Adam Bartha

Friend just reminded me I reposted fake news (that I fell for) abt Peter Magyar before election. I’d forgotten. I was dumb to believe it & repost. I apologize. Moving soon, but I love Hungary & its ppl, and wish the incoming PM good luck serving this great land.

The state will not finance these things, neither the event called CPAC nor other related institutions such as the Mathias Corvinus Collegium and similar attached bodies. I believe the state should never have financed them in the first place, it was a crime. Mixing party financing with government spending from the state budget is, in my view, a criminal offense, and this will have to be investigated by the future authorities, including the National Office for the Recovery and Protection of Public Assets, since those budgetary funds were not meant to finance party events. CPAC is welcome to come to Budapest, very welcome, but it should not be financed with Hungarian taxpayers’ money. It should be funded by Fidesz, or by Orbán’s proxies, at least until that money is taken back.

I've seen a lot of takes that Orbán's defeat means that he was never an authoritarian in the first place. This is completely wrong — and, in fact, betrays a complete misunderstanding of both Hungarian politics and modern authoritarianism. Here's why.

Hungary has chosen Europe. Europe has always chosen Hungary. A country reclaims its European path. The Union grows stronger. Magyarország Európát választotta. Európa mindig Magyarországot választotta. Egy ország visszatér az európai útjára. Az Unió erősebbé válik.

CPAC is closely watching this very important election in Hungary today. We stand firmly with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Hungarian people as they vote. We have proudly held CPAC Hungary five times, and each gathering has been wildly successful, bringing together conservatives from across Europe and the United States to champion sovereignty, family, and national identity. President Trump, Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Rubio, and CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp have all endorsed Prime Minister Orbán. He is a true example of a leader with strong conservative values who has courageously stood up to elitists and globalists from the EU and beyond to protect what is right for his country. We are with you, Hungary.

Hungary’s opposition leader and Orbán’s main rival in the elections has accused J.D. Vance of interference Péter Magyar stated: “I strongly urge all participants in international politics — from Ukraine to Serbia, from Russia to the United States — not to attempt to interfere in the Hungarian elections. We are not a testing ground or an arena for geopolitical games. This is our country, and its future will be decided by Hungarian citizens. Dear Vice President of the United States, I respectfully ask: if you are already taking part in the campaign in support of Viktor Orbán, let Hungarians not have to pay for it with their own money.”

Why did HS2 spend £100m on a tunnel to protect bats from passing trains? Why did Hinkley Point C spend £700m on a system to stop fish being killed by the plant's water intakes? Why do nuclear projects pause work for months on end to avoid creating noise that would disturb nearby nesting birds? The answer is the Habitats Regulations: a set of laws that says you literally cannot kill or, in some cases, even disturb certain animals. They might not even be endangered in Britain! These rules mean that you are in a world where certain individual animals are treated as being nearly infinitely valuable. While they may sound trivial – for years I rolled my eyes at complaints about newt surveys – because they are so unyielding they are, in fact, one of the primary barriers to major infrastructure projects in Britain. The lobby groups that exist to protect them *do not* care about nature. If they did they would leap at the prospect of spending, say, £10m on creating habitats for bats instead of 10x that on a bat tunnel. They use nature as a pretext to obstruct development per se.