Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close ally of President Donald Trump, conceded defeat on Sunday to opposition leader and head of the center-right Tisza party, Péter Magyar. Orbán, leader of the Fidesz party, has held the nation&#8217;s top office for 16 years.
With the votes nearly all counted by <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/12/world/live-news/hungary-election-orban-magyar">Sunday afternoon</a>, the Tisza Party looked poised to also deliver a two-thirds majority in parliament — which is likely to prompt a dramatic shift in Hungary&#8217;s relationship with the European Union.
The E.U. and Orbán have often been at odds — and Magyar has already declared his intent to work more closely with the governing body than his predecessor did.
&#8220;Hungarians said ‘yes’ to Europe,” Magyar said. &#8220;Hungary is again going to be a very strong ally of the European Union and NATO.&#8221;
Magyar boasted that his party had won some 3.3 million votes — the largest number for any one political party in Hungary&#8217;s history: &#8220;Together we replaced the Orbán regime, together we liberated Hungary. We took our country back.”
<p class="paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/cmnw8zk5e002m3b6qs7v8spqf@published" data-editable="text" data-component-name="paragraph" data-article-gutter="true">Speaking to a large crowd in Budapest, Magyar declared that his support was so expansive that his voters could be seen &#8220;from the moon and every window in Hungary &#8230; Never in the history of democratic Hungary, have so many people voted, and no other party has ever received such a big mandate.&#8221;
Magyar, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/04/12/hungary-election-viktor-orban-trump/">The Washington Post</a>, was poised to see his party take 138 seats in the 199-seat parliament. In contrast, Orbán&#8217;s party is likely to only take 55.
&#8220;Today we have worked a miracle, Hungary has written history,” Magyar said. “Today truth triumphed over lies. Today Hungarians didn’t ask the question what can the country do for them but what can they do for the country.&#8221;
President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration has had a good relationship with Orbán, and the president himself offered an endorsement via video, and Vice President JD Vance traveled to Hungary to campaign alongside Orbán in recent weeks.
&#8220;We hope you will vote for independent thinking and for someone who stands for Hungary First,” Donald Trump Jr. posted on X Sunday morning. “We hope you will vote for my father’s friend and ally.&#8221;
Orbán was quick to concede the race as the vote tallies came in, saying that the results were &#8220;clear&#8221; as he delivered brief remarks to supporters.

VP JD Vance And PM Viktor Orban Hold A Joint Rally In Budapest, 5 Days Before The Hungarian Election.

Trump Ally Viktor Orbán Concedes In Hungary, New Leader Promises Closer Ties To EU

Global Politics

Hungary

Politics

If one were to believe that the survival of the West is at a crucial inflection point, it makes sense that America — the lone superpower, as an enfeebled Britain limps along self-righteously — would shore up allies in the Old Country. One way to do that is to send the most powerful man in the world’s Number Two to both extend the hand of goodwill and rapport, and to absorb the inevitable criticisms that have been hurled by the Continental class regarding the potential partnership.
It tracks then that the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board <a href="https://archive.ph/5aOuP%23selection-569.0-572.0">cannot seem</a> to comprehend why Vice President JD Vance is currently touring Budapest. “The Orbán affinity seems to be a combination of Mr. Vance’s ideological conviction and domestic coalition maintenance,” the paper writes, adding that, “Mr. Vance is convinced Mr. Orbán is on the front line of the West’s culture wars.” Orbán is. And Vance’s Budapest visit is possibly one of his career&#8217;s most important tests.
Consider the VP’s own words. “Foreign influence is when other governments threaten, cajole, and try to use economic influence to tell you how to vote &#8230; That is fundamentally an assault on your sovereignty,” the VP said <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/2041875731559440607">in an interview</a>. Furthermore, he added, in a speech, “We were birthed from this continent,” reinforcing the civilizational ties. The WSJ is baffled at that. “Mr. Vance trotted out the word ‘sovereignty’ repeatedly during Tuesday’s appearance in Budapest to inveigh against putative EU meddling in Hungarian affairs.”
The Hungarian election this year is important for two different reasons. The fact that the VP is flying to Budapest for a high-profile visit and speeches in Europe, as well as to Islamabad, for the peace negotiations with Iran, demonstrates which side won the ideological debate within the White House and to which direction the grand strategy of this country might lead. But there is another important factor.
Beyond rhetorical symbolism about “civilizational ties,” the question is strategic. Within the European Union, Hungary remains one of the rare few states still considered neutral by both the U.S. and Russia, thereby positioning itself as a neutral ground for diplomacy.
Furthermore, Budapest has prioritized de-escalation in Ukraine since 2022 and continues to simultaneously condemn the Russian invasion while arguing for negotiation, a traditional detached realist outlook shaped by Hungarian geography: Hungary borders Ukraine, and is concerned about ethnic Hungarians in the Transcarpathia region, and has taken in over a million Ukrainian refugees.
Budapest is also a pivot point for U.S. trade rivalry with the EU. The <a href="https://www.theamericanconservative.com/hungarys-foreign-minister-trump-is-ukraines-only-hope-for-peace/">Hungarian leadership consistently argued</a> that EU sanctions on Russia have had unintended consequences, including energy shortages, inflation, and industrial strain in Europe, while Russia has continued to benefit from high global energy prices. Orbán has likewise warned against accelerating Ukraine’s membership in NATO, a position that has gained some reflection in recent U.S. strategic thinking.
The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf">2025 U.S. National Security Strategy</a> clearly states that there must be a pause in NATO enlargement, there should be total “burden shifting” of conventional security to NATO, and that the EU shouldn’t fine American companies and trade through cynical legislation that also curtails free speech, such as the European <a href="https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/digital-services-act">Digital Services Act</a>. There is only one country that is aligned with the U.S. on all those interests.
Hungary faces its own challenges and contradictions. Eventually, it will have to either acquiesce to broader European oversight or follow Britain out of the EU. Orbán has sought to reform the EU from within rather than leave it, but that play won’t succeed without the U.S. decisively winning the trade and free-speech wars with the EU. His government faces ongoing pressure from Brussels through legal challenges and financial penalties, but being within the EU gives it veto power over European decisions that might harm U.S. financial interests.
Hungary is also a testing ground and a source of inspiration for similar socio-political tendencies in countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, particularly in natalist policies, even if its model is difficult to replicate in larger and more diverse societies.
This is rooted in Hungary’s historical experience with external domination, against the Nazis and Soviets, which reinforces elite skepticism toward ceding total authority to Brussels. Continued electoral success for Orbán would sustain this fragile model but likely also intensify EU pressure and raise the risk of political and economic friction. A defeat, however, would probably lead to rapid alignment with mainstream EU trade and social policies, and would be detrimental to U.S. interests.
It cannot be expected of the WSJ Editorial Board to be historically minded, but during the presidency of Millard Fillmore, the Hungarian nationalist Lajos (Louis) Kossuth visited and gave a<a href="https://millercenter.org/president/fillmore/foreign-affairs"> joint address at the U.S. Congress</a>, the second such foreigner after Lafayette. He then proceeded to visit Ohio, then the largest Hungarian diaspora in the country, and gave a speech stating that the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190414134246/https://ohiohistoryhost.org/ohiomemory/archives/3834">spirit of our age is democracy</a> opposed to imperialism. Whether he can pull the current Hungarian administration over the electoral line is a different question, but it is only fitting that a former senator of Ohio and the current vice president be visiting Europe and remind Europeans of that same sentiment, that sovereignty, free speech, and democracy are far more important than transnational imperialism.
***
Dr. Sumantra Maitra is a historian based in Virginia.

The WSJ Is Baffled By JD Vance’s U.S. Diplomacy In Hungary

European Union

Foreign Policy

JD Vance

Victor Orban

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called an emergency defence council meeting on Sunday after powerful explosives were found near a pipeline in Serbia that carries Russian gas to the country.
The incident prompted political scrutiny in Hungary at a sensitive time days before a national election, with Orban&#8217;s party trailing in opinion polls.
Orban said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, a close ally, had informed him by phone about the discovery outside the town of Kanjiza, near Hungary&#8217;s border with Serbia.
&#8220;Our units found an explosive of devastating power,&#8221; Vucic said in a post on Instagram. &#8220;I told PM Orban that we would keep him updated on the investigation.&#8221;
Officials in Budapest and Belgrade did not respond to requests for comment about the incident, which comes before pivotal elections on April 12 in Hungary where nationalist Orban is fighting to hold onto his more than 16-year grip on power.
A former Hungarian intelligence official told Reuters there had been discussions in Hungarian security circles over the past days about a precise plan for a &#8220;false-flag&#8221; operation impacting the pipeline in Serbia as part of an effort to influence the Hungarian vote.
Peter Magyar, leader of the opposition Tisza party also raised doubts about the incident, saying it appeared aimed at boosting Orban&#8217;s electoral prospects.
&#8220;Several people have publicly indicated that something will &#8216;accidentally&#8217; happen at the gas pipeline in Serbia at Easter, a week before the Hungarian elections. And so it happened,&#8221; Magyar said in a statement.
PIVOTAL ELECTIONS
In a Facebook post after the defence council meeting, Orban suggested the incident related to an attempt to blow up the pipeline, which transports Russian gas through the Balkans to Central and Eastern Europe.
&#8220;According to information that we have&#8230;.there was an act of sabotage prepared,&#8221; Orban said after the meeting, adding that both countries have strengthened the protection of the pipeline.
Without directly blaming Ukraine for the incident in Serbia, Orban said &#8220;Ukraine has been for years trying to cut off Europe from Russian energy.&#8221;
&#8220;The Russian section of TurkStream is also under continuous military attack. Ukraine&#8217;s efforts pose a life-threatening danger to Hungary,&#8221; he added.
The head of Serbia&#8217;s Military Intelligence Agency, Djuro Jusic, said the explosives found on a section of pipeline linked to the Turkstream system, which carries Russian gas to Turkey and then to Central Europe, were produced in the United States.
&#8220;We had information that a person from a migrant community, with military training, will carry out a diversion on the gas infrastructure,&#8221; he told reporters in Belgrade. He did not give further details, but said authorities in Serbia were searching for that person.
Orban in February scaled up security around energy infrastructure in the country by dispatching troops after what he said were plans by Ukraine to disrupt the Hungarian energy system &#8211; charges Kyiv denied.
Ukraine&#8217;s foreign ministry strongly rejected what it said were attempts to link Kyiv to the explosives.
&#8220;Ukraine has nothing to do with this,&#8221; foreign ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said on X. &#8220;Most probably, a Russian false-flag operation as part of Moscow&#8217;s heavy interference in Hungarian elections.&#8221;
Budapest has also been in a dispute with Ukraine over a halt in oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline. Orban&#8217;s Fidesz party has sought to associate opposition leader Peter Magyar with Brussels and Ukraine, suggesting that voting for his Tisza party means voting for tanks and war.
Hungary is an outlier in the European Union for maintaining ties with Moscow, which voiced support for Hungary over Sunday&#8217;s incident and suggested that Ukraine was responsible.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto also blamed Ukraine, writing on Facebook that &#8220;in the past few days and weeks, the Ukrainians organised an oil blockade against us, and then tried to put us under a total energy blockade &#8230; And now we have today&#8217;s incident.&#8221;
(Reporting by Krisztina Than; Additional reporting by Lili Bayer in Brussels and Ivana Sekularac in Belgrade Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Helen Popper, William Maclean, Christina Fincher)

GettyImages-2267436846

Hungary Rattled By Russia Pipeline Scare As One Claim Gains Traction

Russia

Ukraine

World

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday delivered a blunt warning to foreign nationals entering the United States, saying visas are a privilege and will be revoked if visitors engage in activity deemed harmful to American national interests.
Speaking during a joint <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcigFh9lJRk">press conference</a> in Budapest alongside Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Rubio emphasized that entry into the United States carries conditions that extend beyond border screening. 
“I’ve said this repeatedly — I don’t know why it’s so hard for some to comprehend,” Rubio said. “A visa — no one’s entitled to a visa. There is no constitutional right to a visa. A visa is permission to enter our country as a visitor.”
Rubio added that visitors who violate the terms of their stay — whether as students, journalists, tourists, or other temporary entrants — should expect swift consequences.
“If you enter our country as a visitor and you undertake activities that are against the national interest or national security of the United States, we will take away your visa,” he said. “In fact, if we knew you were going to do it, we probably never would have given you your visa.”
&nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
SECRETARY RUBIO: I&#8217;ve said this repeatedly. I don&#8217;t know why it&#8217;s so hard for some to comprehend it.
No one is entitled to a visa.
If you enter our country as a visitor and undertake activities against the national interests of the United States, we will take away your visa. <a href="https://t.co/Y9hWlZpKBX">pic.twitter.com/Y9hWlZpKBX</a>
— Department of State (@StateDept) <a href="https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/2023400465355166145?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2026</a></blockquote>
The comments come amid heightened scrutiny of foreign nationals participating in political activism, campus protests, and media activity inside the United States, as the Trump administration signals a more aggressive enforcement posture toward visa compliance and national security screening.
Rubio’s remarks were delivered during a high-profile visit to Hungary, likely chosen as an attempt to give a campaign boost to Orbán, who is up for re-election in April. Rubio repeatedly praised Orbán’s leadership and highlighted the close personal relationship between the nationalist leader and President Donald Trump.
&#8220;I’m going to be very blunt with you,” Rubio said. “The prime minister and the president have a very, very close personal and working relationship, and I think it has been beneficial to our two countries.”
Rubio described U.S.–Hungarian relations as experiencing a “golden age” under Trump, crediting the rapport between the two leaders for deepening cooperation on energy, defense, and strategic alignment.
During the visit, Rubio signed an agreement on U.S.–Hungarian civilian nuclear cooperation, including potential purchases of small modular reactors (SMRs), U.S.-supplied nuclear fuel, and spent fuel storage technology, a move aimed at strengthening Central Europe’s energy independence.
Hungary has emerged as a key ally for the Trump administration in Central Europe, alongside Slovakia, particularly among governments skeptical of the European Union’s immigration policies and continued military support for Ukraine. Orbán, widely viewed as Russia’s most reliable advocate within the EU, has maintained energy ties with Moscow while cultivating close relations with Trump and the broader MAGA movement.
Orbán has also publicly embraced Trump-style political branding, promoting the slogan “Make Europe Great Again,” and has received exemptions from American sanctions on Russian energy following meetings with Trump at the White House.
For American conservatives, Hungary has become an increasingly important focal point of ideological alignment. Budapest has hosted multiple iterations of CPAC <a href="https://www.cpachungary.com/en/">events</a> scheduled just weeks ahead of Hungary’s April elections. First elected prime minister in 2010, Orbán is seeking a fifth term and faces what many observers describe as the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/hungarys-tisza-party-keeps-its-lead-number-undecided-voters-drops-poll-shows-2026-02-13/">toughest race</a> of his 16 years in power.
Rubio’s visa warning, delivered on politically friendly ground, reflects a shared governing philosophy between Washington and Budapest: that sovereignty does not end at physical borders, and that nations retain the authority to decide not only who enters, but under what conditions they are permitted to remain.
&nbsp;

President Trump Meets With Visiting Crown Prince Of Bahrain

Trump Admin Warns Tough New Visa Consequences During High-Profile Visit

Marco Rubio

Visas

President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” is off to a turbulent start with controversy over its $1 billion permanent membership fee and unusual lineup of invitees, with everyone from Russian President Vladimir Putin to anti-Trump socialist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reportedly receiving invitations. 
The board, officially announced by Trump on Truth Social last week, is intended to oversee the new technocratic transitional government for Gaza: the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG).
“It is my Great Honor to announce that THE BOARD OF PEACE has been formed,” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115901692370933354">posted to Truth Social</a> on Thursday. “The Members of the Board will be announced shortly, but I can say with certainty that it is the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place.”
Although the board has been introduced as being Gaza-focused, the large list of roughly 60 known invitees so far has led some to question if it will address other world conflicts or <a href="https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/trump-board-of-peace-un-blair-gaza-peace-plan-b2903210.html">even rival</a> the United Nations.
In the letter to world leaders, Trump called it the “most impressive and consequential Board ever assembled, which will be established as a new International Organization and Transitional Governing Administration.”
According to a draft charter reported by <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/trumps-1-billion-a-seat-diplomacy-club-takes-aim-at-the-u-n-2bccd9f9?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqfvPlMmNhrIlJgDz7UvxfNd0u3Fqnav8BAv73LsUrc47zvL8sBJ_ryQ3l1V2Kw%3D&amp;gaa_ts=696e60b5&amp;gaa_sig=ybWCqp-03SFwzr8kCccUdFBjqFyY_dJcaxc7Ut-nuWJjrDE9uBdBsuHCLDlZZ3nSTPoSksS7Lrf-OkV4An3o-A%3D%3D">The Wall Street Journal,</a> countries could either serve a three-year term or pay $1 billion for <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/2012684845109874988">permanent</a> membership. Bloomberg, which also reviewed a copy of the draft, reported that it grants Trump ultimate authority over both membership and decision-making.
The list of invited countries continues to grow as leaks and social media posts reveal new names, with some leaders publicly expressing excitement. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, for example, <a href="https://x.com/PM_ViktorOrban/status/2012853496568053801">said it was an</a> “honorable invitation” and accepted. Argentine President Javier Milei also <a href="https://x.com/JMilei/status/2012495664546992638">called it</a> an honor to be invited by Trump’s board to “promote lasting peace in regions affected by conflict, starting with the Gaza Strip.”
Other Western countries were less thrilled, with France reportedly set to decline the invitation, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/france-likely-to-decline-trump-invite-to-gaza-board-of-peace-says-source/">according to AFP</a>. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that he agreed to the board in principle but is still working out the details.
<div id="attachment_1029935" style="width: 455px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1029935" class="size-large wp-image-1029935" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Purple-And-Beige-Playful-Daily-Baby-Routine-Infant-Schedule-Flyer-445x576.jpg" alt="" width="445" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Purple-And-Beige-Playful-Daily-Baby-Routine-Infant-Schedule-Flyer-445x576.jpg 445w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Purple-And-Beige-Playful-Daily-Baby-Routine-Infant-Schedule-Flyer-232x300.jpg 232w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Purple-And-Beige-Playful-Daily-Baby-Routine-Infant-Schedule-Flyer-768x994.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Purple-And-Beige-Playful-Daily-Baby-Routine-Infant-Schedule-Flyer.jpg 1159w" sizes=" (max-width: 445px) 100vw, 445px" />(The Daily Wire)</div>
Some of the most surprising invitees include Russian President Vladimir Putin, Belarusian Alexander Lukashenko — often called Europe’s last dictator — and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who <a href="https://brazilreports.com/trumps-second-term-what-it-means-for-brazil-and-lula/6718/">openly supported</a> Kamala Harris over Trump in the 2024 election and last year <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/america-votes/article/brazils-lula-says-trump-wants-to-be-emperor-of-the-world/#:~:text=Brazilian%20President%20Luiz%20Inacio%20Lula,Brazilian%20products%20such%20as%20steel.">referred to</a> him as a “wannabe emperor of the world.”
According to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2026/01/statement-on-president-trumps-comprehensive-plan-to-end-the-gaza-conflict/">the White House</a>, the Board of Peace will have an Executive Board made up of several high-profile figures: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Steve Witkoff, United States Special Envoy to the Middle East; Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law; former British Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair; Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management; Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank; and Robert Gabriel, U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor.
The Board of Peace will oversee the NCAG, which will be headed by Ali Shaath, who hails from Gaza, is a civil engineer, and previously served as deputy minister for transportation of the Palestinian Authority.
The NCAG faced criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following domestic uproar over the inclusion of representatives from Qatar and Turkey — both countries that have had ties to Hamas. Netanyahu <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-883875">stated on Monday</a> that no Turkish or Qatari forces would be allowed to operate in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu’s office said the board “runs contrary to its policy.”
Hamas has stated that it will dissolve its governance once the new committee assumes control, as required under Trump’s peace plan, according to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/gaza-israel-hamas-drone-strike-governance-f59c7e742149366e67549e7dd2e10309">Associated Press</a>. It remains unclear whether the terrorist organization will willingly disarm.
Upon announcing the NCAG, Witkoff said the United States expects Hamas to “comply fully with its obligations,” including the return of the body of Ran Gvili, the final Israeli hostage held in Gaza.
“Failure to do so will bring serious consequences,” Witkoff said.
The Palestinian Authority <a href="https://x.com/HusseinSheikhpl/status/2011445660499775945">publicly welcomed</a> the launch of the second phase, signaling rare alignment with the Trump administration. 
In a statement, Palestinian Authority President Hussein Al Sheikh said the Palestinian Presidency “welcomes the efforts undertaken by President Donald Trump to complete the implementation of his peace plan,” and announced its support for the NCAG as well as the “Board of Peace.”

Gaza summit in Egypt

Trump Asked Putin To Join His ‘Board Of Peace.’ Here’s What That Means.

What To Know About Trump’s Board Of Peace

Argentina

Donald Trump

France

Israel

United Nations

Germany <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/merz-germany-will-not-join-allies-initiative-recognise-palestinian-state-2025-08-26/">will not support</a> recognition of a Palestinian state at September’s United Nations General Assembly, Chancellor Friedrich Merz confirmed on Tuesday.
Speaking at a news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who said in July that Canada would recognize such a state, Merz said bluntly, “The position of the federal government is clear, as far as the possible recognition of the state of Palestine is concerned. Canada knows this. We will not join this initiative. We don’t see the requirements met.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently <a href="https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/current/israeli-palestinian-conflict-mcc-feszt/">called</a> a two-state solution an “illusion.” Speaking on a YouTube show titled “Warriors’ Hour,” he said, “I think keeping the two-state solution on the agenda actually hinders the kinds of agreements that could otherwise be achieved. It means keeping an illusion alive, one that, under current circumstances, reduces or outright prevents cooperation.” He also suggested that if the percentage of Muslim voters in the country increases compared to that of Jewish voters, the government will become pro-Palestinian and pro-Islamic policy, and “the Jews will have to pack up and leave.”
Unlike Merz and Orban, leftist British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/map-shows-countries-do-not-recgonize-palestine-2105927">publicly called</a> for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The arguments against recognizing a Palestinian state are many and varied. The criteria of statehood are reflected in the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, which require an effective and independent government, which does not exist, as the Palestinian Authority was created under the Oslo Accords as an interim solution, and is not effective, as it has spent millions of dollars inciting terror against Israel with  its “pay-to-slay program.”
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_campaign=summer&amp;utm_content=editorialsummersale&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">End of Summer Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
Additionally, the Palestinians have claimed sovereignty over all of the territories which Israel won in the 1967 war, including the city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
As Israeli International Affairs Advisor Caroline Glick has stated bluntly, “Gaza was a sovereign Palestinian state from August 16, 2005-Oct.7, 2023. After October 7, support for a ‘two-state solution’ is nothing less than support for the annihilation of the Jewish state, the genocide of the Jews of Israel and the subjugation of Diaspora Jewry.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Gaza was a sovereign Palestinian state from August 16, 2005-Oct.7, 2023. 
After October 7, support for a &#8220;two-state solution&#8221; is nothing less than support for the annihilation of the Jewish state, the genocide of the Jews of Israel and the subjugation of Diaspora Jewry. <a href="https://t.co/PFG4tTDSx1">https://t.co/PFG4tTDSx1</a>
— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) <a href="https://twitter.com/CarolineGlick/status/1832056792131748131?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Merz Receives Belgian Premier Bart De Wever

Germany Stands With Israel, Rejects Push To Recognize Palestinian State

Germany

Palestinian State

Two-state solution

President Donald Trump and his team like to paint themselves as trailblazers. But one of their major policies comes straight from Hungary — and that’s a good thing.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes a series of measures designed to encourage the growth of American families. Along with defunding abortion giant Planned Parenthood, the law takes a page out of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s playbook with <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-implementation-timeline-of-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-act/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tax credits</a> for parents and childcare as well as <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/how-big-beautiful-bill-gives-american-babies-financial-head-start-future" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Baby Bonuses”</a> for newborns.
Not everyone is pleased with these changes. Some <a href="https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/how-trump-accounts-measure-evidence-early-wealth-building-policy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">argue</a> that the program will benefit only the rich. But <a href="https://theemancipator.org/2025/05/10/topics/health-equity/trumps-baby-bonus-perpetuates-racist-and-gendered-notions-about-a-womans-worth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">others say</a> that the pro-natalist policies are somehow reminiscent of slavery and that the bill “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/07/08/nx-s1-5455647/trump-accounts-babies-what-to-know" target="_blank" rel="noopener">structures inequality</a>” because its benefits are only available to citizens.
But we’ve seen this all before.
Over the past 15  years, <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/04/08/exclusive-hungarys-pro-family-policy-working-births-up-9-4-per-cent/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Orbán’s government</a> has <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/have-four-or-more-babies-in-hungary-and-youll-pay-no-income-tax-for-life.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">eliminated</a> income taxes for mothers of four or more, granted home loans to parents of two or more, subsidized grandparents acting as caretakers, and pledged the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47192612" target="_blank" rel="noopener">construction</a> of more childcare facilities — all in a bid to grow Hungary’s native-born population and reverse falling birthrates.
Like Trump, Orbán faced plenty of ire from experts regarding the supposed ineffectiveness and dire implications of his natalist policies.
BBC’s Nick Thorpe <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47192612" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> of outsized benefits to the rich. An especially distressed gender studies professor, Eva Fodor, <a href="https://theloop.ecpr.eu/getting-paid-to-have-children-hungarys-carefare-regime/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> that Hungarian policy “redefines Hungarian citizenship” away from“darker-skinned, non-Christian migrants” and toward — quelle horreur — average Hungarian citizens. Still another critic <a href="https://politicalcritique.org/archive/2019/doomed-failure-orbans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> Orbán of having a vendetta against working women.
But let’s take a look at the results of these policies.
After a decade of prioritizing families with tax cuts, subsidies, and generous loans, Hungary <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/04/08/exclusive-hungarys-pro-family-policy-working-births-up-9-4-per-cent/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reached</a> a 40-year peak in marriages and a 20-year high in fertility rates.
Conversely, divorces hit their lowest rate in six decades. Births increased by 9.4% year on year — an increase the likes of which the United States <a href="https://usafacts.org/articles/how-have-us-fertility-and-birth-rates-changed-over-time/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hasn’t seen</a> since the 1947 Baby Boom. On top of all that, the proportion of babies born to married parents has <a href="https://prolifeworldwide.net/family-pro-life/building-a-family-friendly-hungary/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increased</a> to 70%, roughly <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/unmarried-childbearing.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">10% higher</a> than in the United States.
Especially relevant in a post-Roe America are the effects of Hungary’s pronatalist laws on abortion. Although the procedure has <a href="https://populationmatters.org/news/2025/01/viktor-orbans-hungary-the-erosion-of-reproductive-rights/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remained legal</a> in Hungary up to the 12-week mark for several decades, the number of abortions <a href="https://2015-2022.miniszterelnok.hu/hungarian-government-based-its-family-policy-on-five-pillars/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plummeted</a> 41% from 2010 to 2021.
It’s crucial to note that this major drop took place before Hungary <a href="https://balkaninsight.com/2022/09/13/hungary-tightens-abortion-law-by-decree/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">banned</a> chemical abortions and began requiring abortion-minded women to listen to their babies’ heartbeats. Given that a full <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3729671/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">40%</a> of women seeking abortions credit financial concerns with their decision, it’s very plausible that the decrease was influenced by the greater financial support Hungary now provides to families, specifically mothers.
Economically, too, Hungary has seen strong results since Orbán began his pro-family crusade in 2010. From 2010 to 2024, the number of Hungarians working and paying taxes <a href="https://prolifeworldwide.net/family-pro-life/building-a-family-friendly-hungary/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">swelled</a> by a million people. Further, from 2010 to 2023, Hungary’s per capita GDP grew a remarkable <a href="https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/culture_society/revealing-the-facts-a-brief-history-of-the-hungarian-gdp/#:~:text=As%20shown%20in%20the%20graph%2C%20Hungary's%20GDP,66.1%20per%20cent%20of%20the%20EU%20average%2C" target="_blank" rel="noopener">43.9%</a>, dwarfing the European Union member state average of 16.2%.
Could America see comparable successes?
The One Big Big Beautiful Bill Act’s tax credits, cuts to childcare expenses, and Baby Bonus program — together with the Bill’s broader measures such as ending taxes on tips and overtime — may prove key to supporting vulnerable families, empowering expectant mothers, and rebuilding a strong made-in-America economy.
It isn’t too late for the United States to follow Hungary into a brighter future. Our countries may have many differences, but we have very good reason to hope that pronatalist policies will work just as well here.
Emily Claire Boulet is a student at the University of Dallas.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Happy family: mother, father, children son and daughter on sunset

Hungary Shows How The Big Beautiful Bill Will Help American Families

family

In January 2025, the White House finally did what should have been done years ago: it designated Mexico’s brutal drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
This gives American authorities broader tools to freeze assets, gather intelligence, and dismantle these violent syndicates. And it’s an important step in the right direction. But, from where I sit in Bulgaria, I cannot help but ask: why did it take so long?
Here in Bulgaria, we know something about borders. We share one with Turkey, a gateway for migrants heading toward Europe. And yet, despite intense pressure, Bulgaria has not suffered the migrant chaos seen in parts of Western Europe or the United States.
Why? Because we made the decision — like our neighbors in Hungary, under Prime Minister Viktor Orban — to treat national borders as sacred. Not suggestions. Not political bargaining chips. But sovereign, immovable lines of defense.
The fentanyl crisis in the United States is a tragedy of epic proportions. China supplies the chemicals, but it is the Mexican cartels that manufacture and traffic the poison. Hundreds of thousands of American lives have been lost to synthetic drugs. And things would not have been this bad without the collapse of the southern border under the Biden administration.
Bulgaria and Hungary chose a different path. We do not allow open borders. We do not allow foreign-funded NGOs to dictate our immigration policy. We do not apologize for protecting our own people.
The results speak for themselves: we have little to no illegal immigration. No fentanyl crisis. No foreign cartel operations are taking root on our soil.
That is not by accident. It is by design.
Today’s cartels are not just drug dealers. They are militarized, globally networked terrorist syndicates. Their power is expanding because America’s border is collapsing. When the United States fails to defend itself, it sends a dangerous signal not just to cartels but to bad actors around the world.
When the Sinaloa Cartel launched a siege in the Mexican city of Culiacán after the arrest of El Chapo’s son, it looked less like a criminal response and more like a military operation. Can this happen in the United States? From our perspective in Eastern Europe, the answer is yes — if nothing changes.
The cartels already operate in all 50 states. They traffic in drugs, weapons, and human lives. And they do so while millions of illegal immigrants cross the southern border. In contrast, here in Bulgaria, illegal border crossings are rare and heavily punished.
We know that a sovereign nation cannot exist without a secure border. We’ve lived through communist tyranny, open-border chaos in the Balkans, and waves of migration from the Middle East. These are not abstract policy issues for us. They are matters of national survival.
If the United States wants to stop the fentanyl epidemic, secure the border. If you want to dismantle cartel networks, secure the border. If you want to preserve your way of life, secure the border.
President Donald Trump put America on that path during his first term. The Remain in Mexico policy, border wall construction, and strict enforcement were making a difference. But President Joe Biden reversed that progress. And now, the chaos is global.
This is not just an American problem anymore. The drugs, the human trafficking, the terrorism — it’s spreading all across the Western world. Europe is already starting to see signs of fentanyl’s arrival. And make no mistake, if the cartels succeed in producing their own precursors and cutting out China, the crisis will escalate faster and deadlier than ever before.
The United States should look east and learn some lessons from allies like Bulgaria and Hungary. We have proven that strong borders and strong policies work. We are not perfect, but we are secure.
If politicians in Washington truly want to protect the American people, they must stop listening to the globalist elite and start listening to those of us who have fought for our sovereignty and won. We believe President Trump is taking the necessary actions to secure the border.
Otherwise, the next cartel siege will not happen in Mexico. It will happen in Texas. Or Arizona. Or Ohio.
And when it does, Americans will remember who allowed the gates to stay wide open.
George Harizanov is the CEO of the Institute for Right-Wing Policies in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Southern border

What America Can Learn From Bulgaria About Securing Borders

Europe

Southern Border

It is amazing to be here in Budapest. I want to talk today about the battle for the heart of Western civilization. But to do that, we have to start with a definition of what Western civilization actually is.
Western civilization, rooted in Man&#8217;s individual liberty and his collective duty; in his freedom of speech and in his duty to act virtuously; in his property rights and in his familial obligations; in the right to the equal application of the law; is unique. It is the wellspring of virtually all human prosperity and all human progress.
Western civilization did not come from nowhere. It came from Biblical wisdom; the wisdom of thousands of years of Judeo-Christian tradition. It came from the Bible&#8217;s admonition that we ought to seek truth through the light of reason. When we cut ourselves off from the sources of our own civilization, our civilization decays.
And make no mistake, our civilization is now in the midst of decay.
We can see that decay in the anarchic marchers in the streets, chanting on behalf of radical Islamic terror groups by the hundreds of thousands. 
We can see it in the push by intellectual elitists for a bizarre alternative morality that suggests the fundamental, free-flowing nature of sexual identity, where boys can be girls and behavior ought to be separated utterly from the realm of morality. 
We can see it in the push for an ever growing domination of a powerful governmental infrastructure, crowding out familial bonds, crowding out church. in favor of a faceless state that offers money rather than virtue.
We can see it in that crusade against churches that refuse to jettison their values in favor of moral relativism and flying rainbow flags.
What are these forces that have mobilized against our civilization?
The key force is the force of Western post-modern leftism. Sure, we can look at the radical Islamists who have invaded Europe, who support terrorism, who use Western governments to impose effective fatwas against Westerners who speak out against them, people who target Jews and Christians, who openly chant for the downfall of the civilization that they leech upon.
But the question really isn&#8217;t radical Islamists. They, after all, are doing just what they have always done: invading and conquering.
The question is why the West allowed them in.
And the answer is that the West, thanks to that post-modern Left, bears a peculiar and self-defeating blood-guilt. A guilt that says that because the West is too successful, it owes it to the rest of the world to destroy itself.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/battling-for-the-heart-of-western-civilization-cpac-hungary-member-exclusive?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+Show+Episodes+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
Perhaps the most colorful champion of this philosophy was the Marxist existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre. In 1961, a Francophone rebel named Frantz Fanon wrote a shockingly violent book titled “The Wretched of the Earth,” in which he posited that colonized peoples had a moral duty to kill their colonizers; that they ought to unleash, in his words, “red hot cannonballs” and “bloody knives.”
Frantz Fanon expressed that the colonized man was right to want to rape the wife of his colonizer, to murder him, to take what he had, and Sartre, a Western leftist, agreed. The West, Sartre said, was an inherent colonizer. Its very success in the world, whether through war or through markets, was a sign of its uniquely rapacious and exploitative nature.
Thus, Sartre argued, Europeans had to die at the hands of their victims. He said, “To shoot down a European is to kill two birds with one stone, to destroy an oppressor, and the man he oppresses at the same time. Then there remains a dead man and a free man.”
In other words, Sartre advocated civilizational suicide, and the West largely complied.
But why did the West comply? Now, part of the answer lies in the West’s pathological and religiously based adherence to the reality of sin and the necessity of repentance. Our culture, Western culture, is a guilt culture, a culture that focuses on the reality of absolute morality and says that when we fail, we are guilty. This means that we feel bad when we sin.
That&#8217;s actually one of our virtues.
<div id="attachment_927555" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/battling-for-the-heart-of-western-civilization-cpac-hungary-member-exclusive?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=The+Ben+Shapiro+Show&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-927555" class="size-large wp-image-927555" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/MixCollage-30-May-2025-05-46-PM-9133-1024x576.jpg" alt="Screenshot: DailyWire/CPAC Hungary" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/MixCollage-30-May-2025-05-46-PM-9133-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/MixCollage-30-May-2025-05-46-PM-9133-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/MixCollage-30-May-2025-05-46-PM-9133-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/MixCollage-30-May-2025-05-46-PM-9133-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/MixCollage-30-May-2025-05-46-PM-9133-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>Screenshot: DailyWire/CPAC Hungary</div>
But there are many other cultures, shame cultures like, say, the Islamic cultures or the pre-World War II culture of Imperial Japan, or the modern Left, that focuses not on any absolute standard of morality or conscience, but on the evil of being humiliated.
For these folks, admitting fault is the weakness. Because we in the West reflexively look to our own sins before those of others, we fall prey to civilizational suicidal impulses.
Our enemies don&#8217;t. They&#8217;re happy to blame us for their problems and unfortunately, we&#8217;re all too happy to blame ourselves. As the French philosopher Pascal Bruckner writes, “The duty to repent forbids the Western Bloc, which is eternally guilty, to judge or combat other systems, other states, other religions. Our past crimes command us to keep our mouths closed. Our only right is to remain silent.”
But why should we feel uniquely guilty? The West seems to bear a unique amount of guilt because we have come to believe a giant lie, a great giant lie about ourselves.
And that lie is that we, the West, are uniquely evil.
We hear this lie all the time. Just a couple of days ago, for example, King Charles visited Canada, a country with a parliament, only because it was once a dominion of the British Crown, and then he read a land acknowledgment to the Algonquin Indians as though the British Empire ought to repent its establishment of the country of Canada.
The very concept is ridiculous. Watching King Charles sit there in all of his royal regalia, lamenting his own empire, is insane. And yet this kind of nonsense is imitated at nearly every college event across the West.
But that&#8217;s the lie: that the West is uniquely evil, and that lie gained an enormous amount of credibility due to the horrors of the 20th century.
We were told often by Marxists like Sartre, that imperialism was a uniquely Western phenomenon, despite the fact that human beings have conquered other people for as long as human beings have existed.
We were told that the Nazis and their allies were natural outgrowths of Western civilization, rather than perversions of it.
We were told that if we abandoned Biblical values in favor of a namby-pamby secularism, we could avoid all the terrible atrocities of the past, even though it was the pagan dogmas of the Nazis and the Soviets, their secular dogmas, not their Biblical adherence that led to their assault on humanity.
We were told that if we mitigated our cultural honor, if we discarded it, we could then expunge our sins, even though it was craven cowardice in the face of transnational Left-wing movements like Nazism and Communism that led to their domination of the European continent and proud, resurgent patriotism that stopped it.
We were told that if we abandoned our borders, we could alleviate our guilt, even though obviously the Nazis and the Soviets had no respect for borders and sought to obliterate them themselves. It was not Western civilization or Biblical values, rule of law, free speech, and private property rights that led to the tragedies and horrors of the 20th century.
It was the rejection of the West&#8217;s core values that led to those horrors.
But too many in the West believed the lie that the horrors were the result of Western civilization rather than a perversion of it. And in believing that lie, we surrendered our own civilization to people who would destroy it. We turned over our nations to consortiums of international elitists who sought to rule us from above and from without. We opened our nations to groups that sought to destroy our history and our unity.
Now it is time to reverse that process. We have to, in all humility, recognize that Western civilization, like all civilizations, has, of course, committed sordid wrongs and egregious evils.
But the truth — the real truth, something we have known for a very long time, since the Garden of Eden — is that all human beings have a capacity for evil. Human evil is a universal truth.
But the glories of Western civilization are not universal. They come from a particular philosophy, a particular history, a particular culture.
Western civilization isn&#8217;t uniquely evil. Western civilization is uniquely good.
Slavery was a human universal. It was Western civilization that ended it.
Poverty is a human universal. It was Western civilization that has exponentially mitigated it.
War is a human universal Western civilization has wildly reduced it.
And the secular, post-modern leftists who refuse to admit this are engaging in evil of their own.
This country, the very country these secular, post-modern leftists seem to despise, a country they label Nazi-esque, is the only country in Europe, perhaps, that is not currently overrun by Islamic radicals.
This supposedly Nazi country is the only country in Europe where I, an Orthodox Jew, can walk in safety and comfort down the street wearing a yarmulke.
It is a country where children don&#8217;t actually have to fear that their innocence will be robbed by a perverse, anti-Biblical Left seeking the spiritual destruction of those children.
Hungary, like the rest of the West, isn&#8217;t perfect because no country is.
But Hungarians are trying to stand up for their civilization, our shared Western heritage and civilization. And that is a thing that is worth fighting for.
And if we fight for it, we will emerge victorious against the forces that seek to destroy our civilization from outside and inside as well.

MixCollage-30-May-2025-05-44-PM-349

Hungary And The Fight For Western Civilization: Shapiro’s Budapest Speech

Ben Shapiro

Marxism

Opinion

Radical Islam

Western Civilization

BUDAPEST—European nations are waking up to the consequences of their own censorship, a former senior advisor to President Donald Trump argued on Wednesday — a cultural shift due in large part to Trump&#8217;s return to the world stage.
Jason Miller, a longtime political strategist and the founder of GETTR, spoke at the EU-US Summit at the Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest, where he discussed the European Union&#8217;s ongoing attempts at censorship of European citizens with former White House director of the Domestic Policy Council Joe Grogan and Matt Mowers, president of the global strategies firm Valcour and a State Department veteran.
Miller held up a copy of The Economist that featured a startling headline in bold: &#8220;Europe&#8217;s Free Speech Problem.&#8221; The Economist is far from a right-leaning publication, the former Trump advisor joked, emphasizing that &#8220;Free speech is a massively big deal here in the EU, as well as the U.K.&#8221;
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&#8220;This is something that everybody realizes is huge,&#8221; he shared, holding up the magazine, &#8220;because what happens with the EU, what happens with the U.K., what also happens with free speech in the United States, all impact each other.&#8221;
As an example, he referred to the United Kingdom&#8217;s request for a “back door” to Apple&#8217;s iCloud encryption to help the British government access Apple iCloud user data. The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-tulsi-gabbard-to-probe-national-security-implications-of-uks-demands-to-apple">broke the news in February</a> that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was probing the potential implications of such a request.
<div id="attachment_926099" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-nations-grapple-with-growing-free-speech-problem-under-trumps-gaze/img_3136" rel="attachment wp-att-926099"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-926099" class="wp-image-926099 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/IMG_3136-864x576.jpg" alt="Photo courtesy of the EU-US Forum." width="864" height="576" /></a>Photo courtesy of the EU-US Forum.</div>
On Wednesday, Miller shared that &#8220;the U.K. government is telling the United States that if Apple still wants to continue doing business in the U.K., that they have to give access to iClouds.&#8221;
&#8220;Of course,&#8221; he noted, &#8220;they say it&#8217;s only to stop the worst of the worst, to stop the bad actors. Anyone in the U.S. intelligence side will tell you, if you open up people&#8217;s individual iClouds&#8230;it will take hackers and other people five minutes, tops, to hack into everybody&#8217;s iCloud. Dangers like this become very, very real.&#8221;
Thanks to Trump&#8217;s comments on the issue, as well as Vice President JD Vance&#8217;s remarks at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year, much more attention is on the European leaders leading the charge to censor their citizens.
&#8220;President Trump and the administration are calling attention to [censorship in Europe] and I think really putting the bully pulpit to use,&#8221; Miller told The Daily Wire in an interview following his remarks. He argued that it is &#8220;way too easy for countries to sweep under the rug&#8221; stories like that of Lucy Connolly, whose angry, aggressive post calling for mass deportations <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp3nn60wyr6o">earned her 31 months in jail</a>. 
Miller argued that what Connolly said was certainly unacceptable, &#8220;but it&#8217;s not 31-months-in-prison unacceptable.&#8221;
&#8220;I think the punishment has to fit the crime,&#8221; Miller said.
The president and his administration have made free speech a main focus &#8220;because what happens in one country will impact the U.S.,&#8221; Miller noted. What happens in the European Union, or is dictated by the European Union, will almost certainly happen next in the U.S. unless checked, he argued. 
&#8220;Ultimately, when they start putting restrictions on their free speech then other outlets, whether it be a social media platform, whether it be technology platforms such as Apple or Google or things of that nature, when free speech is suppressed then ultimately what&#8217;s gonna happen is so many of those same policies will be put in place in the United States,&#8221; Miller said.  
&#8220;You see that often there&#8217;s a symbiotic relationship between the two,&#8221; reflected Mowers in an interview with The Daily Wire. &#8220;What you&#8217;re seeing is good policies and bad policies emanate on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/JasonMiller?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JasonMiller</a>: ‘Many of these decisions aren’t made by individual countries, they’re being made by bureaucrats in Brussels who are unelected and unaccountable.’ <a href="https://t.co/WOYzkHvb6c">pic.twitter.com/WOYzkHvb6c</a>
— EU-US Forum (@EUUSForum) <a href="https://twitter.com/EUUSForum/status/1927629813864690034?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
&#8220;We&#8217;ve been shining a light on that since we started the EU-US Forum in the early part of last year,&#8221; he explained, noting, &#8220;We&#8217;re seeing election results bear out that Europeans are fed up with the status quo, the bureaucrats in Brussels, the over regulation, the over taxation, the fact that they&#8217;re clamping down on free speech, they&#8217;re doing nothing to address the unchecked migration that is jeopardizing security and jobs.&#8221;
Their comments come as a group of senior State Department officials head to France and Ireland this week to push both countries to respect citizens’ rights, part of a State Department effort to fight “egregious examples of democratic backsliding” and “violations of basic natural rights” in Europe, a senior State Department official shared with The Daily Wire.
The initiative, launched by the department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, is especially focused on defending freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to privacy. In France, the State Department delegation will meet with government officials to discuss the recent arrest of French politician Marine Le Pen. In Ireland, their discussion will focus on concerns that a new European Union law could be used to censor free speech.
As Vance highlighted in Munich, the Trump administration sees real threats facing its allies in Europe “from within” — particularly cases of governments targeting their own citizens and particular forms of political and religious speech. Those targeted are disproportionately Christian, conservative, or nationalist.
“It’s not a coincidence that these kinds of global forces are using similar tactics to those that were used on this side of the Atlantic against President Trump and his supporters over the past eight years,” the State Department official shared.
Vance&#8217;s remarks in Munich continue to dominate discussions of free speech across the globe, and will likely continue to do so during CPAC Hungary 2025, where conservative leaders and commentators are gathering this week. Miller suggested that Trump&#8217;s and Vance&#8217;s statements on censorship as of late are a &#8220;loud wake up call&#8221; to European nations and a &#8220;pretty clear signal that President Trump and Vice President Pence are not going to back down.&#8221; 
&#8220;They&#8217;re gonna stand up and fight for free speech all around the entire world, and I think that&#8217;s a good thing,&#8221; he argued. &#8220;Ultimately that supports the sovereignty of individuals and nations that are, say, members of the EU, that free speech has to be defended.&#8221; 
&#8220;It&#8217;s been monumental,&#8221; Mowers said of the Trump administration&#8217;s impact on Europe. &#8220;You&#8217;re seeing it right now play out in the trade relationship that President Trump has been negotiating with the EU, and recent developments that are happening in the last few hours, where they are saying now by early July they have a goal of getting a framework in place.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/JasonMiller?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JasonMiller</a> on the weaponization of government from the left:
‘The last line of defense for the extreme radical left is the legal system&#8230; people should be able to embrace the sovereignty and individuality and the rights that they hold as citizens.’ <a href="https://t.co/C764l03NTI">pic.twitter.com/C764l03NTI</a>
— EU-US Forum (@EUUSForum) <a href="https://twitter.com/EUUSForum/status/1927633391790547220?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
Mowers praised Vance for arguing that the United States&#8217; relationship with Europe is strong, but that it must be based on an honest conversation about the problems at hand — namely, that the EU has been trampling free speech, failing to honor the outcomes of elections, and disenfranchising political leaders with whom they disagree.
&#8220;If we&#8217;re going to talk about the uniqueness, and the real pedestal we want to put our relationship on, which is worthy, we&#8217;ve got to start acting it too,&#8221; Mowers said.
&#8220;That&#8217;s not going to happen with some outside influence, it&#8217;s going to happen from within, and you&#8217;re seeing European voters vote that way as well, because they&#8217;re expressing their frustrations with the leaders who have ignored the actual challenges in their lives.&#8221;

IMG_3136

European Nations Grapple With Growing ‘Free Speech Problem’ Under Trump’s Gaze

Jason Miller

Before it&#8217;s possible to discuss any policy position that&#8217;s supposedly &#8220;progressive,&#8221; the first step is always to escape the world of euphemisms and start talking, in explicit detail, about what&#8217;s actually happening. This might sound straightforward, but every single organ of the Left is committed to making sure you don&#8217;t do this. They would much rather you debate the abstract concept of &#8220;a woman&#8217;s right to choose,&#8221; for example, than discuss how children are dismembered and discarded like trash. They would also prefer that you use terms like &#8220;gender-affirming care,&#8221; instead of discussing chemical castration. And on and on. Euphemisms are one of the most potent tools these people have. They are everywhere, in every single debate on every issue. And in every case, they&#8217;re a gross misrepresentation of reality. They need to be neutralized immediately before any actual discussion can begin.
To that end, take <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/14/hungary-poised-to-adopt-constitutional-amendment-to-ban-lgbtq-gatherings">this headline</a> from the other day. It ran in The Guardian: 
<blockquote>Hungary passes constitutional amendment to ban LGBTQ+ gatherings.</blockquote>
The Associated Press ran a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hungary-pride-ban-amendment-orban-gay-rights-lgbtq-155ec12cbbde7cc6be0f96adb323de77">similar story</a>:
<blockquote>Hungary passes constitutional amendment to ban LGBTQ+ public events, seen as a major blow to rights.</blockquote>
The article explains that Hungary&#8217;s parliament just overwhelmingly passed an amendment that will outlaw, &#8220;public events by LGBTQ+ communities.&#8221;
If you&#8217;re just skimming these headlines, this might seem like a surprising development. You might wonder: What are &#8220;public events by LGBTQ+ communities,&#8221; exactly? And what precisely is an &#8220;LGBTQ+ gathering?&#8221; If you take these headlines literally, then it sounds like the government of Hungary has just made it illegal for gay people to appear in public, for any reason. It&#8217;s a total crackdown on figure skating, musical theater and art exhibitions. Gay people can&#8217;t even get together and watch “Glee” reruns on the couch without getting hauled to prison. This is the current state of Hungary, if you believe The Guardian and the Associated Press.
In reality, of course, Hungary has not banned gay people from assembling in public. What they&#8217;ve banned are disturbing and morally objectionable public displays of sexual hedonism that can easily be observed by children. That includes Hungary&#8217;s annual pride parade. Pull up any footage of this parade that&#8217;s posted online, and you&#8217;ll quickly see exactly what I&#8217;m talking about. Here&#8217;s some of it, or at least the parts we can play. This is from Budapest several years back:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="002 Budapest gay pride" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hMLRsBLKnEU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
And again, this is the most sanitized footage I could play. This is what the corporate press means when they say Hungary has banned &#8220;LGBTQ events&#8221; and &#8220;LBGTQ gatherings.&#8221; This is the truth behind the euphemism. They mean that Hungary has banned public indecency that everyone — including children — can see. In fact, in many cases, these public displays are explicitly directed at children. This is what &#8220;pride parades&#8221; always entail, as we&#8217;ve discussed dozens of times on this show.
If you actually look at the text of the amendment that just passed in Hungary — and again, it was an overwhelming vote in Hungary&#8217;s parliament, passing by a margin of 140 to 21 — then you&#8217;ll immediately understand why it passed. This is not simply an amendment about &#8220;pride parades&#8221; or &#8220;gay gatherings&#8221; or anything like that. It&#8217;s not, as the Associated Press claims, an amendment that constitutes a &#8220;major blow to rights.&#8221; In reality, it&#8217;s the exact opposite.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mws-ep-1577-member-exclusive?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+Show+Episodes+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
This amendment, with very forceful and unapologetic language, affirms the right of everyone — and in particular children — to enjoy public spaces without being confronted by someone else’s sexual obsessions. As far as I know, this is the first major piece of legislation, and certainly the first constitutional amendment, to explicitly state that gay and trans activists are not, in fact, the only people on the planet with rights that deserve protection. Until relatively recently, that didn&#8217;t need to be spelled out.
Here&#8217;s the National Review&#8217;s <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/hungary-approves-constitutional-amendment-banning-public-lgbt-events/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">summary</a> of the amendment:
<blockquote>The amendment forbids LGBT pride parades that conservative lawmakers argued threatened the well-being of children. One of its provisions specifically declares that children’s rights to moral, physical, and intellectual development supersede the right to peaceful assembly and almost every other right, except the right to life. Hungarian authorities are also allowed to use facial recognition software to identify and potentially fine demonstrators at the newly prohibited pride parades if they are held in defiance of the law.</blockquote>
Yes, this amendment — which codifies a law passed by the parliament a few weeks ago — states that a child has a right to be protected physically, morally, and spiritually, and that this right supersedes the right of gay people to celebrate their sexuality in the town square. That&#8217;s exactly the right way to frame this situation. It&#8217;s certainly the honest way to frame it.
Virtually all of our cultural and political debates, regardless of the particular topic, ultimately come down to a battle of competing rights and interests. That&#8217;s not how you normally see policy debates framed, but it&#8217;s the truth. Even something as simple as a speed limit involves weighing various rights and interests. On the one hand, you have people&#8217;s reasonable interest in traveling to their destination quickly. On the other hand, you have people&#8217;s reasonable interest in not being killed in a high-speed car accident. These two interests are obviously in tension. If we wanted absolute safety on the highway, we&#8217;d set the speed limit to 5 miles per hour. But we don&#8217;t do that, because we&#8217;ve decided that other interests are more important. Every functioning society has to weigh competing interests like this, in every single area of policy.
The only way to sort through this mess is to come to some kind of understanding about which rights are most fundamental. With this amendment, Hungary has decided that, apart from the right to life, the most fundamental right is a child&#8217;s &#8220;right to protection and care for their adequate physical, mental and moral development.&#8221; You can agree or disagree with this philosophical claim — and of course I strongly agree with it. But regardless of your particular stance on the issue, you can&#8217;t deny that, at the very least, they are dealing with these questions in a clear and coherent way.
The opponents of the amendment, on the other hand, are not responding coherently. Instead, they&#8217;re reacting in exactly the kind of hysterical manner you would expect. They&#8217;re lying about the content of the amendment, as we just discussed. They&#8217;re also setting off smoke bombs in Hungary&#8217;s parliament and blocking the entrance to government buildings. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="003 smoke bombs protests" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QSWKwOCVHOc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This is the response you expect from people who know they have no actual argument. They&#8217;ll blockade buildings. They&#8217;ll spread propaganda that has no basis in reality. They&#8217;ll detonate smoke bombs in parliament. But the one thing they won&#8217;t do — because they can&#8217;t do it — is rationally explain why you&#8217;re wrong, and they&#8217;re right. In this case, these LGBT activists simply cannot articulate any reason to oppose this amendment. And there are a couple of reasons for that. One of the reasons, of course, is that these so-called &#8220;pride parades&#8221; are indefensible, morally and practically. Every sane person knows that they should be banned from public streets. Anyone who&#8217;s ever seen footage of one of these parades understands this.
But the more fundamental issue is that, even if the pride parades weren&#8217;t bizarre, explicit, and objectionable, these activists would still have a problem. Put simply, the Leftist conception of human rights gives no real basis for objecting to this constitutional amendment. These people believe that rights are social constructs, codified by the government. They generally reject the idea that rights come from God. After all, it&#8217;s hard to make the case that the right to abort a baby created by God somehow comes from God. But if rights are social constructs, then society can abolish a right just as easily as it creates it. And that&#8217;s exactly what&#8217;s happened here. Hungary, through its democratically elected government, has decided that the absolute right to gay pride displays no longer exists in their culture. As a result, it makes no sense for the Leftist to object.
They can&#8217;t say that the rights of LGBT people are being infringed in Hungary. How could they? The right doesn&#8217;t exist anymore. There is no authority higher than society and government (according to them), and those authorities have spoken on the matter. That&#8217;s all there is to it.
In other words, gay activists are melting down in Hungary right now because they&#8217;re realizing, if only subconsciously, that their ideology can be erased just as quickly as it took hold. As it turns out, a fiction that&#8217;s maintained by a patchwork of laws and government policy can also be eliminated by law and government policy. And it&#8217;s not just the so-called LGBT community in Hungary that&#8217;s coming to this realization. In this country, as we&#8217;ve <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtFCCDy__os" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discussed</a>, &#8220;pride parades&#8221; are also facing serious problems, mainly because the major sponsors are pulling out and people are losing interest. They&#8217;re going door-to-door in San Francisco right now to cover a multimillion-dollar funding shortfall for their pride events this summer. In every respect, these people are now weak and desperate.
If there were ever a moment to implement a Hungary-style ban on &#8220;pride parades&#8221; in this country, now is that time. Yes, activists in this country would inevitably act out, just like they&#8217;re doing in Hungary. But there are some things that are a lot more important than the feelings of screeching Left-wing protesters. One of them is the right of children to grow and develop and have their innocence protected. Hungary is now finally enforcing that right. For the benefit of every child in this country, we should do the same.

Protest Against Amendment Banning Pride In Budapest, Hungary

LGBT Activists Panic After This Huge Move In The Fight To Protect Children

LGBTQ

Matt Walsh

Parade

Parliament

Pride

According to Radio Free Europe, Hungary plans to <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/hungary-israel-netanyahu-iccc-arrest-warrant/33366535.html">withdraw</a> from the International Criminal Court, potentially making it the first European country to exit the organization, though it&#8217;s yet to be officially confirmed.
The Hungarian government had been considering the move for some time. The formal procedure would involve offering a resolution proposal to the Hungarian Parliament and initiating the withdrawal if the Parliament approves, which could take as long as one year. “According to our source, the text of the draft resolution may soon be posted on the website of the National Assembly,” Szabad Európa <a href="https://www.szabadeuropa.hu/a/tuzson-bence-zart-korben-arrol-beszelt-hogy-magyarorszag-kilep-a-nemzetkozi-bunteto-birosagbol/33362063.html">reported</a>, adding, “We understand that the political decision to withdraw Hungary was actually made weeks ago, but the government was still waiting to see what U.S. President Donald Trump would say about the ICC.”
On February 6, President Donald Trump announced he was imposing sanctions on the ICC, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/imposing-sanctions-on-the-international-criminal-court/">stating</a> that “the International Criminal Court (ICC), as established by the Rome Statute, has engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel. The ICC has, without a legitimate basis, asserted jurisdiction over and opened preliminary investigations concerning personnel of the United States and certain of its allies, including Israel, and has further abused its power by issuing baseless arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.  The ICC has no jurisdiction over the United States or Israel, as neither country is party to the Rome Statute or a member of the ICC.”
“The ICC’s recent actions against Israel and the United States set a dangerous precedent, directly endangering current and former United States personnel, including active service members of the Armed Forces, by exposing them to harassment, abuse, and possible arrest.  This malign conduct in turn threatens to infringe upon the sovereignty of the United States and undermines the critical national security and foreign policy work of the United States Government and our allies, including Israel,” he continued.
A <a href="https://www.szabadeuropa.hu/a/tuzson-bence-zart-korben-arrol-beszelt-hogy-magyarorszag-kilep-a-nemzetkozi-bunteto-birosagbol/33362063.html">source</a> told Szabad Európa that after Trump imposed sanctions on the ICC, “the Hungarian government took this as a green light.”
Hungarian conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been a staunch supporter of Israel; he is meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest on Wednesday. In November, after the ICC issued the arrest warrant, Orban <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/hungarys-orban-invites-israeli-pm-194508337.html">ripped it</a>, calling it “outrageously brazen and cynical,” UPI reported.
“Later today, I will invite the Israeli prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu, to visit Hungary, where I will guarantee him, if he comes, that the judgment of the ICC will have no effect in Hungary, and that we will not follow its terms,” he stated in November. &#8220;There is no choice here, we have to defy this decision.”

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International Criminal Court

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