‘I have been asked several times by foreigners whether there is systemic anti-Semitism in Hungary. My answer was clearly no. In fact, as a Hungarian Jew, I feel much safer here than in other parts of the world.’
As one of the thirty member states that voted against the proposal, Hungary made it clear that the 75th Independence Day of the Jewish State should be celebrated and not mourned as a ‘disaster’.
The Hungarian government has condemned the Russian aggression against Ukraine in no uncertain terms but has also been a consistent advocate of an immediate ceasefire and peace talks, offering several times to be a mediator in the conflict.
There is growing concern that the overuse of the term ‘genocide’ may devalue it. Clearly defining what genocide means is crucial to prevent it from being used as a validation of every kind of victimhood.
The war is now two months old, and notwithstanding continual efforts by the UN Security Council to stop the fighting, such collective security efforts have achieved very little if nothing at all.
To sum up, there are the so-called ideological “leftists” who are in power in much of Europe, including Berlin and Paris, and there are the pragmatic “rightists” who are in power in the Visegrád Group countries, especially in Budapest and Warsaw, but, for the time being, they are in opposition to most of Europe.
Hungarian Conservative is a bimonthly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.