against based on their citizenship.

‘Hungary and Austria are good neighbours and maintain very close cooperation in almost all areas, including the field of the military and defence,’ the Hungarian Minister of Defence underlined after meeting with his Austrian counterpart in Budapest.

The actor known for many as Luke Skywalker has been an adamant supporter of Ukraine’s war efforts since the conflict began. Earlier this week Hamill announced that he would soon be selling signed Star Wars posters to help finance the Ukrainian army’s drone supply.

‘Central Europe is a natural corridor between the two superpowers, forming a buffer zone. In the last thirty years, it seemed that the leading politicians of the countries in this region clearly saw and understood what they could and could not do.’

‘The Hungarian population strongly supports the State of Israel, an unambiguously national-religious state like Hungary, which believes in innovation, a strong military and the ability to jointly maintain the existing international structure.’

Péter Szijjártó did not mince his words when reacting to recent critical remarks on Budapest’s Ukraine policy by US Ambassador David Pressman.

Hungarian President Katalin Novák urged peace talks between Russia and Ukraine during her visit to Rome earlier this week.

The debate here is not one of having a strong military, which, to borrow President Woodrow Wilson’s famous phrase, is necessary to make ‘the world safe for democracy’. Rather, it is how military expenditure, or militarism, becomes an end in itself.

The fact that over 1000 Moroccan students applied for admission to Hungarian universities for this academic year shows that the rise in quality of Hungarian higher education is internationally well known and recognised, Péter Szijjártó said.

Russia’s infamous Wagner Group is looking for mercenaries in Serbia, Hungary’s southern neighbour.

Petr Pavel was elected as the next president of Czechia defeating Andrej Babiš, the former Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán spoke about the war, the effect of sanctions and the intelligence report on the funding of the leftist parties during an interview on Friday.

Whether the Western Balkans will be inside or outside Europe in the coming decades will also determine the development of the EU, President Katalin Novák emphasised.

Could it be that Orbán is not the enfant terrible of the EU, nor the Trojan horse of Moscow, but one of the few statesmen left in the trans-Atlantic alliance with some common sense and long-term vision?

‘We need the United States and NATO to say to Russia, “Okay, we get it. NATO will not enlarge to Ukraine and to Georgia.” In my view, that is not a defeat of NATO. That is just common sense.’

Ukrainians fire as much artillery ammunition in two days as US munitions factories produce in a month—and even so, they achieve only one-sixth or one-seventh the density of fire of the Russian artillery. The question is where the West will draw the line when it comes to feeding the insatiable Ukrainian war machine.

Ukraine used to celebrate Orthodox Christmas Day on 7 January, but as a cultural shift away from Russia, Ukrainians are increasingly keen on celebrating Christmas in December.

‘Machne Chabad’, the kosher Rescue Village hosting Ukrainian Jewish Refugees in Hungary is the largest Jewish rescue camp in Europe, open to all Jews fleeing the war.