God Is Back - And This Time He's Right Wing?
Weekly briefings on the life of The New European Capital of Conservatism.
Events This Week
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.
Around Town
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.
Post-rock legends Godspeed You! Black Emperor, hit town this week. Coming to prominence in the late-90s, they were were pioneers of droning on the A string for six minutes while static filtered through a transistor radio fuzzes ominously in the background. Which certainly seemed cool at the time. Tomorrow, they're at Dürer Kert, 7pm.
Paper of the Week
Addressing the Irregularities of Subsidiarity in the EU
Subsidiarity is the EU's favourite idea - that decisions must be taken at the lowest appropriate level of authority. Subsidiarity is meant to keep the peace between 27 wildly different countries - and to establish the democratic legitimacy of the EU system. There's only one issue - the EU regularly ignores subsidiarity whenever it is convenient. See: Hungary and the mass migration compact and the million Euros a day. Examples abound: in 2013, the European Public Prosecutor's Office took away the exclusive privilege of nations to prosecute on their sovereign territory. So - should we hang onto it? Father Mario Portella holds a doctorate in canon law and a degree in real law, which at least sounds like the start of a decent detective drama. In his new paper, he turns his skills towards the contradictions in the system, and whether we can flush them out. After all, as he says, subsidiarity is originally a Catholic concept, descended from Pius XI in 1932, rooted in the Church's campaign against totalitarianism.
For this reason, Hungary, above all Member States, should establish an “Office of the Legal Adviser” to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade modelled on the US State Department’s Legal Adviser Office, which furnishes advice on all legal issues, domestic and international, arising in the course of the Department’s work. This “Office” would be responsible for publishing legal doctrine on key questions of subsidiarity and competence to shape the interpretive environment, and for issuing authoritative legal opinions on treaty interpretation and sovereignty disputes. In turn, it would provide internal support for Hungary’s international negotiations, Council of Europe and EU Council positions, as well as defending Hungary’s actions before EU institutions and the EUCJ.
Coming & Going
Coming
Farid Shukurlu is from Baku, Azerbaijan, a city he calls “a mixture of Vienna and Dubai.”
He says his birthplace shaped his world view: “The house I grew up in was right next to a Catholic church, where I would often go to play football as a child. My current neighbourhood is within walking distance of two synagogues, one Sephardic and one Mountain Jewish, as well as Catholic and Orthodox churches and two mosques where Muslims, regardless of their religious background, come together to pray.”
He’s here to help with our burgeoning Turkic relations centre. For the next three months, his key project is entitled: ‘Beyond Double Standards: Analysing Hungary’s Distinctive Approach to Israel within the European Union’.
Dates For Your Diary
CPAC Hungary, Budapest — 21 MarchFamily Formation and the Future, Budapest — 1–2 April"Most ugrik a majom a vízbe"
— Now jumps the monkey into the water (Now comes the crucial moment where their fate will be decided)