Free Republic

Hungary has ended funding for gender studies degrees at its universities, citing low enrollment and saying the field of study is an “ideology, not a science.” Prime Minister Viktor Orban signed a decree that went into effect Saturday, effectively eliminating the degree program, according to Reuters. The decree removes gender studies from the list of approved master’s programs. Students already enrolled are allowed to remain in the program. “The Hungarian government is of the clear view that people are born either men or women,” Orban’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyas said in August. “They lead their lives the way they...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Oct. 9 praised cooperation between Ankara and Budapest. “Our cooperation with Hungary within the scope of international organizations such as NATO, Council of Europe and European Union is exemplary..." “We will move forward with concrete steps to reach $5 billion trade volume." He also met Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and addressed a business forum. After the business meeting, Erdogan officially inaugurated the restored Tomb of Gul Baba in the capital Budapest and paid a visit to the Budapest Turkish Memorial Cemetery. At the cemetery, Erdogan laid a wreath at the tomb of the...

Since this week’s surprise announcement that Nikki Haley would depart by year’s end, everyone wants to know who’ll replace America’s UN ambassador — who was first dismissed, then hated, then feared and eventually appreciated, heck, even loved (at least by some). The answer, obviously, is up to the never-predictable President Trump, so most names bandied about are speculative, with many driven by wishful thinking. So here’s a wish: Christopher Burnham. Never heard of him? You may soon. Sure, there are other worthy candidates; Washington reporters come up with new ones daily. The much-advertised front-runner, former Deputy National Security Adviser Dina...

Hungarian security and Turkish stability are directly linked, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said after talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Budapest on Monday. Orbán said Hungarian foreign policy must look to three cities: Ankara, Moscow and Berlin, three great powers around which Hungary has revolved for many centuries. Orbán expressed appreciation to Turkey for accommodating several million refugees that arrived via neighbouring countries and thanked the Erdogan for “fully meeting” Turkey’s agreement with the European Union, which he said was another precondition for European security. On another subject, Orbán said that Hungary and Turkey would raise the level of...

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said that the “culture war” is not being fought on Hungary, but it being fought in Europe which is succumbing to a “creeping” cultural surrender. Addressing the audience at a ceremony to celebrate the revamp of the Budai Vigadó, which houses the country’s heritage museum, Prime Minister Orbán remarked that though he “hear[d] that there’s a culture war going on in Hungary”, he believes the central European country is rather existing in a state of “culture peace”. The Hungarian leader warned of a “creeping pan-European cultural self-renunciation”, and argued that if the continent’s cultural...

Christiane Amanpour, one of the most well-known faces of CNN, uploaded a 4-minute long video to her official Facebook page from her interview with Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She tries to find the answer to what exactly Prime Minister Viktor Orbán means when he says he’s trying to preserve a “Christian Hungary.” Amanpour pointed out that Hungary also “claims to have an immigration problem” and that Hungary doesn’t want these – as Prime Minister Orbán called them – “invaders” in the country; Szijjártó quickly corrected the term to “illegal migrants.” "We have been a Christian country...

Former US president Barack Obama on Friday warned against rising nationalism as he painted a grim picture of American and global politics on a visit to Denmark. “I’m concerned enough about the international and American trends that I thought it was important to offer my views,” he told entrepreneurs and students in the Danish central city of Kolding. “When you start seeing our politics driven completely free of facts, when you start seeing a debate that is driven solely on racial or nationalistic impulses, when you start seeing a rejection of science and expertise and logic in politics... we are...

Putin and Orban are increasingly conscious that their regular contacts have failed to bring the two countries closer together. In fact, despite its reputation as the EU’s most pro-Russian member-state, Hungary actually expelled a Russian diplomat in response to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, unlike fellow EU member-states Slovenia, Bulgaria, Austria, Slovakia, Greece. In the spring, Orban readily deployed anti-Russian rhetoric during Hungary’s parliamentary election campaign. Bela Kovacs, a member of the European Parliament from the Jobbik opposition party, was indicted for alleged spying on the eve of the vote, having faced accusations of being a Russian agent...

<p>3:05 p.m.</p> <p>The president of Poland is telling President Donald Trump that he'd like the U.S. to create a permanent American base in Poland that would be named Fort Trump.</p> <p>Trump says that he's considering the idea and that Poland has offered more than $2 billion to the U.S. to pay for such an effort.</p>

In an interview with the Register, Péter Szijjártó explains why he believes his government’s EU-opposed immigration policy is necessary to preserve Hungary’s and Europe’s Christian heritage. In recent years, Hungary has been almost alone in Europe in fighting to retain its Christian heritage and to preserve its Christian identity in the face of a European Union that has tried to do the opposite. And it has done so largely through what some see as a “hardline” immigration policy, but which the country’s government insists is a sensible policy of controlled immigration (it opposes illegal and irregular immigration and favors tight...

Mr Farage spoke highly about the country’s leader Viktor Orban and urged him to not stand to be lectured by the EU but instead follow the UK’s lead and simply leave the bloc. The comments come a day before MEPs are set to vote on whether to trigger Article 7, which is an EU law drafted to ensure respect for democracy and the rule of law as they are worried Hungary is becoming a dictatorship. Mr Orban has said that triggering Article 7 would be an “abuse of power” of the EU. Brussels is concerned with Mr Orban's attitude towards...

The European Parliament has voted to pursue unprecedented disciplinary action against Hungary over alleged breaches of the EU's core values. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government has been accused of attacks on the media, minorities, and the rule of law - charges which he denies.

The European Parliament has voted to pursue unprecedented disciplinary action against Hungary over alleged breaches of the EU's core values. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government has been accused of attacks on the media, minorities, and the rule of law - charges which he denies. More than two-thirds of MEPs backed the censure motion - the first such vote against a member state under EU rules. If also approved by national leaders, Hungary could face punitive measures. The ultimate sanction, the suspension of Hungary's voting rights, is unlikely as Poland is likely to veto any such move

Powerful Hurricane Florence continues to move towards landfall Friday on the coast of the Carolinas with maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour. The storm is now centered 530 miles southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina.... Russia wants the United States and its allies to reveal their intentions in Syria. This was the message from Russian UN representative Vasily Nebenzya at the UN Security Council Tuesday.... The Russian Foreign Ministry warned against "new dangerous steps" in Syria.... And in Syria itself the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation says a fake chemical attack is being recorded on video..... Russian President...

Hungary's PM Viktor Orban has accused the EU of "insulting" his country, as its parliament began considering disciplinary action against Hungary. MEPs are debating whether his right-wing government's policies on issues like migrants pose a threat to the EU. It comes just months after the European Commission took the step of launching similar proceedings against Poland.

France does not want to finance a populist Europe, the country’s foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has indicated, just as the fight over the EU’s new long-term budget begins in earnest. These strong words were said in Paris on Wednesday during the annual conference of French ambassadors, a meeting at which the French head of diplomacy officially indicates the most important directions of the country’s foreign policy. 71-year-old Le Drian, who after the victory of French President Emmanuel Macron took the helm of French diplomacy, said that France and Germany intend to work out a common position on migration before...

The Hungarian government is openly asking “What’s wrong with the Swedes?” as the Scandinavian country’s pro-immigration government lashes out at Budapest, while the leader of Poland’s governing Law and Justice Party has said his country must avoid Western Europe’s “social diseases”. In a public blog post on the official About Hungary website, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltán Kovács posed the question: “Why are these senior Swedish figures portraying Hungary as Europe’s bogeyman, spreading falsehoods and distorting facts about our government’s policies on migration? Could it have something to do with the fact that the country faces general elections on September 9th?”...

"We are close to a historic turning point at the continental level. I am astonished at the stupor of a political left that now exists only to challenge others and believes that Milan should not host the president of a European country, as if the left has the authority to decide who has the right to speak and who does not -- and then they wonder why no one votes for them anymore." — Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. "This is the first of a long series of meetings to change destinies, not only of Italy and of Hungary, but...

White Semidouble “OUT OF THE EATER CAME FORTH MEAT, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. The people with teeth of steel grinding the nations gives itself up as food to him, to whom was said: Kill and eat; the mouth of the Huns, formerly vomiting foam and rage, now distills the honey of charity. Such, O Christ, are thy miracles; such are thy works, O our God!” Thus does Baronius, on reaching in his history the year of Christ 1000, hail the arrival of the Hungarian deputies, who came to offer to the Roman Church the suzerainty...

Gáspár Orbán, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s 25 year old son, used to be known most for mirroring his father’s deep affinity for football and for being a professional football player...When Gáspár was born in 1992, (his father) Mr. Orbán was, by all accounts, not religious at all. Those days are over...Gaspar Orban is making a new name for himself as the leader of a Pentecostal church community, where he speaks in tongues, asserts that Jesus heals people through him during intensely emotional worship services and he proselytizes. Journalists of the 24.hu news site spent six weeks with Gáspár Orbán in...