Kovacs: Orbán’s governing success ‘sore point for our critics’

After the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event in Budapest, it was clear that the “western mainstream media” would soon “swing into action”, he said.

Parallels were drawn between the Hungarian CPAC event and Nazism and fascism, he noted.

“I can see that the other side is losing its head because we’re doing something right.”

He noted that the American Conservative Union had held the conference several times outside the United States, including in Brazil, Australia, South Korea and Japan, though it was first to be held in Europe.

Kovacs said the event had conveyed a positive message on traditional conservative themes of God, the homeland and family.

Churches, he said, needed protection and families needed support since the nation was built on their foundations.

The state secretary also insisted that conservative ideas gave answers to today’s thorniest questions such as national identity and the preservation of Judeo-Christian heritage, immigration and the family. To protect them, conservative movements must be encouraged, he said.

The reaction of liberals was unsurprising though notable for “how loud and extremist the critics of Orbán’s government have become.”

One blogger condemned Hungary for being a “largely white country” that had “formed a proto-fascist, white nationalist government,” he noted.

Others claimed the event was held for those who “support Vladimir Putin’s closest European ally”, he said.

Also, many were dumbfounded by the government’s position on the war in Ukraine and its ties with Russia, yet Orbán made himself clear: whereas Hungary was determined not to get involved in the war, “Hungary was among the first to call Russia an aggressor and to condemn the invasion … and the Hungarians stand foursquare behind the unprecedented humanitarian effort.”

Kovacs said that while Paris and Berlin were mulling solutions that involved territorial concessions to Russia, Orbán was cynically being tarred as Putin’s “closest European ally”.

When it comes to illegal immigration, LGBTQ movements and Hungary’s family support system, he said the government’s critics ignored the facts and instead connected it with “fascism and white supremacy”, adding the national conservative government’s success was seen as “a threat to the liberal, globalist camp”.

Orbán’s government, he said, had eliminated unemployment and drawn people back into the labour market. It “sent the IMF packing” and slashed public debt, budget deficits and household utility bills, he said, adding that the minimum wage was now higher than the average wage under successive Socialist governments.