Category: Current

RUSSIA: ORBÁN’S STRATEGIC SHIFT

There is a widespread view that Hungary’s relations with Russia are so close that they represent a betrayal of the ‘West’, the EU, and NATO, and that there is some sort of comradeship between the ‘authoritarian’ leaders of both countries, Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin. In reality, it was Hungary’s

AUKUS: ‘Anglosphere’ versus
the EU?

Could world war break out over Taiwan? There has recently been speculation that the Russian invasion of Ukraine, overturning the post-Cold War settlement, could trigger a Chinese attack on Taiwan—in fact, Beijing has never denied its willingness to use force to ‘return’ Taiwan to the mainland. The author of this

GERMANY’S NEW LEFT-WING GOVERNMENT AND THE FUTURE
FOR CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS

A new government took over in Germany in December 2021. Almost immediately, the multicoloured coalition of Social Democrats (SDP, red), Greens (well, green) and liberals (FDP, yellow) was subjected to withering criticism in the media. Germany’s new government started with a radical-sounding left-wing programme. It is quickly morphing into something

Narratives of Hungarian–Polish Foreign Policy
after 24 February 2022

It seems as though the Russian aggression against Ukraine has generated several secondary frontlines, one of which is the misinformation campaign against Hungarian–Polish friendship. Polish public opinion is being rapidly conquered by the false claim that Hungary is pursuing a pro-Russian policy. In turn, there are voices in Hungary which

UKRAINE DIARY

‘A man who starts a war enters a dark room.’ I sent out this quote in a tweet a few weeks before the start of the full-scale Russia–Ukraine War. To avoid any possible misunderstanding, I pointed out that though the words were those of Adolf Hitler whom I would normally

The International Eucharistic Congress and the Pope’s visit to Budapest

The Promise of Spiritual Renewal in the ‘Heart of Europe’ Between 5 and 12 September 2021, Budapest hosted the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress of the Catholic Church, a religious event held in an atmosphere of surprising freedom and enthusiasm between successive waves of the coronavirus pandemic. The congress simultaneously highlighted

Media Freedom in Hungary

A Nuanced Perspective In parts of the international press, there seems to be a widespread view that free media in Hungary under Viktor Orbán has been greatly reduced, and that the remnants are under immense political pressure. The truth is more complicated when we take in a full view of

AMERICA INTO THE WHIRLWIND

My earlier odyssey through America’s fruited plains ended with a prediction that the recent struggle between the country’s twin political hysterias of left and right was starting to trend in the right’s direction after a year in which the left had dominated the field. At the same time, the struggle

AMERICA AS THE CLIMATE CHANGES

America is often said to have taken a ‘holiday from history’ between the end of the Cold War in 1989 and the jihadist attacks on two symbols of American power—New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington—on 11 September 2001. President Clinton, who was the most powerful man

GYÖRGY MATOLCSY’S
MONETARY POLICIES IN THE 2010s

Overview of György Matolcsy’s Economic Balance and Growth 2010–2019: From the Last to the First SUMMARY Certain works exploring the cultural history of mankind describe the living, regenerative economic organization of a country as a sort of ‘botanical garden’. György Matolcsy, former minister of the economy and current governor of