Strap in. Big week. Something in the air. Can’t imagine what… 

JD Vance is a young man with great potential. Military service, Yale Law School, private equity, author - and apparently Vice President of the United States, which always looks good on one's CV.

Here he is in Vienna, simpler times, 2023, enjoying a bevvy, a giant pretzel, a sausage, and some weird yellow gloop with Rod Dreher (who took the picture). 

Today and tomorrow, the promising Vance will be back in town, holding talks with the PM, and ‘delivering remarks’ on the Hungarian-US relationship, at the MTK Sportpark for what is billed as Hungarian-American Friendship Day. 

More prosaically, expect major road closures, from the Castle District to Andrássy to the airport. Basically, if you were thinking of using a road, don’t. Daily News Hungary has the full list.

On Thursday, do not miss Henry Olsen. He’s a big guy - hard to miss - but intellectually, Olsen is also one of the most respected pollsters in America, and host of the excellent Beyond The Polls podcast.

He’s in Hungary, doing some final field work ahead of the election, which he will summarise in a talk and panel entitled Hungary Chooses (5:30PM at the Villa). 

Plenty of big names will be weighing in — 

John O’Sullivan - law giver 
Ralph Schoelhammer - clean-living professor
Patrick Egan - founder of Brussels Signal 
John Fund - National Review columnist
István Kiss - one of the biggest psephology nerds you will ever meet 
Calum Nicholson - vaguely piratical Research Director

The Hungarian election has all the makings of a humdinger — but will it be Thatcher in 1979: a big swing towards the untested? Or will it be the John Major in 1992 - a failure of nerve over the quality of the opposition? 

Olsen’s insight is that beyond the campaign tinsel, voters often go with their gut. 

For the past six months, the DI has been cracking deals and auditioning starlets. 

We’ve entered the movie biz: wine-ing and Stein-ing producers, directors, and camera crews to shoot our first feature. Now it’s time for the gala. 

Wednesday is the premier of The Future At The Gate - the DI’s hour length documentary, directed by Isaiah Smallman, about 2015 and the Hungarian experience of immigration. Come and see the future from 6PM at the Uránia National Film Theatre (1088 Budapest, Rákóczi ut 21). A beautiful Art Deco space that’s worth seeing in its own right. 

In a world where… migrants break down fences… this is Central European policy architecture... as you’ve never seen it before… etc etc.  

Today, the Danube Institute is hosting a joint event with MCC, at MCC - 4PM till 5PM. “Where’s our goddamned money?” could be the unofficial subtitle - the infamous ‘million a day’, plus other structural funds sums to 18 billion Euros at last count: enough dough to fully modernise the country’s rail network - or build two new subway lines in Budapest.  

Officially, of course, it is called The EU’s Double Standards – The Case of Hungary, Poland, Spain, and Ukraine, and features the Fedex-forward Gergely Dobozi, and the ever-excellent Rodrigo Ballester.  

Moderation by the fragrant Noémi Pálfalvi, who has promised not to talk about her Pauly Shore obsession.

Are you ready for a time of upheaval? Based in Budapest had enough trouble when Carlsberg changed the recipe a couple of years back - never mind the multipolar thunderdome we’re entering. But the question is rhetorical. 

Song Lilei is Director, European Research Center, a Chinese think tank in Europe. She wants to tell us how Europe can keep itself together at a moment when the Hungry Hippos of the Great Game are gnashing like never before. That’s: Strategic Autonomy in a Time of Upheaval: How the EU's Quest for Sovereignty Reshapes China-Europe Relations”

Wednesday 5PM till 6PM, down the MCC.

In 1990, the US won the First Iraq War by a country mile thanks to their Revolution In Military Affairs doctrine: tight fast phalanxes of tanks, aerial supremacy, getting inside the OODA loop of their opponent: seeding Shock and Awe. 

But that was a long time ago now.

The new model army is about drones, ballistic missiles, and AI systems. It is rough and ready, improvisational, almost guerrilla, unlike the clean lines of the old paradigm. 

This discontinuity is the focus of the MCC-MKI Center For Geopolitics panel, 5PM Thursday. Featuring Robert Clark, a British defence and foreign policy researcher. 

Finally at the MCC: we are glad to be graced by Oxford Researcher Jacob Williams. Jake is about to finish up his PhD in Post-Liberalism, and has eyes on a full time move to the capital of Post-Liberalism. Here, he’ll be presenting on quite what post-liberalism means (always a bit hazy - do we want Papal Supremacy and The Inquisition or not?). That’s 5:30PM Thursday at MCC. 

Finally finally —Sunday night, the MCC is hosting its own election night party. 

They promise live coverage, and panels (panels!). Oh, and booze. Hungarian elections, we are reliably informed, tend to tally quickly. As opposed to British ones, where after the initial shock of the exit poll, everyone waits increasingly careworn till 2:30AM for results to start trickling in from Moreton-in-Marsh, followed by a massive info-dump of 300 seats around 4AM that basically confirms the exit poll. 

9PM till late. Tas Vezér utca. 

It only remains to say that, because of all this election stuff, next week Based in Budapest will come out on Tuesday. 

Or will it? Perhaps there will just be eerie silence, radio static, a furious SOS tapping against a fading sine wave? 

Anyway, Tuesday. 9PM till late. 

Perspectives and people from the week

Best panel of the day involved the irrepressible Ashley Frawley, who gave a brimstone ad libbed speech about helicopter parenting, safetyism and inflated expectations of marriage. “I mean, I just saw a boy I thought was cute, and I said ‘I want to marry him’ and so I did it. I really didn’t think too hard! You just have to deal with things!” 

The DI's annual Family Conference is like a trade show for fundamental human forms of belonging. Do you want one? How about a new one? Could they be better dressed? 

Whether you hire or purchase, family is the greatest investment you'll ever make, and the Villa is where it all comes together. Two day event - 9AM Tuesday till 5PM Wednesday. 

Here are some of the bigger wigs appearing this year.

Edward Davies - Director of Research at the Center for Social Justice
Emma Trimble (née Webb) - top notch British commentator
Laoise de Brún BL - CEO & Founder of The Countess Foundation, Ireland
Delano Squires
Ashley Frawley - loquacious and vivacious American from MCC Brussels 
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović - Former President of Croatia
Gladden Pappin - Killary theorist, and President of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs
Tony Abbott - Former Prime Minister of Australia and wombat folk-psychologist
Eduard Habsburg - former Ambassador to the Holy See, and 96th in line to the Holy Crown. 

Closing remarks by Mr István Kiss - a put-upon local father of three. 

North Macedonia is easily the least troublesome bit of the Balkans. Unlike the rest, it calmly melted away from the former Yugoslavia, like an Irishman at a party, without so much as a Slovenia-style weekend war. Yet despite being wildly calm and having an attractive capital the EasyJet set would love, this fragment remains slightly beyond the bounds of the EU, languishing in landlocked obscurity. 

Obscurity no more: tonight, MCC is hosting a special event on North Macedonia, focusing on the European integration of the Western Balkans. It features Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski.

6:45PM, at MCC.

Of course, if you hate families, perhaps you'd prefer a morning seminar at Ludovika Univsersity of Public Service, on Maps Of Power. Canvassing geo-politics in yer typical 'time of upheaval'. 

Features John Hutchinson from the London School of Economics on How Wars Shape Nations: Memory, Identity, and Power, the all-powerful Márton Ugrósdy, Gladden Pappin as standard, and our very own wunderkind Calum 'TM' Nicholson. 9AM - 2PM, Saint Ladislaus Chapel, Ludovika. 

Perspectives and people from the week

Fans of Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo have had a fantastic week. Opponents of Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo have had a shocker.  Last week, 90s goofball comedy pinup Rob Schneider was in town, soaking up the rabidly right wing ambience of the Gathering of the Patriots, and putting on a talk at MCC. "The best way to fight tyranny is to laugh at it," he told his audience. A sentiment that didn't take The 2nd Royal Satirists' Battalion very far on D-Day.

Here he is with his number one fan and a couple of rubberneckers. 

Spring is sputtering into life. The days are widening, the layers are coming off, the central heating is in that awkward fiddling-phase. But it doesn't officially bloom until the cherry blossoms do. 

Next week, the ELTE Botanical Garden hosts the annual Sakura Celebration in their cherry orchard, inspired by the Japanese custom of Ohanami – the practice of viewing and appreciating the transient beauty of flowers.

Book in advance to avoid disappointment.

Sir Richard Bishop (knighthood self-bestowed) is one of the backbones of experimental Americana. Maker of 19 albums since 1998, he's collaborated with the likes of Devendra Barnhart, Animal Collective, and Bill Callahan. 

On Thursday, he hits Lumen, 8PM.

Come for Elektronika Demonika, stay for While My Guitar Violently Bleeds. 

Ferenc Puskás was the Maradona of Hungary. A footballer who became bigger than the game. Best known in England for thumping them 6-3 at Wembley, then 7-1 on the return leg, Puskás was the platinum leader of Hungary's 1950s golden  generation - who revolutionised play with their fast, sweeping style. After 1956, he defected, and banged in four for Real Madrid in the 7-3 European cup final often heralded as 'the greatest club game of all time'. FIFA's 'Goal of the Year' trophy is named after him. 

Today, he donates his name to a football academy, a football club that grew out of it - and to his own personal museum. 

We were reminded of the latter by our Events manager, the indefatigable Katerina Nagy, who, it turns out, is immortalised in its foundation stone as its founding co-ordinator. 

It's inside the Puskás Aréna complex, housed in the only surviving part of the old Népstadion. The Puskásmúzeum is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10AM–6PM. The address is: Istvánmezei út 3-5, XIV district. 

The election temperature gets ever-hotter.  

This week, the BBC reported on a documentary it said was made by 'independent film makers: The Price of the Vote:  

"Local mayors exercise an iron grip over daily lives," reporter Nick Thorpe wrote. "Providing work, firewood, transport to polling stations and, in one case, even access to medicine, in exchange for the "correct" vote on election day, according to claims made in the film." BiB should point out that private polling booths do exist even in the sticks of Hungary. 

Having expended all their bandwidth on the independent filmmakers, the BBC will not be reporting on the MCC's new paper: The Managed Ballot (Schenk et al). A hundred pages that picks through the EU playbook on shaping national elections, through a complex chain of the Digital Services Act, intelligence, judicial bullying, and fund withholding.

The report picks out three cases in particular: 

Romania - wrong candidate gets tarred with 'Russian TikTok' allegations and disbarred 

Poland - seven years of withholding funds, Euro-court overrules, and opposition-funding. 

And Czechia - where Babiš won anyway, despite the EU installing its Rapid Response System, which gave various foreign NGOs privileged access to content-moderation channels during the elections. 

Eminent British journalist David Aaronovitch may have lost his column in the Times, but that hasn't stopped him from Bouncing Back. 

The left-liberal Aaronovitch has turned his focus to Substack, and there, last week produced a less-than-glowing review of our Pusey House Christian Revival conference, in which he broke every Chatham House rule going. Convenor Jonathan Price was aware Aaronovitch wanted to get in, but decided to admit him -  even to the private sessions - in a spirit of Christian charity.  

It all reminded Based In Budapest of a legendary folk-tale about the bombastic Aaronovitch, in which he is conned by an Albanian into buying a fake leather jacket. Judge his acumen for yourself. 

If CPAC didn’t quench your appetite for red meat, then the lineup of The First Patriotic Assembly is a mammoth’s worth of carne. Czechia's Andrej Babiš, ice cream-haired Geert Wilders, cat fancier Marine Le Pen, Herbert Kickl, leader of Austria’s Freedom Party, Santiago Abascal, head of Spain’s Vox, and Viktor Himself. It’s Anne Applebaum’s cheese-fuelled nightmare, and it’s really happening: at Millenáris Park, today, 10AM-6PM.

The death of Len Deighton got Based In Budapest thinking about literary fashions. Deighton wrote some of the greatest spy thrillers — snappier than Le Carré. In the ‘80s, his paperbacks adorned every airport lounge. Then they fell from favour. His passing, at 97, seems to have jolted him back into the popular memory. 

In The Seven Books That Everyone Once Read and No One Now Does, Dr. Nicholas Tate takes a longer view of that same question. Walter Scott was once the Alasdair Maclean of the 19th Century — every schoolboy’s favourite ripping yarn merchant. Skip back a couple millennia and Cicero’s On Duties was prescribed reading for young men on the make. These and others come under discussion, as Tate seeks to remind us of all the treasures we forgot to remember. 

4PM. Wednesday, at MCC. 

Do you yearn to ‘map the emerging fault lines of the global migration shockwaves’? Sounds like To Greener Pastures – and Back: A Global Outlook on Migration would be perfect. 4PM tomorrow at the Villa.

Plug time: please do come along to the Danube Institute’s two-day Family Conference next week Tuesday-Wednesday, 1 and 2 April. Family comes first, after all. 

Sir Nick Gibb was perhaps the most consequential Tory in the dismal government of 2010-24.

As Schools Minister, Gibb didn’t believe in the educational establishment’s vogue for teaching reading by ‘the searchlights model’: in which children would be given the entire word, and have to memorise it, like Chinese ideograms. 

So he pushed for an older system — phonics. Recognise the particle of a word: ‘th’, ‘ough’, ‘ie’ — and use these building blocks to pronounce the whole thing. 
That one change has radically improved reading comprehension in schools, saving many now-adults from functional illiteracy. 

On Wednesday at 5PM, he’s talking over what he learned with the functionally literate Calum Nicholson, and János Setényi, Head of the MCC Learning Institute.

Perspectives and people from the week

Some very fine art going on at the Museum of Fine Art. Masterpieces of Swiss Art from the Christoph Blocher Collection brings together works by Ferdinand Hodler, Albert Anker, and several others. 

Anker is best known for his adoring, luminescent portraits of children. Hodler is perhaps the opposite - starkly beautiful landscape scenes in the Swiss mountains. He happened to arrive on the scene at the moment when various viewpoints were suddenly becoming accessible via railway, and took full advantage, working in idyllic solitude far from popular tourist sites.

Tickets are 6200Ft and the show runs until the 21st of April. 

1989 was an extraordinary year in Hungarian history — unless you were 18 and just wanted to party. That’s the setup for Moscow Square (2001), a Hungarian film that takes the events of ’89 as its background for the story of a group of teens only looking to pass their finals and finally get rid of the V plates. Dazed & Confused meets Goodbye Lenin? That's the tantalising hybrid at MCC’s Film Club, Kino Café, István korut, 6PM tonight. 

Last week, the EU activated the 'rapid response' clause of its Digital Services Act in Hungary. The DSA, an elephantine web of internet safety laws, is designed to stamp out 'disinformation'. The regulations will stay in force until one week after polling day. This comes on the back of unsubstantiated claims of 'Russian election interference' that have swept Hungarian media in recent days. 
 
Thomas Fazi, of MCC Brussels, has been tracing the familiar narrative of interference in his latest piece for Compact. 

These accusations carry real consequences. They allow Brussels to engage in its own forms of electoral interference, weaponizing locally embedded, EU-funded NGOs and media outlets to amplify establishment narratives while using the Digital Services Act (DSA) to silence critical voices and steer outcomes towards “their” candidate. As I have noted previously, since the DSA came into force in 2023, the Commission has pressed platforms to adopt heightened content moderation measures ahead of elections in Slovakia, the Netherlands, France, Moldova, Romania, and Ireland, and during the 2024 European Parliament elections.

GipsyFest, the festival you didn't know you needed, is happening Thursday till Saturday, on Margaret Island. Evening concerts, showing off the best of Roma folk music and art. Tickets are 10 000 Ft but requesting Volare voids them.

 The CPAC is a little-known place where we can get together. Last year was a two day affair, mid-week. This year is much more of a one-and-done job: a single day, 21 March — and a Saturday to boot. Expect Fox News-tier jawlines, Matt Gaetz-tier hairgel, much brimstone on Iran, and plenty of reverend references to the speaker’s relationship with The Man Upstairs (DJT). 

Also at CPAC, hanging out the passenger’s side of his best friend’s ride, is Dave Rubin — who will be interviewing Dutch firecracker Eva Vlaardingerbroek (the only influencer whose name is an anagram of everything). Eva has recently been banned from the United Kingdom for being ‘un-conducive to the public good’. Moderation by the ever-moderate Anglosphere Fellow, David Oldroyd Bolt.

Test whether Eva is conducive to your own good, at the Danube Institute, 5:30PM, Friday night. 

Emma Gilland wants you to have your babies. She’s the Event Coordinator of the Academy of Ideas, in town at MCC to present her findings on Gen Z, motherhood and family formation in Britain. It makes for typically grim reading: the rising generation see motherhood as a stressful time-suck in an economically precarious world. This one’s a matinée - 2PM Tuesday. 

Connor Tomlinson is back at MCC to advise potential conservative influencers on how to make their way in the digital world.
Wednesday, 7PM

Is your week creaking at the seams yet? Got time for a wafer-thin roadshow? Just the one? 

The Free Market Roadshow has been rolling into Budapest with the regularity of Russian tanks — this year is its 20th edition, co-hosted with Austrian Economic Center. 

2026's key topics include: 

“The Beauty of the Free Market”

“Is the West in Civilisational Decline?” - with the excellent Max Rangeley. 

“Is there an AI Bubble?” - by Edward Chancellor. 

“Is the West in Financial Decline?” 

And “Can Free Markets Save the West?” - with the prodigal Lord, David Frost — back in Budapest after six months running the free market IEA think tank. 

So good that, as Hayek might’ve put it: were there not already a Free Market Roadshow, the inherent demand for it would create the profit incentives to marshal the resources to bring one into being. 

Thursday, 2-6PM. Danube Institute.

Perspectives and people from the week

Oxford is a town with no mobile phone signal. Delegates to the DI’s Pusey House Christian Revival conference were left dangling their rectangles at the sky, imploring the gods of the ether to send them just one bar so that they could find just one more bar. 

Initially we assumed this was to do with Hungarian roaming, until various locals confirmed the grim truth: yes, Oxford has precious little 5G, 4G or even 1G. Some blamed the sandstone buildings (scientifically illiterate). Others, the town planners. But as a city with perhaps the highest ‘g’ ('General Intelligence’) on the planet, it did seem darkly funny that all this intellect was being frittered away on waiting for the bus timetable to load.  

Spotted above the basin in the bathrooms of Pusey House: “To clean hands, chant verses from Psalm 51.” 

Mary Harrington gave the most bracing speech — a McLuhan-inflected overview of literacy and its discontents. The print era, she suggested, was only an interregnum, a brief five hundred year gap between two oral cultures: that of antiquity, and the coming one, where AI spoons us back to ourselves in a soothing baritone. What’s coming will be two types of human: a possibly-elite, certainly-minority class of those who can and do read; and then a great mass of those who don’t find it necessary. One possible solution? “Bring back the monasteries…” Repositories of deep culture in a world of shallows.

Full text here.

John O'Sullivan, asked onstage what could bring about Christian Revival: "Reading GK Chesterton - it worked for Meloni. Oh - and a Near-Death Experience always helps..."

Maurice Glasman onstage: "Please, quit with the applause. I'm in the Labour Party, I'm not used to it."

Watch the whole conference here. 

Economist, gadfly and Colour Revolution hater Philip Pilkington is pointing to a gathering storm as the Hungarian election season quickens. Recent reports in the VSquare journal, have alleged a Kremlin-linked plot to influence the Hungarian election on behalf of Fidesz. The article cites anonymous intelligence; Pilkington has spent much of the week challenging VSquare to reveal its sources. No reply so far. 

At the same time, he points to a growing row over AI-generated deepfakes. That story was started by a Hungarian fact-checking outlet called Lakmusz. Lakmusz  forms part of the EU-financed Hungarian Digital Media Observatory. For its part, VSquare is funded by programmes connected to USAID and the German Marshall Fund.  

Pilko’s verdict? The ground is being laid for a post-election cry of foul — see Romania in 2025 for how that works. Read his full analysis here.

 MCC is Reclaiming The West this week. Well somebody had to. 

It's a big deal to reclaim an entire philosophico-cultural continuum, so they have budgeted three days for a full conference - 10 -12 March, with a wide array of speakers. 

Highlights include: 

Matt Goodwin - who recently won the silver medal for Reform in the Gorton & Denton by-election. 
Ralph Schoelhammer - the clean-living professor 
Gladden Pappin - professional Hillary-baiter 
Alp Mehmet - chair of influential think tank Migration Watch UK 
Philip Cunliffe - influential geopol prof at University College London 
Michael von der Schulenburg - Member of the European Parliament and former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations
Jerzy Kwaśniewski -  President of the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture

Register here.

How sustainable is your workforce? Are they limping towards the copier like knobbled pit ponies? Do they audibly sigh every time they shift a cell in Excel? Do they sometimes look at your morning croissant with the gimlet eyes of a Somali pirate? 

Workforce sustainability is the hot topic of Sustainable Workforce Development in Emerging Regions. A one-morning conference, comparing US and Hungarian attitudes to work, workers, and the pipeline between 'skills' and 'jobs'. Thankfully, Based In Budapest is written entirely by a particularly sardonic instance of Claude Code, so we don't have to worry about job security for now. 

For the rest, it's up at the Danube Institute - 9AM till 1PM.  

Before the main conference at MCC, there's also an evening event tonight: Quo Vadis West? (Surely that should be Quo Vadis Occidens? - Latin Ed.). It stars Professor Anatol Lieven, who will be joined in conversation by the lively Serb Misa Djurkovic.

5PM, MCC Scruton.

Perspectives and people from the week

Hungary is naturally rich in national days: from 1956 day, to 1848 Day, to 896 Day. 

This coming weekend, March 15, Sunday, it is 1848 Day. There will be a flag raising on Kossuth Square, in front of Parliament, followed by  a procession of Hussars from Parliament towards the Hungarian National Museum. And for one day only, all local museums are free this Sunday. Get in early. 

But the real draw will be between Deák Ferenc Tér and Ferenciek Tere. 

The two candidates for the Hungarian premiership, holding their biggest rallies ahead of the vote date. On Andrássy ut, Péter Magyar and his Tisza camp promise to 'fill the boulevard'. Meanwhile, by the National Museum, Viktor Orbán will be over at the larger open air arena, for what he has dubbed The Peace March, hammering his theme of ending the war in Ukraine. 

As with last year, much will be made in the press of the respective crowd sizes. 

Magyar has called for 'the same spirit as 1848' in this election - but he might recall that even Petófi had only 12 points. By contrast, the Tisza manifesto, released this week, weighs in at a door-stopping 240 pages. Despite or perhaps because of this, it has been criticised as a bit thin: for example, their energy policy states that they would move away from Russian gas, to put Hungary at the European target percentage, 'by 2035'. Vote for change, it seems, but only within three election cycles. 

Some big names attending the DI's Pusey House Christian Revival Conference in Oxford, this week. The brainchild of Calum Nicholson, Jonathan Price and David Campanale, its central idea is one that's been dangling in the cultural ether for a couple of years: God's back. And this time he's right-wing.

The lineup includes: 

Danny Kruger MP - Head of Policy for Reform UK
Miriam Cates - frequent Budapest visitor, GB News presenter, ex-Tory MP, voted Most Likely To Defect To Reform three years running
Iain McGilchrist - philosopher of consciousness and the brain, who in prêcis believes in rightie-tighty leftie-loosey
Mary Harrington - ace writer at UnHerd, almost too Based to live
Fergus Butler-Gallie - witty vicar
Maurice Glasman - uproarious 'token leftie', father of the socially conservative Blue Labour movement
Rod Dreher - that guy from The Atlantic
John O'Sullivan - law-giver

There will also be a couple of Very Special Guests we cannot presently name (but trust us, they are very special - and also guests). 

It's Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th of March. 

It’s not every day a DI fellow gets into The Atlantic for a good reason. But this generous portrait of Rod Dreher is just that.

 Includes the memorable line: 

More than anyone else I know of, Dreher offers a full-fledged portrait of the cultural despair that haunts our era. 

And this time they weren't just talking about his hair. 

Raymond Ibrahim just can't stop winning. 

Conan The Civilizationist has just pocketed the 2026 Sappho Prize. 

The citation says: 

The Danish Free Press Society awards the 2026 Sappho Prize to Raymond Ibrahim for his fearless, source-based scholarship exposing the persecution of Christians and the historical realities of Islamist violence — pursued with intellectual integrity despite sustained efforts to silence and discredit him.

It's Denmark's most famed free speech prize - born out of the 2005 Muhammad cartoon riots - previous recipients include Roger Scruton, Douglas Murray and Nigel Farage. If you're in Denmark on 21 March, do come along to the ceremony. 

Democracy - a god that failed? Or just a god that just never got started? Eric Hendricks wants to take on the liberal ideal that democracy must be mediated to us commoners via judges and an elite class. In that, he is joined by Philip Manow,  a professor of International Political Economy. And by Stefan Auer, Professor of European Studies at the University of Hong Kong. 

This one's early doors. 4:00 PM on Tuesday at the Villa. 

Prosperity Institute star Guy Dampier is back in Budapest this week, at a one-day seminar at the MCC on the question of political Islam. Guy is speaking on something spicy: "From Londonistan to the Gaza Independents: Britain and Political Islam". But there are plenty more spices in the rack:  9AM till half-three on Tuesday, at MCC. 

Finally, tonight DI Anglosphere Fellow David Oldroyd Bolt is hosting an event on Enoch Powell - not in Budapest, but in London. 

DOB has recruited a stellar lineup of speakers: Simon Heffer (Lord Blackwater), the eminent Telegraph columnist, who was Powell's official biographer. Alongside him is Lord Glasman, the jocular Blue Labour peer, and Tim Montgomerie, former editor of UnHerd. 

For non-Anglos, Enoch was a kind of prophet, with a strange accent, who wrote poetry and never met a hill he wouldn't die on. A bit like the last Ayatollah. A seminal figure in British public life, Powell's influence only grows by the year. 

It's at 5:30, at the King Harald Room of the Naval & Military Club, 4 St James's Square. RSVP to events@danubeinstitute.hu. 

Perspectives and people from the week

Stop what you're doing (and why were you doing that anyway?) - and listen to the new episode of Danube Politics, in which infinitely-storied John O'Sullivan talks through his time refereeing the Paleocon-Neocon wars of the mid-90s, when he was editor of National Review. Aided by Markus Johansson-Martis, we whipped John into a fugue of memory, in which he spilled out all kinds of glorious details about who said what to whom in the lift with Pat Buchanan at the Dole convention. A fascinating glimpse into a lost world, capped by his story of his time with arch-Paleocon Sam Francis: 

"Sam was asked to explain American politics to these visiting foreign dignitaries. He said: there are two parties in America... the Stupid Party... and the Evil Party. I am proud to belong to the Stupid Party. But sometimes the Stupid Party and the Evil Party get together to do Stupid-Evil things: this is the worst possible outcome, and it is called 'bi-partisanship'." 

As we've all been made aware since the collapse of USAID, international aid is no longer sacks of wheat with a red cross tossed into dusty marketplaces from flatbed trucks. It is litigation and activist-training, LGBTQ+ and DEI. It is sock-puppet NGOs, influence networks, and soft power with hard objectives.

On Tuesday, all day, the DI is hosting a conference on The Politicisation of Aid. 

This one features UnHerd journalist Thomas Fazi, Man of Mystery Nicholas Naquin (once a soldier in the French Foreign legion), and Hungary's somewhat uniquely titled government minister: Tristan Azbej, the Secretary of State for the Aid of Persecuted Christians. Starts at 9AM at the Villa. 

Then, on Thursday, the second half of another mad week (we're reliably informed there is an election soonish), Green Promises, Grey Realities - about the EU's rather fanciful green energy transition, and its rather flimsy results. An evening panel, led by our very own Research Fellow, Matyás Vajda. 

Things are no less full-on down at the MCC, with Dr Max Otte, Germany's version of 'the economist who predicted the 2008 crash'. Otte will be bringing the curtain up on a lecture series he's running in the Spring, in conjunction with the HIIA, on competitiveness. 5PM at MCC Scruton. 

Thursday, 9AM - 2PM, MCC's Centre for European Studies has got it in for the  Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) - not to be confused with the ECHR (Britain's bête noire), or indeed the ECJ (trade and national government stuff). The ever-entertaining Rodrigo Ballester leads the caper, alongside János Bóka, Hungary's Minister of European Affairs. 

Perspectives and people from the week

We have a lesser-seen, much-admired fellow in the depths of the DI's research team. Dr Sumantra Maitra, Director of Research at the American Ideas Institute, whose main focus is on great power strategies. 

This week, Sumantra was outed by Politico as the brains behind Trump's NATO strategy. The story is this: in 2024, Maitra authored a much-circulated essay in Foreign Affairs, laying out what he called a 'Dormant NATO' strategy. In this reckoning, the US goal would be to get Europe much more engaged with the NATO project, thereby leaving America as a mere nightwatchman - there to step in should all hell break loose. As Sumantra puts it: "I may hate my neighbour, but if his house is on fire I'll still put it out." He was interviewed on the idea by POLITICO here.

Meanwhile, Research Director Calum Nicholson got himself on the 196 Podcast, in an episode entitled Crossing The Danube With Calum Nicholson. Presumably a  homage to the legendary punk rock record Crossing The Red Sea with The Adverts. 

Have you celebrated King Matthias lately? Fear not. Next Saturday, February 28, on the anniversary of his birth, there will be a medieval fete at Buda Castle, with musical performances, armaments, adventure games, and much else. 

The Swedish House Mafia are in town. For Why Beautiful Cities Matter, DI Visiting Fellow Markus Johansson-Martis is joined in conversation by Eric Norin, the founder of a viral Instagram account on architectural revival, and inventor of the Sverigehuset - a new generation of typically Swedish houses. Throw in Gergely Böszörményi-Nagy - father of the Brain Bar - and this promises to be an IQ-maxxing evening full of mortar-Chads and Scruton-Stacies event-mogging the MKI. Tuesday, 5:30PM at the Villa. 

In 2006, Germany's Benedikt Böhm set the speed record in 'high altitude mountaineering with downhill skiing' at the Gasherbrum II. He's climbed some of the world’s most dangerous mountains through what he calls 'speed-optimised decision-making'. 

In Böhm’s philosophy, performance is not about the romance of endurance, but the ruthless risk management: the longer you remain under pressure, the worse your decisions become. On Wednesday, he's bringing his unique angle on the psychology of decision-making to the MCC (7PM). 

Later at the MCC, Ambassador Mitch Fifield, former Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations, is talking Trump 2.0. 

February 20, 3:00 PM - 5:30 PM

Perspectives and people from the week

If you see a squadron of red-hot half-naked people plunging into the river this week, that will be the BLACCC. 18-22 Feb, they're operating a mobile sauna on the lower banks of Buda, down towards Dürer Kert. It fits 20, and tickets are 4000 Ft for 90 minutes. An icy dip in the Duna is also recommended. Every day at 18:30, there is also a talk on sauna culture - but given that one will be on 'hydro-feminism', perhaps tackling the frozen river is preferable.

Pierre-Hugues Barré is our newest fellow. This week, he got into the muck of the recent court cases involving Marine Le Pen - convicted under a procedural law that bars politicians from diverting their EU Parliament researchers into French party-political work. 

 Return to your roots: the 14th Africa Expo Budapest opens 19 Feb, until the 22nd  at HUNGEXPO. Twenty exhibitors representing twenty African countries. There'll be masks, sculptures, art, clothes, drums, dance,  music, kids stuff. 

Based In Budapest arrived at Budapest Global Dialogues early last Tuesday, but a little late for Péter Szijjártó's opening speech. Whereupon an elderly gent came up to us in the lobby. "Beautiful ladies in this town," was his opening gambit. 

This, it later transpired, was Edward Luttwak, 83, honoured speaker, former advisor to Shinzo Abe, and author of Coup d'Etat: A Practical Handbook (later made into a film, in which Luttwak himself was played by Peter O'Toole). 

 And, after telling us about how he'd advised South Africa's Apartheid government to evacuate Pretoria in order to create a defensible ethno-state in the Cape, sucked into his personality vortex, thirty minutes later, we'd begun a mad dash across town to find a kilo of high quality Rubin paprika he could ship back to America. Over the course of three cab rides, he unfurled a life story that was somewhere between John Le Carré, Philip Roth and Woody Allen's Zelig. 

At one point, he mentioned that he'd been at LSE in 1961. 

"Ah, Mick Jagger would have been there about then, no?" 

"Jagger?" he replied. "He was in my econometrics class. He was the top student. When he told the teacher he was dropping out to pursue his band, they said he was crazy! They said he had the chance to be one of Britain's top economists. Why would he give it up for doof-doof-doof! 

"I still go out to St Barts to see him. One year, we played a game, where we tried to guess the nationalities of people walking from the harbour up to the beach. Really smart guy."

The only lesson here is: always be late to conferences - you never know who you'll meet. 

Small States, Heavy Pressure: Hungary and Slovakia in the Crosshairs of Liberal Power

In which Michael O'Shea is on the case of the Brussels influence machine.

As he points out, in recent years, the EU has channelled whopping sums to pro-EU organisations. Its Citizens, Equalities, Rights and Values scheme has a budget of €1.5 billion. 

To pick one case, the pro-EU Brussels think tank the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) received €250 million – one quarter of a billion – just over the past 10 years. 

More troubling still, it has funnelled money to anti-government orgs within its most troublesome members states, Slovakia and Hungary – €38
million and €41 million respectively, just through the CERV.  

'Is this democracy?' O'Shea wonders.

MEMO 98 and CHCEM TU ZOSTAŤ were not the only nonprofit groups engaged in leading pre-election activities in 2023 [in Slovakia]. For example, the organization Mladí proti fašizmu ([the EU-funded] Youth against Fascism) funded and organized trips for
students living in Czechia to return to Slovakia to vote in the parliamentary elections. 

While such activities met a technical definition of nonpartisan behaviour, they targeted at least two demonstrably left-leaning voting blocs (young voters and expatriates). Expatriates voted in record numbers in that election, and more than half of them voted for the left-wing Progresívne Slovensko (Progressive Slovakia – PS) party.

We've been trailing it for weeks - it's finally time for Budapest Global Dialogue. 

Gladden Pappin opens the show tonight at 6PM at the Hotel Corinthia, joined by Samir Saran, President of the Observer Research Foundation. 

 Day Two starts at 9:30AM, ending around 4:30PM. 

The runners and riders to look out for: 

Graham Allison - Professor of Government at Harvard
Balázs Orbán - the one & only... 
Sarah B. Rogers - US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy
Péter Szijjártó - Hungary's Foreign Affairs minister
Edward Luttwak - Author of Turbo Capitalism and Coup d'Etat: A Practical Manual (our bedside reading). 
Sohrab Ahmari - US Editor of UnHerd 
Maka Botschorishvili - the Georgian Foreign Affairs minister
 
And many many more. See here. 

The Minorities Conference is running consecutively (it starts Tuesday night, then all day on Wednesday). 

After all, the Middle East is no Arab monolith. 17 per cent of Kuwaitis are Christian. Even Egypt has 10-20 per cent (some 15 million people). 

The Danube Institute has teamed up with MCC to examine how the history of the region has been shaped by its smaller ethnic groups: from Assad’s Alawites to Saddam’s Kurds, to the pebbledash of Lebanon. 

The Tuesday reception requires an RSVP. Wednesday starts at 9AM. Register for both here.

That's more than enough events for one week, but there's still space to plug next week's Why Beautiful Cities Matter - Tuesday 17 Feb. For lovers of revivalist architecture and the urban planning movement, they'll be discussing the usual glazing bars and mansard roofs, but situating them in the light of the Haussmann Project in the Castle District: real existing retro-urbanism. 

Perspectives and people from the week

Carnival Of The Busó is a terrifying Hungarian spectacle, the deepest of folk cultures. Men dress like woolly demons and parade before a bonfire. Women are occasionally pelted with rubber chickens. It's like Brixton on a bad day.

This is basically the Hungarian Mardi Gras. 

It takes place Thursday until Tuesday (the day before the start of Lent), in the town of Mohács, famous for its battle. 

Legend has it that the defeated inhabitants, hiding in a swamp, were visited one night by a spectral figure who told them not to be afraid - to wear scary masks, and they'd have their lands returned. So, uh, thanks spectral figure.  

Friday is the Kisfarsang (Little Farsang) carnival, with the biggest celebration two days later, on the seventh Sunday before Easter. 

If you go on Sunday, make sure you're ready for big crowds, and wear old clothes - the masked ones may sprinkle you with ash and flour. 

Saturday is Valentine’s Day - a day that will live in infamy for those who don’t sort themselves out right now. 

Moszkva Tér is a charming Russian restaurant with a Michelin Guide listing just beneath the Castle Hill. They are offering dinner for two off a set menu for 40 000 Ft. Wine not included. Email them, pay an advance deposit, secure your spot, avoid infamy. 

You may have been too young for Joy Division, but White Lies are an efficient précis. This Friday, they hit Dürer Kert.  

 So long and thanks for all the pish: Rod Dreher is in focused and ascerbic form as he takes on the recent job cuts at the Washington Post. 

Many are saying these cuts mark the end of the road for old school shoe leather journalism, but Rod charts a longer story of its decline and fall, dating back as far as 2005: 

Long before the Great Awokening, when I was at the Dallas Morning News, a black colleague went to our editor and accused me of “creating a hostile work environment” because I called a Pakistani mob that burned down a Danish consulate “savages.”

I made it my business to stay as far away from that previously valued black colleague after that. He had my career in his hands, and he knew it. Many such cases.

Based in Budapest spent much of last week in Barcelona, at the On Think Tanks Winter School. In a web design group task, Director of Research Calum Nicholson drew this fetching logo for our team, but was cruelly down-voted by the lecturer, who said that he'd never heard of an attercop (an arcane English word for spider). Truly, liberal bias is everywhere.

Truth (And Faith) Prevails: An Archbishop Of Prague In A Godless Time

Archbishops of Prague never have it easy. Whether it's your defenestration leading directly to the Thirty Years War, or just trying to maintain the faith under Communism, the path is fraught. 

DI Visiting Fellow Stefano Arroque has profiled one of the 20th century's most under-appreciated anti-Communists. Archbishop František Tomášek (who died in 1992). A kind of V4 analogue of John Paul II, Tomášek's cautious but resolute opposition helped bring about the 1989 Velvet Revolution. 

Opens with a memorable digression on Milan Kundera, who once spent a whole chapter musing on the Czech word 'litost’: “a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery”.

In many ways, the fact that the Church has even managed to survive to this day, let alone retain its respect and soft power within Czech society is due to the tireless work of Tomášek and all priests and bishops who joined him in resisting the regime. The history of the Czech church in the 20th century was one of resistance: against apathy, against oppression, against infiltration. Whenever it was led by men who followed the teachings of the Church, it prevailed. Whenever some of its clergymen chose political convenience over resistance, it faltered. 

Busy week at the Institute. Tuesday it's time for The Interconnector State: Hungary as Central Europe’s Future Energy Hub. In essence a discussion of how the old liberal saw of ‘Hungary is taking Putin’s gas’ will be finally put to bed by the end of the decade. The Black Sea Submarine Cable project, a Kazakh energy terminal, and the port at Trieste: all mean that Hungary will not only be less reliant on Russia, but will in turn become its own hub for the rest of the continent. Presumably sparking future quandaries over whether pure-blood liberals should take Hungary’s gas. 5:30PM at the Villa.

Then, Thursday sees The Hidden Price Tag, a discussion of the cost of the Ukraine Peace, based on the leaked Prosperity Framework dossier: turns out the EU is lining up an $800 billion reconstruction package, plus fast track EU membership. Philip Pilkington would like to beg their pardon. He’ll be joined by the always excellent Rodrigo Ballester, and our very own Deputy Director of Research, Péter Szitás. 5:30PM at the Villa. 

Lots of talking Turkic this week. Ludovika is running an afternoon-evening conference on the ever-pressing matter of Security Issues and Military Cooperation in the Turkic World. Thursday, 4PM till 8PM. 

Then on Thursday at 5PM, those interested in how babies are made should head down to MCC, where Clara Muzzio, Deputy Chief of Government of the City of Buenos Aires will explain all — in dialogue with local experts. That’s: Exporting the Hungarian Model? Family Policies to Tackle Argentina’s Population Challenge.  

Perspectives and people from the week

When did you last write in cursive? Based In Budapest recalls many unhappy hours at school with double-lined notebooks, dabbing the quill in the ink pot; yet today only writes in blocky print, perhaps because that cursive fell so far into disrepair. 

Gergely Szũcs is one of our newest Hungarian fellows — and he has the script of an angel, or at least a 19th Century bank clerk. In his new piece for the HuCon, he explores the rise and fall of cursive, arguing that its national particularity has implications for conservatives. 

The grand halls of the Anantara New York Palace Budapest play host to the 9th Indoor Beer Festival this weekend. The event will provide nearly 100 drafts on tap; and, should you sample all 100, plenty of floor space.

It's Chinese New Year. Late as ever. Downtown Saturday and Sunday. 

It’s thirty years since Mónika Lakatos first burst onto the Hungarian music scene via a TV talent show: Ki Mit Tud? (‘Who Can Do What?’) Not only has the naming of Hungarian talent shows improved in that time, Mónika herself has become a force in the culture, using her voice to bring Roma folk to national and international audiences. At Müpa, she is hosting a thirty year retrospective of her career. Thursday at 7:30PM. 

 Last week, Father Mario Portella sat down with the podcast team to talk about the post-Greenland world and what he calls the ‘transactional mode’ of US foreign policy - as distinct from the post-1945 and post-1990 modes of ‘nation building’. Forget the soft stuff, he says: America is at its best when it functions like a corporation with nuclear weapons. 

Master of the Dark Arts (Oxon.) Carlos Roa is back, swooping down from his DC belfry with another high-level analysis on The Big Questions. This time, Venezuela. After Donald Trump’s heavies had tagged and bagged Maduro, the matter seemed to fall from the international agenda, presumably because no one could think of the next step. Where are the oil partnerships? How can Trump drink Maduro’s milkshake? Enter Carlos, who proposes establishing a Caracas Economic Development Zone (CEDZ), modelled on the Dubai International Financial Centre. Grants, special tax rates, international policing.

Statecraft? Nuh-uh. Soulcraft? Uh huh... 

Alex Lefebvre, Visiting Fellow and Kind Of A Big Deal in the world of post-liberal philosophy has drawn in the heavy hitters to debate his vision of From Statecraft to Soulcraft, about how a new wave of governments are 'ruling through the good life', aka 'Soulcraft'. How can we use institutions, incentives, and cultural power to cultivate particular virtues?

 Speaking on the panel will be Dr Eric Hendriks, the flamboyant Dutch sociologist, Philip Pilkington, an economist, and 
Ralph Schoellhammer, the clean living Austrian professor from MCC, with moderation by the 'vaguely piratical' (copyright The Observer) Calum TM Nicholson. Wednesday, January 28. 5:30 P.M.

Today at 5PM, you can take a turn up the MCC to ask: Are Western Balkans Economies Ready for the EU? Your question will be answered by Professor Igor Luksic, who is expecting it. Register here. 

Effective altruism has been a mainstay of the tech world since 2015, fanned by star philosopher Peter Singer, Slate Star Codex's Scott Alexander, and more dubiously, Sam Bankman-Fried. But is a fresh obsession with utility taking us anywhere we haven't been before? In the language of EA: would you switch the trolley tracks to kill the lot of them if it meant saving one particularly adorable otter? 

Thursday, David Edmonds will be sorting the cant from the humbug in Effective Altruism: A Philosophical Reckoning. MCC, 5:30PM.

Finally, while Hungary and Ukraine continue to trade words over whether the latter should be let into the EU, Ralph Schoellhammer is teaming up with his long time sparring partner Rodrigo Ballester to peer over the edge of one potential future: if it did happen, how would Europe's taxpayers bear the costs of incorporating a war-ravaged state? 

Is this a Marshall Plan, or just a Bad Plan? 

Tuesday, 5:30PM, MCC.

Perspectives and people from the week

Wednesday, at the Villa, the DI held its Israel in 2026 conference to a packed house. The Israeli Ambassador, Maya Kadosh, was followed around by some seriously heavy duty security, lurking in various alcoves of the building throughout the day, fiddling with their earpieces - well you wouldn't want to miss The Joe Rogan Experience.

Biggest laugh was reserved for Radek Vondráček, chair of Czechia's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, who mentioned the Slovenian roots of Melania - and Czech Ivana - in the context of strengthening relations with the White House. "Central Europe has already given Trump two wives - we've done our bit!" 

It's Oscar season: time to fill up on Hollywood's good films for the year. 

Of the year's Best Picture contenders, these are the ones still watchable in Budapest this week. 

Playing everywhere: 
One Battle After Another ('Egyik csata a másik után')
Hamnet
Selected cinemas: 
Marty Supreme - Special preview, January 29, 2026, at 7PM, Cinema City Westend, ahead of general release. 
Bugonia - Monday and Tuesday nights, 9:15PM, Művész Mozi. 

At a mid-week seminar, former bodybuilder Raymond Ibrahim talked the DI crew through his publishing journey: from his first book, pitched after discovering obscure untranslated Al Qaeda texts in the Library of Congress, to his more recent re-tellings of the medieval battles between Christendom and Islam. Even in this sphere, Ray has the go-hard or go-home gene: he confessed he sometimes smashes out 8000 words in a day. How much can you write, bro? 

Kovács Lehel left home twenty years ago to start freelancing for the likes of The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone. Now back in Budapest, his playful, hypercolour illustrations are going on exhibit. Book here.

Greenland. What was all that about, eh? Only five days since Mark Carney rather jumped the gun by declaring the Western Alliance DOA, the news cycle is suddenly eerily quiet. But the ramifications of Trump's ramraid on his allies will linger on, in a diverse, multi-national coalition of hurt feelings. Rod Dreher has picked apart the implications for the European right, who still have to go into bat for Trump and national sovereignty, with their bats newly splintered by the team captain. 

Elsewhere, at The American Conservative, Philip Pilkington sees the Greenland issue from the White House's side: as a punishment beating, delivered to break EU intransigence over the Ukraine peace deal. 

Don't miss Yuan Yi Zhu at MCC. Zhu has become a prominent British Twitter personality in recent years, an acerbic wit, and a true Based Patriot In Control. He is perhaps most famous for his amusing book reviews, notably his skewering of the gadfly liberal barrister Jolyon Maugham. By day, though, he is a top legal scholar at Oxford. At the MCC he will be telling the assembled crowds about how the ECHR first began to burst the banks of its mandate. 20 January, 5:30PM. 

Thursday, Balázs Orbán and Rodrigo Ballester are in conversation on the problems with EU migration policy, and why these issues should be devolved to the nation state. 5PM. 22 January. MCC.

How can the Middle East and Israel build on a tentative peace? Anyone looking to answer that should attend A Pivotal Year: Israel, the Middle East, the US, and Europe Come 2026, the comprehensive if not exactly catchy title of the DI's one-day conference, on Wednesday, 10AM at the Villa. The event will be preceded by Tory bigwig Sir Liam Fox giving a 'fireside chat' from 5PM the day before, at Ludovika University. Rumours that Sir Liam will be bringing his own fireplace are unsubstantiated.

Based in Brussels? It happens. The Liszt Institute there will be hosting a double bill of Danube: Director of Research Calum Nicholson and super-intern Max Keating talking about the future of cultural diplomacy. Friday at 6PM. 

Perspectives and people from the week

Visiting Fellow Sean Nottoli has shrunk. He lost some 50 pounds (22kg, to metric system observers) by... not eating in America. This has been easily done, as Sean is not in America. He credits better food regulation in Europe with cleaning up his diet: no artificial hormones, no hidden sugars and corn syrups. Trumpism's pro-EU turn will be closely watched. Last week, Sean presented his medical findings to the wider world, via a piece in the Spectator. 

This is against conventional wisdom: in the diplomatic corps, the regular diet of langos, sour cream, pork knuckle and egg pasta makes Hungary a notorious '20 pound posting'. 

None of which showed up on the waistlines of the US diplomatic corps, who were up at Aranybastya mid-week for a three course lunch with DI top brass. István Kiss, Melissa O'Sullivan and Kristóf Veres met the impressive US attaché, Caroline Savage, along with the Embassy's political and economic counsellor, Richard Heater; and Daniel Lawton, the 'Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Central Europe and Southern Europe in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs' (a title which belies his importance). Talk was of pages turning, new collaborations, after the fall of ex-Ambassador David Pressman. Lawton was particularly interested in recent troubles with the historical Beneš Decrees. And of course our coming election. We put him straight. 

What's worse than the Third Reich? Must be the Fourth Reich. In his forensic new piece for Tablet Magazine, Adam Lebor has traced what would have been Reich #4: Germany's plans for continental dominance after the war. The piece is based on his original research on The Red House Report, a secret memorandum drawn up after high ranking Nazis met the banking fraternity in Switzerland. These would have included a customs union and currency pegging, underwritten by a European central bank, controlled from Berlin. Any parallels to today are somewhat coincidental. 

Winston Marshall was in town at the start of snowmageddon: part of a posse of Anglo journalists and media personalities being given the full tour. For the lowdown, Winston made his way to the Star Bar, off Deák Ferenc, along with his fellow influencer and fiancé, Melissa Chen. Melissa gave a nuanced perspective on democracy in her native Singapore, unusually Rod Dreher brought up civil war, while several attendees confessed they'd never actually listened to Mumford & Sons. Later that night, as big tufts of white continued to drop on Budapest, one Fellow disgraced himself by falling over in the  snow, and had to be helped to his feet by the kindly niche celebs. 

Snow was certainly a theme at the inaugural Erdély Essay Club, held in a cabin in the highest hills of Székelyföld, with no WiFi, and no phone reception. It was somewhere between The Secret History, Dead Poets Society, and Piers Paul Read's Alive. Take eight top-ranking MCC Transylvania students. Add two Danube Fellows: Calum Nicholson and Gavin Haynes. Then get ten essays designed to feed up the next generation: everything from David Foster Wallace's What Is Water, to Joan Didion's On Keeping A Notebook. A weekend of intense seminars and snowball fights ensued, concluding with a pleasing sense that the kids are gonna be alright - even if the lecturers won't. 

Conservative Realism and the Consequences of the Managerial Revolution

It's been about six years since James Burnham and his 'Managerial Revolution' theory became voguish in Conservative circles. 

Burnham first published his book, The Managerial Revolution in 1941, but its rediscovery has illuminated modern discourse about 'populism' and 'elite theory'. 

In a world of data and bureaucracy, the class struggle, Burnham says, is between a managerial class and the people it manages. Cool idea, but it has generated more heat than light so far: how are we supposed to react to this insight?

DI Visiting Fellow Markus Johansson-Martis is taking on the challenge. In his new paper, he argues that conservatives must change in order to conserve: there should be a restoration of our institutions to their primary purpose; rather than serving the needs of the managerial class, they must be brought back under democratic control. He calls this new mode Conservative Realism, and dips into the lively work of Samuel T. Francis to back up his claims. 

“In his 1993 essay Message From Mars, Samuel Francis
outlined what he saw as the future base of conservatism: the
Middle American Radicals, or MARs. This group, largely
excluded from the prosperity of the managerial elite, consists
of the broad swath of Americans living outside metropolitan
centers. The same demographic is present in most western
countries and have a similar attitude toward politics.
Francis’s vision reads like a populist manifesto—one that
could easily align with the rhetoric of the MAGA movement
or other New Right currents across the West today.”

Read More

Coming:
Raymond Ibrahim
Raymond is our biggest fellow to date: a former Mr Los Angeles (ask him to show you his bodybuilding era pics). While no longer the colour of a mahogany commode, he still has biceps you could fire from a Napoleonic cannon. Rumour has it he subsists entirely on a diet of hamburgers.

By trade, Raymond is an author on the clash between Islam and the West, and presently holds the top three slots in that Amazon category (only briefly disrupted by Tom Holland). In the last year, his YouTube account blew up to over 100 000 subs, despite him claiming he 'doesn't know how YouTube works'. His chat with Winston Marshall alone has over a million views. 

Raymond is still getting his head around Budapest, so if you want to help him ground, or just fancy five Big Macs, let us know. 

Alex Lefebvre
Our most difficult to spell fellow to date, Alex is a Canadian philosopher, a self-confessed liberal, who is researching a project on the politics of 'the good life': post-liberalism, what does it really mean? He is the author of 12 books, and Kind Of A Big Deal in his space. 

 Alex is on a five-city tour of places that map onto that conception, so he is with the DI as an observer-interviewer: Jane Goodall to the rightist wonk classes. 

As such, if you think you have insights into the Hungarian experience with post-liberal politics, please do get in touch. He'd love to interview you. 

Going: 
Alexander Pelling-Bruce
Alexander has been with us since September as a Visiting Fellow. He's the very model of the modern major-general: unflappable, loquacious, and a hardcore Westminster obsessive. His passion for music was such that when he arrived, he arranged for a piano to be installed in his apartment so that he could keep on kicking out the jams. We suspect we've not heard the last of him.

Michael O'Shea
Finally, Michael O'Shea's has had possibly the longest fellowship in our history. Though based in the US, he's a specialist in the CEE, who taught himself Polish, a bit of Slovak and Hungarian. Michael is passionate about the region, owing to his half-Polish roots, and has worked doggedly to bring its story to the wider world via his journalism. We'll miss his dapper charm. 

Budapest Global Dialogue — 9 - 10 February

Munich Security Conference — 13 - 15 February

 “Bort iszik, vizet prédikál"

 — Drinks wine, preaches water (He/she is a hypocrite)"

Regular readers will have noted the uptick in Turkic-service in these pages. Diplomatically, Hungary is going all-in on the rising Stans. From Ludovika's new Turkic Studies centre, to the Danube Institute's regular Turkic programming, spearheaded by our Azerbaijani colleague Ibrahim Mammadov.  

Now, we're about to see the biggest Stan fan plan yet. On December 9, the DI hosts its first Turkic-Western Geopolitical Dialogue. The idea is to span three continents by adding America to the mix (here represented by old friend of the DI James Carafano, senior counsel at The Heritage Foundation). It's a whole-day programme, from 9AM - 4PM. Register on our website.

Karol Nawroski won Poland's recent presidential election. So can he reunite the V4 under the banner of EU-skeptic national populism? Péter Szitás and Pawel Pawlowski are among the panel discussing on Thursday December 11 at 3PM. Register here.

Today, a one-day conference on youth politics is playing out at the MCC Scruton. What do Zoomers, and indeed the mythical Gen Alpha, actually want? What media are they consuming, given most have never met a TV? Are they really all frothing Nazis and Communists, or have one or two settled for a quiet life of camomile and Isaiah Berlin? It's not too late to tune into the hip jive of today: the registration form is here. 

David Dusenbury is an elder statesman of the Danube Institute: he was here for two years before he left to become a professor at the University of Florida. He's known for his award-winning theology, but lately he has picked up an interest in China's deep philosophical exchanges with the West. In service of that, at 10AM, December 12, at the DI, he'll be in conversation with Philip Pilkington on their joint 'Re-Civilisation' project. As Ghandi might've said: “I think it would be a very good idea.” 

America The Slightly-Too-Brave?

In the early hours of Friday morning, with no prior notice, the White House released its first National Security Statement - a map to what it wants, geopolitically. For the chancelleries of Europe, it made for uncomfortable reading. 

Here's what you need to know:

1 — The US says it will be actively 'cultivating resistance' to current EU policy within the bloc.  It argues that data suggesting many NATO members on the continent will soon become 'majority non-European' represents a security threat.

2 — It goes on to say that "America is, understandably, sentimentally attached to the European continent—and, of course, to Britain and Ireland. The character of these countries is also strategically important because we count upon creative, capable, confident, democratic allies to establish conditions of stability and security." They love us, really.

3 — It digs in on a post-war reset with Putin, arguing for: “Reestablishing conditions of stability within Europe and strategic stability with Russia.” 

4 —  In response to the new document, German foreign minister Johann Wadephul said Europe did “not need outside advice”. Please send cash only?

5 — The document also dials down US commitment to the Middle East, dials up the importance of the Indo-Pacific, and formally acknowledges the so-called Don-roe doctrine (recently witnessed in strikes against Venezuelan narco-boats). The full version is here - and well worth a read. 

Other News

Hungary is now a net contributor to the EU

The New York Times investigates Budapest's dwindling supply of bathhouses

Israel allowed to stay in Eurovision
Hungary ranks 17th on global 'Peace Index'

The Death of Merit: How Metrics Replaced Judgment in Higher Education

Why are Western Universities getting worse? According to research by Dr. Jonathan Price, Visiting Fellow at the Danube Institute, and Ashby Neterer, Torrance Scholar of Theology at Oriel College, Oxford, it may be down to our obsession with making measurements into targets.

The fix? A teaching regime that treats students more like trade apprentices and less like cogs in a bureaucratic machine.

"If we could imagine a higher education freed from empiricist merit—the relentless need to weigh and rank—it might look more like an apprenticeship than a bureaucracy. Students and scholars alike would be judged by the clarity of their thought and engagement with subject matter, not merely by their numerical outputs and ideological adherence.

If peer review took truth seriously, its emphasis could shift from quantity to quality, from accumulation to understanding. Care of the soul might even return to the center of scholarly pursuits."

Read More

What Lebanese Christians Need from Pope Leo XIV - Hungarian Conservative

No, Budapest Is Not Dirtier than Delhi - Slop Check

Daniel Hannan On The Madness Of The Covid Inquiry - Danube Politics

Liberalism's Last Stand - Danube Knowledge

Coming:
Ludovika University of Public Service has a couple of new fellows turning up this week for short stints at their new Public Diplomacy hub. 

Mansoor Ahmad Khan was the Pakistani Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2020-22. He was Chair of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, and Ambassador to Austria. 

Then, Dr. Pawel Pawłowski was Chairman of the Foundation Council at the Warsaw Institute. He's a legal scholar turned policy expert, and works on disinformation, free expression, and digital regulation. He's also helped build the Centre for Disinformation & Cybersecurity Research in Wrocław. He will of course also be on the DI's Poland panel. 

It can't be Christmas unless you're off to see The Nutcracker Suite at the Opera House. 

Fans of €7 cappuccinos will already know the W Hotel on Andrássy. But if your taste in Christmas markets is more than just wooden toys and glühwein, you might consider a visit to their own rather chi-chi market, in the W Lounge. Entry is free, but life's little luxuries are not. 

If you have never fallen on your derriere in front of a confused child at the Hero's Square ice rink, can you even say you belong in this city? The annual tradition of the heroism of the un-coordinated takes place every day from now till February, until 9PM. Tickets are about 4000 Ft.

Scandi Christmas is its own vibe: next Sunday, the Norma Grand is offering entry to their salmon and meatballs hygge wonderland for only 25 000 Ft, including wine pairings.

This is the last week of regular programming for Based In Budapest in 2025. We'll be back next week with something a bit different, then back to our desks in 2026. Thanks to our readers for their tips and bouquets throughout the year. Now please go out and inhale Christmas through every pore.

Danube Institute EU Tech Summit — 29 January

Wiener Akademikerball, Vienna — 20 February

 “Nem kolbászból van a kerítés"

 — “The fence isn't made of sausages” (It's not as good as you think)

If it's December 3, Wednesday, 5PM, then it must be time for a panel discussion. Get your fix of inter-personal blather at The Middle East: Is Peace Possible? in the Scruton Café, MCC.

Then, on Thursday at 2PM, MCC are hosting a panel discussion on the recent remigration trend, called 180-Degree Turn? Changing Immigration Policies from the UK to Germany. It's at the Hunyadi János Hall, Tas Vezér utca, and features Robert Bates, Research Director at the Centre for Migration Control. Register here. 

Meanwhile, the Danube Institute is very much looking forward to finding out: Is Liberalism A Threat To Religious Liberty?, at 5:30PM on Wednesday. This one stars Philip Pilkington, with co-panellists Andrew Koppelman, a US law professor, and Jacob Williams, an Oxford philosophy doctoral candidate. Register here.

The Brussels bubble is finally about to pop: MCC Brussels' Battle for the Soul of Europe is on 3 and 4 December (Wednesday and Thursday). It features the likes of Balázs Orbán, Matt Goodwin, Claire Fox, Patrick Deneen, Miriam Cates, and all the Frank Furedi you can eat. Full details here. 

Calum Nicholson, of this parish, will also be giving a separate chat at the Liszt Institute Brussels on Tuesday, 7:30PM, alongside a very beautiful and hard-won roll-up banner. Come for the talk; stay for the printed backdrop.

Chat Control and the Battle for Privacy

For years, Brussels has sought to build a safety-first internet, with privacy and 'rights' for all users (eg GDPR), while simultaneously reserving the right to read everyone's messages.

Now, the chief part of their new privacy-busting regime, their CSAR legislation (dubbed 'Chat Control' by its foes), is returning to the EU Parliament once again, after several setbacks.

Here's what you need to know:

1 — CSAR stands for Child Sexual Abuse Regulation. From 2019 onwards, companies like Microsoft and Meta voluntarily scanned photos for child abuse images. 

2 — They did this despite the EU's ePrivacy directive, via a temporary, time-limited opt-out. This was due to expire in 2024, so Brussels decided to make the opt-out mandatory and formal. 

3 — The CSAR was based on the idea of 'client-side scanning'. Modern encryption is effectively unbreakable, so the way through was a separate surveillance node on your phone, that could independently rifle through WhatsApps, Signal chats, and photos. 

4 —  An original version of the bill was effectively torpedoed last year after it was discovered that an online campaign in favour of the legislation broke EU law. Adverts posted on X by the Commission actively targeted wavering voters using sensitive personal information, which is very much illegal under GDPR.

5 — Brussels is attempting to relaunch it by claiming that the new version is 'voluntary' for digital firms. But critics have warned that this is the thin end of the wedge, and that formerly 'voluntary' measures passed by the Commission frequently become mandatory when Eurocrats become annoyed at lack of uptake.

Expect more news in the coming weeks, with negotiations likely to begin early next year.

Other News

Bosnia refuses landing permission to Hungarian Foreign Minister's plane

National government to step in if Budapest goes insolvent

'Visit Hungary at Christmas: no illegal migrants' - the country's controversial new tourism campaign

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956: Dissent and the Cracks in Soviet Power

Dr Bernd Ströhm works for the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies and is a Visiting Fellow at the DI, where he has recently finished up a paper tracing the aftershocks of the 1956 Revolution. 

He charts how the revolution's echoes of 1848 resonated with Hungarian psychology, and how the global Socialist movement gradually came to terms with what had happened. Across the world, the evil of the Soviet empire now had to be reckoned with, even for those who still believed in Communism. 

Meanwhile, inside the country, a new culture of samizdat and quiet defiance gave its flavour to the defiance in Czechoslovakia, and the disquiet in the Polish shipyards.  

"The impact of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution on the left intelligentsia in France was evident in the reaction of Jean-Paul Sartre, a French philosopher and a key figure in French Marxism. After 1956, his views on Stalinism were torn. On 9 November 1956, he gave an interview with the news magazine L’Express in which he denounced the Soviet intervention, even declaring that he would break off relations with Soviet writers who failed to denounce it. 

In his interview, he argued that the Soviet claim of “saving socialism in Hungary” was misleading. True socialism in Hungary would have survived on its own; the Red Army’s intervention was however not about helping Hungarians but about protecting the interests and security of power-holders in the Soviet Union."

Read More

Fentanyl at Europe's Gates - Hungarian Conservative

The Truth About Hitmen - Max Daly

Monks in the Casino: The Male Loneliness Crisis - Derek Thompson Substack

Rod Dreher on MAGA's Groyper Problem - UnHerd

Coming:
Jacob Williams is becoming a frequent visitor to the city. He's presently pursuing his D.Phil at Oxford in post-liberal thought, so it's obvious why he's attracted to this particular beehive. He's also a thoroughly urbane bloke, who has survived the three pint test with the DI crew. He is interested in making deeper connections in the city - do help him out. 

DI fellow Adam LeBor's book, The Last Days Of Budapest is a fantastic narrative re-telling of the dog days of the Second World War in the city. It's been widely fêted, a Sunday Times Book of the Week, most recently turning up as one of The Economist's Books of the Year.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, from 5:30, Adam will be launching the paperback edition in town, at Bestsellers book shop (Oktober 6 utca). Come down for wine and pogacsas. Adam says there will also be: "an intro to the book, reading, questions, then drinks and mingling". Mingling certainly sounds exciting.

Tonight, the Duna String Orchestra perform at St Matthias Church. 

Fans of thumping 2000s alt-rock can appreciate The Subways on Wednesday at Dürer Kert, from 7PM. 

Stone armour, a four-horse open chariot, ten terracotta warriors: this week, a major new exhibition opens at the Museum of Fine Art (Heroes Square). The Civilisation of the Qin and Han Dynasties – The First Chinese Emperor’s Terracotta Warriors showcases ancient China in its full imperial glory, with over 150 items on display. Tickets are 6800 Ft.

WEF Summit at Davos — 19 January

Wiener Akademikerball, Vienna — 20 February

 “Miért itatod az egereket?"

 — “Why are you giving drinks to the mice?” (Why are you crying?)

Monday 24 November, from 9am, MCC’s Center for International Economy will host a one-day conference on Europe’s Relationship with the Turkic States (TLDR: it has improved since 1526). Sign up here.

Then, Tuesday, at 7pm, Britain’s leading free speech activist, Toby Young, will be in town to explain when a tweet can land you in jail. Expect some tweetable quotes: unless you live in the UK, of course. Sign up here.

Republika Srpska is that appendix to Bosnia & Hercegovina that the world has forgotten to remember since the 90s: a half-state of ethnic Serbs, frozen in the amber of the Dayton Accords. Recently, it bobbed back into popular awareness after the EU took unkindly to its President, Milorad Dodik. Well, Dodik hasn't forgotten about the world, and on Wednesday, at 3:45PM, he presents his findings in: The World According to Milorad Dodik. You'll need a confirmed registration email to attend.

Novelist and music expert Michael Walsh is at the Danube Institute this week to give a lecture on the life of Franz Liszt. Event starts 6 PM, November 18. Register here.

MCC digs into the growth of narco terrorism across the world in the first lecture of the CC Budapest Summit on the Global Drug Epidemic. Event is today, November 17, at 5 PM. More info here.

South Africa's G20. Or G19, Or G18, or...

Shrinkflation is so bad these days it is even hitting international summits! 

South Africa's presidency of the G20 has been totally derailed after Donald Trump announced the US was pulling out of next week's multilateral summit over the continued racially-motivated killing of white Afrikaners in the country.

Here’s what you need to know:

1 — Trump confirmed on Truth Social that no US officials will attend next week's meeting over the continued killings of white farmers in the country, blasting the fact South Africa is allowed to host at all is a 'total disgrace'.

2 — The move has sparked a mass exodus of top level leaders. China's Xi Jinping confirmed late last week that he is bailing on the conference, sending Premier Li Qiang instead. Argentina's chainsaw loving president Javier Milei has also announced he'll skip the summit.

3 — Saffa President Cyril Ramaphosa is putting on a brave face, declaring that the US's decision to bail is 'their loss'.

4 — This may be what the kids call 'cope', though, with international media citing unnamed officials involved in the meetings as describing it as effectively 'dormant'.

5 — The meeting collapse stands in stark contrast to the recent Hungary-US summit in Washington DC, during which Trump handed the Fidesz government a number of key concessions on the purchase of Russian oil and gas. 

Other News

Mercedes-Benz opens first Hungarian R&D centre

Government expands price controls on key grocery products

Germany asks public not to panic as country ramps up conscription rules

Bridging the North-South Gap: Hungary’s Strategic Engagement in the Three Seas Initiative

The Three Seas Initiative (3SI) is a key multilateral platformed aimed at ramping up dialogue and cooperation between Central and Eastern European states. Hungary has a vested interest in the project, and is in a unique position to leverage its geopolitical strengths to the benefit of both itself and its initiative partners.

“The 3SI promotes regional integration and aims to harness the economic and strategic potential of the area. Historically, 'horizontal' connectivity between East and West has been dominant in the Old Continent. Trade routes, migration, and later pipelines continued to follow such a path.

The novum of the 3SI is to bolster North–South connectivity, which, although historically undervalued and underrepresented, is no less critical. 

To this end, within the 3SI framework, the member states are developing key infrastructure, including highways, rail networks, gas pipelines, and digital communication systems, prioritising the 'vertical'
topography.”

Read More

Depth and Distaster: The Russian economy from Stalin to Putin | Unknown Knowns - Danube Institute

EU Once Again Violates Its Principle of Subsidiarity - Hungarian Conservative

No, Hungary Is Not Funding a Russian ‘Bloodbath’ in Ukraine - Slop Check

Christmas market season is officially here! Vörösmarty Square Market, one of Europe's largest, officially started last Friday, while the equally stunning St. Stephen’s Basilica Market officially begins today. Why not hop down if you have the time, and feel free to send in your pictures!

The Budapest Ballet Grand Prix is starting from November 17 at the Hungarian Dance University. Tickets are free, but going fast, so if this high-level competition is something that interests you, jump in quick! More info here.

Battle for the Soul of Europe, Brussels — 3 - 4 December

Wilfred Martens Centre European Ideas Forum, Brussels — 9 - 10 December

CEE Forum 2026, Vienna — 13 -14 January 

 “Bámul, mint borjú az új kapura"

 — Staring like a calf at a new gate

One to flag for next week: 18 November, the MCC is hosting its annual summit, this year themed around controversial ideas on drugs (i.e. that they're bad), the war on them (that many have already surrendered), and policy (that we should make it stop). Highlights include Dr Stuart Derbyshire, neurologist and associate prof at the University of Singapore. And Tom Wolf, who came out of fentanyl addiction on the streets of San Fran, to found his own get-tough programme.  

You've heard of the V4. Now how about the V3? On Thursday, November 13, the Danube Institute's Péter Szitás is hosting a 3PM panel to discuss what's next for the EU-sceptic Visegrád core, after Andre Babiš's victory in the Czech elections. More info here.

Japan is so back. After the election of Sanae Takaichi, Ludovika is hosting two seminars with Tomohiko Taniguchi, former Special Adviser to the Cabinet under Shinzo Abe, and President of the conservative Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference). On the 12th: Global Political Messaging. And, daytime on the 13th, The Future Belongs To The Sovereign - Japan and Hungary on Identity and Strategy. Sign up here. 

The New Cold War is just as much of a spy war as the old one: so says Michael Singh, who will be in conversation at the MCC on the topic of Invisible Battlefields. Register here. 

Orbán in DC

Viktor Orbán took the Wizz Air to DC last week for a special summit with Donald Trump.

Here’s what you need to know:

1 — Orbán secured a year-long exemption from US sanctions on Russia, that would have prohibited the purchase of Russian oil and gas. 

2 — Hungary also agreed to buy US nuclear fuel rods for its Paks 1 nuclear power station, at a cost of $114m, in parallel with those bought from Russia’s Rosatom and France’s Framatome.

3 — They discussed the persecution of Christians across the world, especially Nigeria. Last week, Trump threatened the country with military action if it didn't stop. 

4 — Amongst the Hungarian party was the DI's Rod Dreher, who dropped into the Naval Observatory on Friday night for dinner his old pal JD. In addition to no doubt a nice bottle of red, he was also carrying the Institute's brand new fifty page report on the plight of the Nigerian Christians. Check next week for the full version. 

5 — They also discussed setting up currency swap lines: similar to how DC is underwriting the Argentine peso. But didn't reach agreement on the US-Hungarian double taxation treaty - a pain for expat citizens of both. 

Other News

Hungary To Get HIMARS

Revolut One Step Closer to Offering Hungarian IBANs

Ukraine Releases Wrongly-Conscripted Ethnic-Hungarian Students

Hungary and the West: Heralding the New Normal

The future is sovereigntist, writes Norbert Szári. And here, Hungary already has a head start. As the world gradually reverts to the pre-US imperium status quo ante, it is the Hungarian radical view of national sovereignty that will increasingly come to be seen as a model for other states. 

So what can we learn from it?

“The experience of foreign rule confirmed the historical narrative of Hungary as a nation
caught between great powers, always struggling to preserve its independence. 

The memory of the 1956 Revolution has had a big influence on the political discourse
in Hungary. It acts as a potent representation of resistance. 

In this narrative, the violent quashing of the revolution, combined with the perceived
lack of Western assistance, underlined the need for
practical self-sufficiency. 

This experience created a lasting template for Hungarian strategic thinking: while seeking integration with the West, maintaining sufficient independence to protect national interests.”

Read More

Russia and the West: From Interest to Misunderstanding - Danube Institute

Slop Check: Did Putin Really Torpedo the Budapest Peace Summit? - Hungarian Conservative

The End of Communism and the First Tusvanyos - Danube Culture

It's The Groypers' America Now, We're Just Living In It - UnHerd

Coming:
Tomohiko Taniguchi spent two decades as a business journalist for Nikkei’s Business magazine. In 2005, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he became a trusted advisor to then-Foreign Minister Shinzo Abe. He joined Abe in government, and has since taken on a number of roles, publishing ten books on topics like Japanese history and statecraft. He’s a guest of Ludovika University of Public Service for the next week, where he is a fellow at the Public Diplomacy Hub. 

Visiting Fellow Fr. Mario Portella will be celebrating mass in the traditional Tridentine Latin Rite this Sunday. The venue is still to be decided, but all are welcome. Contact us for more details.

Hans Zimmer on Wednesday.

Tuesday is St Martin's Day. Martin (Márton to his friends), was a Roman soldier in Hungarian territory, who gave his cloak to a beggar, precipitating a vision that led him to give his life to Christ. He's big here, and his feast is meant to be the end of the harvest season: a genuine feast (goose is traditional) that marks forty days of pre-Christmas fasting. Look around town for goosey dinners. 

Sam Lee draws on English folk tradition and the songs of wandering gypsies. He's the protégé of Bernard Butler, the guitar genius behind early-Suede, who produced his new record. On Friday, he plays the House of Music for only 7 900 Ft. 

Battle for the Soul of Europe, Brussels — 3 - 4 December

Wilfred Martens Centre European Ideas Forum, Brussels — 9 - 10 December

CEE Forum 2026, Vienna — 13 -14 January 

 “Annyit ér, mint halottnak a csók."

 — It's worth as much to kiss the dead.

A double bill at Danube Institute this Wednesday, starring French economist Jacques Sapir, a heterodox figure with a particular eye on Russia. Sapir will be taking part in two panels, the first at 3:30PM on Russia and the West, and the second at 5:30PM, on 25 years of the Euro. Both also star the DI's Philip Pilkington, the even-more-heterodox economist and spyfinder-general. Sign up here.

Philip is running the Marathon des Sables of collquia this week. On Thursday he's back at the HIIA, on Finance and Tariffs In A Multipolar World, with Dragana Mitrović  of the University of Belgrade. 5PM. Throw him an energy gel pack. 

Was The Danube Refinery Fire Deliberate?

Evidence is mounting that the fire at Hungary’s largest oil refinery, the MOL Danube plant in Százhalombatta, may have been more than a simple accident. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has pledged a full investigation.

Here’s what you need to know:

1 — The refinery is responsible for processing 165,000 barrels of crude oil every day, with supply originating from Russia's Druzhba pipeline. The fire happened shortly after a similar incident at a refinery based in Romania owned by Russia’s Lukoil petro-firm.

2 — In March of this year, crude shipments to Hungary through the same Druzhba pipeline were briefly suspended after a Ukrainian drone strike hit a Russian pumping station near the border. The attack temporarily disrupted oil flows to both Hungary and Slovakia before Moscow rerouted supplies. 

3 — Orbán says the government will work with local energy producer MOL to keep 'skyrocketing' prices down.

4 — He noted senior Polish government officials had advised Ukraine to 'blow up' the Druzhba pipeline feeding the facility, saying that he hoped it would turn out that Kyiv had no involvement in what could be sabotage.

5 — Germany issued a European arrest warrant for a Ukrainian national (named only as “Volodymyr Z.”) suspected of involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Poland’s courts have refused extradition of Volodymyr Z, with PM Donald Tusk describing the case as 'closed'.

Other News

Slop Check: Italian Libs Make Up Orbán Quote

Croatia Brings Back Conscription — Could Hungary Be Next?

No Sziget Festival In 2026

The Sovereigntist Zeitgeist Binding Budapest, Beijing, and America First

Are the views of the Chinese Communist Party and America's New Right really all that different? Visiting Fellow Dr. Eric Hendriks doesn't think so. In his new paper for the DI, he sees a coming world of two big 'anti-bloc' regimes, busting up the old framework to take trade back to a simpler, more transactional mode of mutual interest.

“Despite Chinese-American rivalries, ‘America first’ and the Xi-ist take on ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’ overlap on significant ideas about our contemporary world and usher in a sovereigntist zeitgeist.

This Zeitgeist might come just in time to support the embattled Hungarians, who were getting perhaps a bit too avant-garde in recent years, storming deeply into the emerging era while the power centres of Western Europe were and are still frozen into the old liberal order. 

America first and Xi-ism lay the foundation of this emerging era by opposing the formation of international blocs centred on ideology and refraining from exporting a standardising political model.”

Read More

What's The Worst That Could Happen? With Malcom Kyeyune - Multipolarity

The Roundtable: ICE Gets Shaken Up - The Claremont Institute

George Yeo: ‘Strategically, China does not want Russia to fall’ - Hungarian Conservative

Lessons From Preparing For Government In 1979 - Dominic Cummings Substack

Coming:

A delegation from the King Prajadhipok’s Institute (KPI) in Thailand will be arriving at the Danube Institute this week. They'll be led by the President of the National Assembly of Thailand, His Excellency Wan Muhamad Noor Matha.

Interested in meeting them? Drop us an email.

Do you have a guilty pleasure? And why did you say Roxette? Six years after the death of Marie Freddrikson, Per Gessle keeps the flame of Swedish pop-rock alive with similarly-named new vocalist Lena Philipsson at the Budapest Arena, Tuesday. Tickets vary, but expect to pay around 45 000 Ft.

Pleasure that can be taken innocently: Verdi's Requiem at the State Opera House, complete with costumed staging. 7PM, Tuesday.

Jane Austen is 250, so the British Council are discussing her satirical peak, Northanger Abbey on Super Tuesday at 6:30PM. After all, “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” 

The Hungarian House of Traditions is a beautifully restored venue off Corvin tér. On Friday, they're hosting a folk dance concert, featuring the work of six different choreographers and the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble: Roots And Wings.

Ladislav Hanus Institute Conservative Summit 2025, Bratislava — 8 November

Battle for the Soul of Europe, Brussels — 3 - 4 December

Wilfred Martens Centre European Ideas Forum, Brussels — 9 - 10 December

 “Kevés vagy, mint mackósajtban a brummogás."

 — You are as little as the roaring in a teddy bear cheese.

At the MCC Scruton on Wednesday, they’re asking: Why Do We Need Children? Ever since chimneysweeps were abolished, this has been a hot question on the right. Panel discussion, with Q&A. It’s a lunchtime event: 1-2:30PM.

Thursday, 3PM at the MKI, Kind Of A Big Deal Hall Gardner will be back for his second public event: this one on the status of the Ukraine War, starring the DI’s own Calum Nicholson and Gavin Haynes.

On Finding €200bn Down The Back Of The Sofa…

EU politicians are arguing, following the collapse of their plan to hand Russian frozen funds to Ukraine. 

Here’s what you need to know:

1 — This week, EU politicians want the head of Belgian PM Bart de Wever. The Flemish nationalist earned the ire of his Eurocrat peers after he blocked their plans to effectively steal frozen Russian funds for the benefit of Ukraine. 

2 — French President Emmanuel Macron has tried to play down the collapse of the deal, insisting to Brussels-based outlets that substantial discussions on the meat of the scheme did take place. 

3 — EU leaders are set to revive the plan when they meet again at the start of December, but we will likely see movement sooner.

4 — The EU froze approximately €200 billion in assets belonging to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. 

5 — Belgium directly holds around 86 per cent of all Russian‐state assets frozen within the EU.

Other News

Slop Check: No, Georgia Did Not Host ‘Fake’ Election Observers

The Polish Foreign Minister is flirting with destroying the trans-Ukranian oil pipeline to Hungary.

EU could expand to Ukraine even if Hungary resists.

The Empire Strikes Back: Why Civilisational Aspects Matter in Migration Policy

Our Spanish Visiting Fellow, Juan A. Soto, uses a comparison between his own country, Britain, and France, to argue that migration succeeds when cultural compatibility is maximised. 

The Spanish, he points out, have taken mainly Spanish-speaking Catholics from its New World colonies. Whereas Britain and France's more culturally diverse colonies have brought with them differing standards and unique problems. 

“Portugal’s immigrant population features a significant presence from its former colonies, with 30% of them coming from Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde. 

In the United Kingdom, migration from former colonies—particularly India, Pakistan, and to a lesser extent, Caribbean nations—accounts for roughly 20% of the total immigrant population. 

By contrast, the cases of Spain and France are notably distinct: in both countries, immigrants from former overseas territories make up over 40% of the foreign-born population, reflecting deeper and more sustained post-imperial migratory ties.”

Read More

Language Without Mind - Spencer Klavan

Pantsuit Deportations  - The Critic

Christ The King and the Politics of Blue Labour - Catholic Herald 

The Past Is Someone Else's Country - Danube Knowledge

Coming:

Irish parliamentary insider Tadhg Pigeon is in town until Halloween for a working holiday. Drop Based in Budapest a message and we can put you in touch.

Next Sunday, 2 November, is All Souls Day, Halottak Napja. This is a big thing in Catholic Hungary; its closest cousin is the Mexican version - The Day of the Dead. Across the city, at sundown and beyond, graveyards will fill with families placing candles on the tombs of their relatives, and praying for the salvation of the departed.

For those who prefer the American flavour, a lesser known ruin bar in the 7th, the Füge Udvar, hosts a Halloween party of ripe imagination, and plenty of spooky-wooky. 

Tonight, Katy Perry hits the MVM Dome. Did you know the video for Fireworks was shot at Buda Castle? 

Rest in peace Diane Keaton; long live Annie Hall, showing Sunday at 2PM at the Bem movie theatre. 

Budapest Peace Conference — Still Soon?

Battle for the Soul of Europe, Brussels — 3 - 4 December

Wiener Akademikerball, Vienna — 20 February

 “Ki mint vet, úgy arat."

 — As you sew, so shall you reap.