PM’s political director: Stakes in US presidential election have never been higher

The liberal world order is over, and at the dawn of a “new world order”, conservatives have to know what positions, narratives and way of thinking are needed in order for them to be the winners of the new era, Orban told the event organised by the Danube Institute and The Heritage Foundation.

Orban said that after the Cold War the Washington Consensus had built in exchange for money and access a Western liberal world in which the values represented by conservatives had no place. But, he added, the liberal world order had “failed” and the rest of the world, which had chosen not to adopt liberal values, had turned against the West.

He said that from an economic policy standpoint this had strengthened the West’s challengers, while from a social standpoint it had caused tensions in the West that had undermined the conditions of peaceful coexistence, public safety and trust. It had led to the emergence of multiple power centres of which no given block was strong enough to rule over the rest, and all such attempts led to armed conflicts, the suffering of millions, economic decline and the collapse of the social structure, he argued.

Orban said progressive liberals were on the side of the war that was weakening Europe while the conflict was leading to a weaker European economy. Europeans and Americans, he added, bore responsibility for creating peace.

Concerning the principles of the world order based on sovereignty, Orban mentioned basing economic decisions on national interests and the preservation of traditional values, saying that in this area there was a greater need for conservatives than ever before.

He called for fighting all “imperialist ideologies” that aimed to erase nations and wanted the world to be governed by a homogenous, centrally-controlled political power.

The political director said it was not an exaggeration to say that the stakes of a US presidential election had never been as high as they were now. The leading power of the Western world, he added, needed to be led by those who actually understood global changes. He said this was not simply about the future success of Hungary or the US, but about the success of all of Western civilisation.