Last Warning to the West: Hungary Proves Progressivism Is a Failure

Last Tuesday, the Madrid office of the Hungarian Center for Fundamental Rights presented the Spanish edition of the book Last Warning to the West: Hungary’s Triumph Over Communism and the Woke Agenda (Último aviso a Occidente: el triunfo húngaro contra el comunismo y la agenda woke) by its author, Shea Bradley-Farrell, in an event organized in collaboration with the Patriots for Europe Foundation, concluding with a round table discussing the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second term in office.

The director of the Center for Fundamental Rights, Miklós Szánthó, opened the event with a concise speech on Hungary’s struggle against progressive totalitarianism: 

We Hungarians have been protecting our country from progressive destruction for more than fifteen years. Hungary is not a failure of the Western system, but the proof that the real failure is the progressive system that dominates our civilization today.

For Szánthó, Donald Trump’s victory, like that of Giorgia Meloni in Italy and the election results of other parties of the conservative and patriotic right, is proof of a change in the world order. “Let us continue to fight for a new golden age to come to Europe, the age of patriots,” he concluded.

Shea Bradley-Farrell, Ph.D., president of the Counterpoint Institute for Policy, Research and Education, said that national identity is the key to understanding the Hungarian victory over communism and woke ideology, a virus which has its roots “in Marxism.” 

“The example of the Hungarians proves that it is possible to defeat the woke virus by clinging to sovereignty and being proud of one’s national identity.” This defeat of wokeism and of a behavior “very similar to the practices of communism” by the Democratic Party has come to the United States at the hands of Donald Trump. Curiously, in many conversations she had with Hungarians while writing her book, they told her that “the rhetoric of the Biden administration reminded them of the years of Soviet rule”. For Bradley-Farrell, “Trump’s victory is an opportunity not only for the United States, but also for Europe”.

The event concluded with a debate on Trump’s first 100 days, moderated by Ricardo Ruiz de la Serna, with Jorge Martín Frías, director of the Fundación Disenso; VOX MEP, Mike González, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation; and Vajk Farkas, director of the Madrid office of the Center for Fundamental Rights.

Jorge Martín Frías stressed the importance of Donald Trump’s victory as proof that it is possible to win and govern “by fighting the cultural battle.” For the MEP, it is clear that change will come to Europe, despite the establishment seeking to prevent it: “We have seen it in Romania, we are seeing it with Marine Le Pen and the attempt to ban the AfD in Germany, and here in Spain with an economic sanction against VOX, which does not comply with the law and is based on political motivations that the only thing they are pursuing is to punish the ideas of VOX and what it represents.”

Mike González pointed out that he doesn’t agree with all of Donald Trump’s policies, “just like I don’t agree with everything my wife says, even though we’ve been together for many years.” But González emphasized the importance of the fight the Trump administration is waging against wokeism, calling the U.S. president’s actions a “defibrillator” in the face of the wokeist threat. Nevertheless, and despite Trump’s forceful actions, González warned that we must not let our guard down because “the battle is not yet won.”

Vajk Farkas criticized the hypocrisy of the Socialists and the European People’s Party in the EU institutions, where the application of a cordon sanitaire against the Patriots for Europe has left the third-largest political force without representation in the bodies of the European Parliament. Farkas also denounced what happened against the AfD in Germany and the electoral repetition in Romania, pointing out that though one may not agree with these parties in many aspects, the sovereignist forces must work together “to represent the interests of Europeans.”

After the event, I had the opportunity to speak with Miklos Szánthó, whom I had previously interviewed for The European Conservative in Esztergom, Hungary. I asked him about the latest polls showing the opposition led by Péter Magyar tied with Fidesz: 

This is nothing new. In every election, the ‘new’ opposition leader receives massive media support and is declared the winner. It is true that in this case the polls are very close, but when push comes to shove, when Hungarians have to vote on who will be prime minister and lead the nation, it is Viktor Orbán who wins the day.