Category: VOLUME VI, No. 5

HUNGARY AND EUROPE UNDER SIEGE

Sometimes a political topic forces itself on our editorial attention and will brook no rival. Though we covered the topic of immigration fully in our last issue with articles by Mark Almond, László Földi and Ronald Majláth on its growing significance, augmented by an editorial on how the world solved

BEING RIGHT AT THE WRONG MOMENT: ROBERT CONQUEST

“How could the British make Dahrendorf a baron but Popper only a knight?” said a surprised German politician. He did not understand the British honours system, and indeed few people do. Eric Hobsbawm, never-resigning member of the Communist Party, was made Companion of Honour (to the Queen). Fair enough, for

REMEMBERING ROBERT CONQUEST

The opening line in most obituaries of Robert Conquest, who died on August the third, described him as a “historian and poet”. That would be a capacious enough description for most men of letters. In Tom Stoppard’s The Invention of Love, Charon keeps A. E. Housman waiting on the banks

A WORLD OF PERIPHERIES

Greece’s predicament gave new meaning to the phrase “peripheral Eurozone” – concluded the analysis of Fitch, a leading rating agency. The Greek financial case is certainly extreme in its complexities but there have been other Eurozone members – the Irish, the Portuguese and the Spanish – experiencing dramatic economic events

EXCERPTS FROM SPEECHES OF 1990

József Antall(1932–1993) ON THE ROAD TO NATIONAL RENEWAL This is indeed a solemn moment as I stand here before the Hungarian National Assembly and before the nation. It is a moment preceded by seemingly endless waiting, a moment we often thought might never come, or if it ever came, most

HELMUT KOHL – MAN OF GERMANY AND EUROPE

The date I am contemplating is 22 June 1990. Hungarian Premier József Antall is on an official visit to Bonn, Germany. The guards of honour line up in front of the Chancellery, as do the delegates from Hungary. We wait briefly, then a tall, burly man steps outside and greets

RULE OF LAW: THE ASCENDANCY OF CONSCIENCE IN EUROPE

RULE OF LAW: THE ASCENDANCY OF CONSCIENCE IN EUROPE(1) It is a great honour and pleasure for me to speak at the feast of Saint Thomas Becket today. Now an annual tradition in Esztergom, the seat of Hungary’s Roman Catholic Primate, this event has been a veritable celebration of the