I first came to Hungary in 2017. I had a special connection with Budapest; I loved the city. Four years later, in 2021, I came on vacation with a friend, when I had already started my political career. I was surprised, because for the first time in a long while I felt I was really in Europe.
I’m from Catalonia, where I used to live. Sometimes, I felt like a stranger walking through the streets. When I came to Budapest in 2021, however, I saw a European city, with young native couples with children, and pro-family and pro-life messages. What I saw disproved the lies told about this country by the Western media.
It became clear to me that I had to live in Hungary. In 2022, after finishing my degree in political science, I decided to come here. When I came to live here, I saw that I was not the only one who had decided to leave his country and make a new life in Hungary. People from all countries had come here to make their lives, sometimes alone, sometimes as families. I want to explain why people have come to live here.
Rod Dreher
I heard about Rod Dreher in 2021, and I saw that he had gone to Hungary—an American conservative living in Hungary. I asked Dreher why he had come to Hungary, and he replied:
I first became interested in Hungary in 2019, when I began to research the former Communist countries of Central Europe for my book Live Not By Lies. I visited Budapest and found it to be beautiful and charming. That same year, I spoke at a conference in the city, and was invited to a private meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who wanted to chat with the conference speakers. Orbán turned out to be not at all like the negative portrayal in Western media. He said at the end of the meeting that he hoped that conservatives will consider Budapest their intellectual home. I thought it was an interesting thing to say, but didn’t think beyond that. … Then, in 2021, I came to the Danube Institute for a three-month journalism fellowship. My boss, John O’Sullivan, said there were no strings attached. They simply wanted me to explore the city, and the country, and write about my impressions. It didn’t take long for me to discover that the Hungary that really exists has very little to do with the Hungary that the US media and ruling class academics say exists.
I asked Dreher how, following his stay, he had come to feel about the country:
It’s a normal country, yet defending normality causes the elites to denounce you as a hater, a bigot, a bully, and the rest. It’s very effective in the case of Hungary, too, because few people outside Hungary speak the language. Hungary is at the mercy of what the foreign media say about it.
I asked him when he made the decision to settle in Hungary:
I settled here in the autumn of 2022, in part because I believe that we are in a fight for the survival of Western civilization, and of what is left of Christianity in the West. I want to see what is happening here, and write about it. And I feel at home here, in this foreign country where I don’t speak the language, in a way I increasingly have not felt at home in my own country since the ‘Great Awokening.’
And what was it that was so important, that Dreher had found in Hungary that he hadn’t found in other countries he’d lived in:
I have only ever lived in the U.S., so that’s my point of comparison. The difference in Hungary is simple—so simple I am almost embarrassed to talk about it. In Hungary, things are normal. Hungary has a reputation for being conservative, but I’m not sure that is so accurate. Hungary is not a religious country, for example. And, of course, there are lots of liberals here. The point is that while the rest of the West has lost its collective mind, Hungary (and Poland) have stayed sane. Twenty-five years ago, what is now called conservative was more or less the norm all over the West. It no longer is … Plus, Hungary is blessed with political leadership that is intelligent and aggressive in defense of the country and its interests. In the U.S., we have had twelve years of conservative government in this century, but it has made zero difference in the decline of our culture and society.
Did he think, then, that Hungary could be an attractive country for people who felt that their own country was not the same anymore?
I encourage European conservatives who don’t need to be fluent in Hungarian to make a living to consider relocating to Hungary. It won’t be the solution for everyone, but it could be a good choice for many people. This is a stable country, culturally. If Europe understood its best interests, it would learn from Viktor Orbán, not demonize him. Still, ordinary European conservatives who are sick of living by the lies that their governments and the left-dominated institutions in their countries demand should consider what Hungary has to offer.
Rodrigo Ballester
Rodrigo Ballester, an academic, has lived in several countries, so I wanted to know why he came to Hungary:
In my case, the trigger was family reasons, but there was also a desire for a change of scenery after seventeen years in Belgium. In the course of my life, I had already lived in four Western European countries and the curiosity to live in a Central European country also weighed heavily, especially one that I already knew beforehand and whose media reputation was at the opposite end of the reality that I knew.
I also asked Ballester what the main difference was in Hungary to the other countries he had lived in:
First of all, I felt it to be a country that is moving forward, and whose economic and social dynamism is striking. In France, Spain or Belgium, countries that I know firsthand, one has had the impression for more than ten years that they are in a process of stagnation or regression. They are countries that are not moving forward, whose social fabric is increasingly dynamited and whose only form of government maintains the status quo. Hungary, on the other hand, is moving forward. The last ten years have been a prodigious decade for the whole country (not only the big cities), economic progress is palpable, it can be felt. I am also surprised by the social cohesion; Hungary is a country of patriots, something that has been lost in Western Europe. Also, in the streets, people are clearly more restrained and above all, there is a very high impression of security compared to what is observable in Brussels, for example, or from traveling in France.
Thibaud Gibelin
One of the most surprising cases was that of political scientist Thibaud Gibelin, who came to Hungary with his pregnant wife; in fact, his son was born in Hungary. I asked him what the key reason was behind his decision to come to live in Hungary:
I first discovered Hungary through a university exchange in 2012, and took a lasting interest in it as a political laboratory in Europe. Personal affinities and political interest complement each other. I like Hungary as a European; the differences challenge and stimulate the Frenchman I am. And I am French through and through. There are, therefore, in their subtleties and nuances elements of my personality that I can only express abroad in a summary way. I aspire to serve as a bridge between France and Hungary, being as such fully French and European. But daily and family life here in Hungary is very fulfilling, and I would very much like to spend many years here.
I asked Gibelin if he thought Hungary was an attractive country for people who thought their own country had changed for the worse:
I am quite skeptical about expatriation as a form of escape from a country that you no longer recognize. The trend exists in France: people go east out of love and frustration. If they do not find their place in France, including in peripheral areas still preserved, there is little chance that they will find their place abroad. The fundamental attitude must be, when arriving in a brother country: what can I bring? It is not a question of taking advantage elsewhere of what one does not have the strength to defend at home. It is a question of bringing back the virtues and vitality which we have lost.
Gladden Pappin
Finally, I met the legal and political theorist Gladden Pappin in 2022, at a Sohrab Ahmari conference at MCC. I was surprised that a university professor from the United States wanted to come here to Hungary, so I asked him about it. His response:
Before first visiting Budapest in December 2020, I had been active in European conservative circles for a number of years—including collecting the samizdat issues of The European Conservative from its early days! As I am a political theorist, I had grown interested in Fidesz’s as well as PiS’s approaches to conservative government. When the Mathias Corvinus Collegium relaunched in 2020, I was proud to be its first international guest and decided to return for a longer stay since September 2021. I plan to contribute to educational work in Hungary for years to come.
What was the main difference he found in Hungary to the other countries he had lived in?
Hungary is a peaceful and pleasant country in ways that, regrettably, no longer obtain in many major American cities: peaceful, because Hungarian society has secured the really important things such as family and work; and pleasant, because Hungary is on the upswing, recovering its identity and sense of mission. Unfortunately, in many Western European countries and many parts of the United States, the feeling is the opposite—that the peace and unity of society is being destroyed.
I wanted to ask two great Hungarian journalists for their views on this phenomenon, namely the arrival of so many conservatives to Hungary. I spoke to Gergely Szilvay and Mariann Ory. To my question, Ory replied:
Hungary has become a hub for conservative thinkers from all over the world. One of the most important reasons is that Hungary appreciates conservative thinkers, instead of canceling them. In the Western world, and predominantly in the U.S. and the UK, the left-liberal, woke hegemony is so strong in the academic sphere, and in general in public discourse, that conservative thinkers—both academics and students—are pushed out of the public spheres. Here it is totally different. There is a blooming community of conservative think tanks and institutions, like the MCC, the Danube Institute, Alapjogokért Központ, Századvég, etc., and visiting fellowships, scholarships, events, and various programmes. Political correctness and woke cancel culture are against the nature of the Hungarian way of thinking.
Gergely Szilvay responded:
That’s really simple: here is a conservative government which has led the country since 2010, through four consecutive terms, and has been re-elected every time by a supermajority. It is really spectacular. Despite the Western charges, Hungary is a full democracy with media freedom. More or less half of the media scene is right-wing and the other half is left-wing, but almost in every type (tv, radio, print, newsroom) leftist media has the biggest audience. Orbán’s success is maintained by a good economic policy, which made the country really grow. And also, Orbán is not reluctant to fight: he proposes and doesn’t only react. The Hungarian Right has a convincing narrative, but the Left does not. I did not believe that this Hungarian model can be interesting, but it turns out that what is normal for us, is something interesting for conservatives from all over the world.
I asked them how, as Hungarians, they saw this effect; did they see it as something positive or negative? And are they afraid that Hungary could fall into Western progressivism? Mariann Ory replied:
I definitely think that it is a positive thing, and an enrichment to Hungary that conservative thinkers choose to work or live here. Of course, the best would be if they were free to speak and work in their home countries. Hungary is playing an important role in the world’s conservative sphere, the political relevance of our prime minister and Hungary’s policies go far beyond the country’s geographic or economic weight. I think that Central Eastern Europe is in a much better state mentally, but we are not safe. The whole woke movement, NGOs, the Soros network, and of course mainstream Western culture are waging an attack on Hungarians’ minds, particularly teenagers. We are in a much better position than Western countries, but we should work hard to keep it that way.
Gergely Szilvay said:
For us Hungarians it is really good that we have become a kind of center for conservatives. What is threatening is that Western conservatives need such a safe haven. They should fight at home, and they should be simply an accepted part of the political life in their own countries. That in many countries conservatives live in catacombs suggests, maybe, they should be more combative. And until there is at least one world power in the West which becomes an ally of Hungary, I’m afraid that Western progressivism could befall us too.
It is clear that Hungary is unique in enthusiastically welcoming conservatives from all around the world, and offering them a space in which they can voice their convictions without constantly being hounded. It looks like Hungary will continue to be a refuge for people who want a wholesome, normal life, and will remain such a refuge for many years to come—if only it continues to fight for its identity and its mission in Europe.
