[The Critic] Orbán's Reconquista

Are the Hungarian Prime Minister and his allies poised to take over the institutions of the EU?

In the age of liberal near-hegemony in Washington and Brussels, international right-wing gatherings can easily turn into loser’s group therapy. Attendees LARP their way into alternate realities where climate change is wished away, the Ukraine war is nothing but an intra-Slavic dispute lacking a clear aggressor, and a pro-life, pro-family culture can be finger-snapped into being in imaginary redoubts of Christian practice. Going into last week, the second Hungarian offshoot of Matt and Mercedes Schlapp’s franchised CPAC jamboree looked to be just that kind of meeting. Hungary, indeed, holds a peculiarly mythical place in the imagination of a conservative movement in disarray. Shyly, at first, upon Viktor Orbán’s election in 2010 (and more densely as his government has forged an ecosystem of friendly think-tanks, media outlets and universities) conservatives unable to replicate Orbán’s electoral majorities at home have withdrawn to Budapest for consolatory photo-ops, conferences, and fellowships. Tucker Carlson, Rod Dreher, Sohrab Ahmari and Gladden Pappin are the scholars at the forefront of this conservative retreat. There are dozens more.

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