Free Republic

Fidesz, the party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, was suspended from the European Union’s most powerful political coalition on Wednesday, endangering an alliance that has shielded him from serious repercussions as he has dismantled or co-opted nearly every check on his power. Over nine years, as Mr. Orban has created in Hungary what amounts to a soft dictatorship within the European Union, lawmakers in Brussels have largely stood by and watched. There have been speeches condemning his assault on fundamental human rights and threats of sanctions for undermining the core democratic values of the union, but Mr. Orban...

Hungary’s Orban warns of impending migrant crisis “in an even stronger form” EU leaders have not made themselves accountable to their citizens. This is evident in the EU’s commitment to a reckless open-door immigration policy which has brought a massive wave of crime and jihad attacks to Europe. But EU leaders have bowed in dhimmitude to the Islamic supremacist will, using “kindness,” “diversity,” “multiculturalism,” etc., as a cover. No reasonable person should think that supporting responsible immigration policies equates to racism. The self-inflicted crisis across Europe is clear in the fact that as of the end of 2016, European taxpayers...

US State Secretary Mike Pompeo's quest to scare Hungary away from dealing with Russia and China appears to have turned sour, as Budapest said it's fed up with lectures about its foreign policy. Pompeo is on a five-day massive charm offensive in Eastern Europe seeking to "make up" for the time the US "shunned" the nations of the region "in a way that drove them to fill a vacuum with folks who didn't share our values," as he himself put it. He did not focus his attention solely on the Kremlin, though, and promptly warned his Hungarian counterpart about the...

On the first day of a five-country European tour that will focus on opposition to the growing influence of Russia and China in Central Europe, Pompeo met with Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban. "We must not let Putin drive wedges between friends in NATO," Pompeo told a joint news conference in Budapest with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. Pompeo specifically pointed to Central Europe's reliance on Russian energy as well as the presence of the Chinese telecom firm Huawei, particularly in Hungary.

"The pearl of the Danube is not only the best European destination, it is also one of the most beautiful and safest cities in the world. Budapest offers the elegance of Paris, the architectural heritage of Vienna, the charm of Porto, Stockholm’s gentle way of life.” The Hungarian capital received a total of 62,128 votes. According to the statement of Mayor István Tarlós, posted on budapest.hu on Tuesday, No other previous winner received as many votes from abroad as Budapest, with 77 percent submitted from other countries. This year’s list also included Athens, Florence, Bratislava, Metz and Paris. The trendiest...

ITALY’S firebrand deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini is trying to create a populist alliance to take on the Brussels establishment in a showdown over the future of the European Union. . . . "Italy and Poland will be protagonists of a new Europe, with less bureaucracy and more attention to families and security. "A great Polish and a great Italian like St John Paul II said Europe must claim its identity, its diversity, its Jewish-Christian origins that only in Brussels dare to deny.” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, another thorn in the side of the EU, called the united front...

Prime Minister Viktor Orban held bilateral talks with new Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro during his working visit to Brazil on Wednesday, Orban’s press chief said. The two leaders discussed opportunities for international, economic and political cooperation between their countries, Bertalan Havasi told MTI. At the talks, Orban confirmed an invitation to Bolsonaro for a visit to Hungary, which the Brazilian president accepted. Orban on Tuesday attended Bolsonaro’s inauguration.

President Jair Bolsonaro said in his address to the nation on Tuesday that Latin America’s most populous country has now been "liberated from socialism and political correctness". He promised to combat the "ideology of gender" teaching in schools, "respect our Judeo-Christian tradition" and "prepare children for the job market, not political militancy". Notable foreign leaders attending the inauguration include Hungary's hardline Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Israel's hawkish premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who has hailed a budding "brotherhood" with Brazil's new leader. Leftist Presidents Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba, deemed dictators by Bolsonaro,...

European Union leaders on Friday backed a plan to tackle fake news on the internet and the bloc’s chief executive rounded on one of the EU chiefs, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, as one of the main culprits in spreading disinformation. The EU plan endorsed by the bloc’s 28 national leaders is largely aimed at guarding against what the United States, NATO and the EU say are Russian attempts to undermine Western democracies. But European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the bloc should also look within its own ranks in its fight against disinformation and he zeroed in on Orbán...

A new German-Franco document that was presented on Thursday, states that EU countries that refuse to take refugees should pay to escape their responsibility, Reuters reports.The measure is seen as a form of “alternative solidarity” in which EU member states pay into the EU’s budget for developmental projects in Africa.The document aims to prevent renewed conflicts over taking migrants. By paying off their responsibility to take migrants, EU rows with countries that don’t want to take migrants or refugees could be prevented. Among other things, the document does say that a situation should be avoided in which all countries prefer...

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The Central European University, founded by George Soros, said on Monday it had been forced out of Hungary in “an arbitrary eviction” that violated academic freedom, and it confirmed plans to enroll new students in neighboring Austria next year. CEU’s statement is the culmination of a years-long struggle between Hungarian-born but U.S.-based Soros, who promotes liberal causes through his charities, and the nationalist, anti-immigrant government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “CEU has been forced out,” said CEU President and Rector Michael Ignatieff in a statement.

Who does Hungary’s strongman leader Viktor Orban turn to when he wants to show off his country’s elite anti-terrorism training? Chuck Norris, that’s who. That isn’t a joke. The American martial artist and actor recently visited Budapest, where he was greeted by Orban. The Hungarian prime minister posted the interaction...

FULL TITLE: Unfixable? Several nations have tried to restore democracy after populist strongmen. It was never the same. In April, aided by massive gerrymandering, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s ruling coalition crushed opposition in Hungary’s national elections, claiming a supermajority in the parliament. The prime minister — who had used two prior terms in office to dominate media outlets, alter electoral rules so that urban areas were massively underrepresented and seize control of the top courts — moved to further consolidate his power. He is pushing Central European University, a leading academic institution backed by George Soros, whom Orban has demonized,...

Hungary has banned gender studies from universities due to low enrollment, which causes waste of tax payer money, and because there are no more than two sexes. From Fox News: Left-wing critics say it’s academically problematic, politically unheard of in a democratic society, and argue gender studies degrees do lead to jobs. Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has been called the Donald Trump of Europe, signed the decree, which went into effect Saturday, removing gender studies from a list of approved master’s programs, though students already enrolled will be grandfathered in. “The Hungarian government is of the clear view that...

Hungary has ended funding for gender studies degrees at its universities, citing low enrollment and saying the field of study is an “ideology, not a science.” Prime Minister Viktor Orban signed a decree that went into effect Saturday, effectively eliminating the degree program, according to Reuters. The decree removes gender studies from the list of approved master’s programs. Students already enrolled are allowed to remain in the program. “The Hungarian government is of the clear view that people are born either men or women,” Orban’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyas said in August. “They lead their lives the way they...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Oct. 9 praised cooperation between Ankara and Budapest. “Our cooperation with Hungary within the scope of international organizations such as NATO, Council of Europe and European Union is exemplary..." “We will move forward with concrete steps to reach $5 billion trade volume." He also met Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and addressed a business forum. After the business meeting, Erdogan officially inaugurated the restored Tomb of Gul Baba in the capital Budapest and paid a visit to the Budapest Turkish Memorial Cemetery. At the cemetery, Erdogan laid a wreath at the tomb of the...

Hungarian security and Turkish stability are directly linked, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said after talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Budapest on Monday. Orbán said Hungarian foreign policy must look to three cities: Ankara, Moscow and Berlin, three great powers around which Hungary has revolved for many centuries. Orbán expressed appreciation to Turkey for accommodating several million refugees that arrived via neighbouring countries and thanked the Erdogan for “fully meeting” Turkey’s agreement with the European Union, which he said was another precondition for European security. On another subject, Orbán said that Hungary and Turkey would raise the level of...

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said that the “culture war” is not being fought on Hungary, but it being fought in Europe which is succumbing to a “creeping” cultural surrender. Addressing the audience at a ceremony to celebrate the revamp of the Budai Vigadó, which houses the country’s heritage museum, Prime Minister Orbán remarked that though he “hear[d] that there’s a culture war going on in Hungary”, he believes the central European country is rather existing in a state of “culture peace”. The Hungarian leader warned of a “creeping pan-European cultural self-renunciation”, and argued that if the continent’s cultural...

Putin and Orban are increasingly conscious that their regular contacts have failed to bring the two countries closer together. In fact, despite its reputation as the EU’s most pro-Russian member-state, Hungary actually expelled a Russian diplomat in response to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, unlike fellow EU member-states Slovenia, Bulgaria, Austria, Slovakia, Greece. In the spring, Orban readily deployed anti-Russian rhetoric during Hungary’s parliamentary election campaign. Bela Kovacs, a member of the European Parliament from the Jobbik opposition party, was indicted for alleged spying on the eve of the vote, having faced accusations of being a Russian agent...

This month, the doors will open at the Institute of Social, Economic and Political Sciences (ISSEP) in Lyon, France’s third-biggest city. It will, its high-profile backers hope, become a breeding ground for the country’s next generation of conservative thinkers and leaders. It also marks the return to public life of Marion Maréchal, once the great hope of the French far right, who is the college’s director. She said the idea was to train a new crop of politicians and officials to replace the “visionless” Parisian elite. She was the youngest member of France’s parliament before stepping away from politics in...