Feature

We are living through most troubled and troubling times. A virus has been, in some way, unleashed, traveling to all…

Spain’s radical ruling coalition not only seeks to raise taxes, push euthanasia, and decrease the role of the Church and the traditional family, it is also targeting Spain’s history, seeking legal means to revise the historical record and retell the history of the Spanish Civil War.

Humans are storytelling creatures: the stories we tell have profound implications for how we see our role in the world, and dystopian fiction keeps growing in popularity. According to Goodreads.com, an online community that has grown to 90 million readers, the share of books categorised as ‘dystopian’ in 2012 was the highest for more than 50 years. […] What should we make of the fact that dystopian fiction is so popular?

On March 30, the Hungarian parliament adopted legislation providing for “emergency powers” to better respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The international reaction has been quite predictable, with critics of Prime Minister Orbán calling it a “power grab.” As often happens during times of crisis (in this case, a pandemic) people are in the grip of intense emotions—so it behooves us to stand up for the truth.

As the world battles the global coronavirus pandemic, Budapest stands accused of using the crisis to enshrine authoritarianism via parliamentary vote—by giving conservative prime minister Victor Orbán extraordinary powers forever. An angry clamor has gone up, calling for Hungary to be expelled from NATO and the EU. Such calls are premature, however. There is no plot to destroy democracy on the Danube.

“Our great idea is that conservatism is not a standard. It is not a fixed doctrine. It is, above all, a disposition of mind. That’s why there are so many national expressions of conservatism. The genius of each people has translated, in its own way, the universal need for the self-preservation of society.”

“The British Conservative Party has become the new centre of European conservatism. Until now, this role has been occupied by German Christian Democracy. But nothing is more symbolic than the involuntary passing of the torch from Mrs. Merkel to Boris Johnson. It has taken four years, but it is worth taking the measure of what has happened.”

“Our main enemy today is the ‘globalist drift’ of those who view identity—in all its forms—to be an evil to be overcome, and [which] constantly acts to shift real power away from the people to supranational entities headed by supposedly enlightened elites.”

The following conversation between Christopher DeMuth and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán took place on Tuesday, 4 February, at the ‘National Conservatism’ conference in Rome. 

Fighting the legacy of the communist period in Hungary is not just a political task. It is also an educational one. To this purpose, a Budapest-based institution — Mathias Corvinus Collegium — has been expanding operations in most of the Hungarian-populated areas of Central and Eastern Europe. Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) is an elite training institution that has been in operation since 1996.

Next Sunday [November 10], Spain goes to the polls for its second general election in seven months. Here’s a brief look at the rise of the VOX party, which offers Spanish voters a real alternative for the first time in years.

Just as in a Roman arena where each ‘position’ was strongly and fiercely held, all vigorous debates require two opposing parties. But too often, in the midst of battle, the nuances of the debate — as well as some of the substance — are lost. Much the same has been true regarding debates over the origins (and merits) of the European Union.