Italian Conservatism, Rome

Ladies and Gentlemen, good afternoon. 

Mario, Francesco, thank you for the invitation. I am grateful to be here today.

Introduction

First and foremost, congratulations to my Italian friends. We have an important reason to celebrate. Last weekend, the alliance of Italian conservatives made history. 

De Gasperi’s compatriots electing a strong right-wing government is a breakthrough moment for conservatives in Europe. 

Our partners on the left must be annoyed. Until now they could say that only suspicious Eastern European people elect right-wing governments.

But now, with one of the EU founding members turning to the right, this theory does not seem to stand anymore.

Although, I have to say, Hungary was so often mentioned in the Italian press during the campaign that sometimes I had the feeling that the elections were taking place in Hungary… But it is not the case, Italian people should make the decision based on the interest of the great country of Italy!

Anyways, after the first few celebratory glasses of prosecco, it is more important than ever to stay focused. We have a lot to do, and the circumstances will not get easier in the next few months. 

I’m happy to see so many of us gathering here again today. It is a great way to start the exchange. 

After such victory, it would be a logical step to start discussing the concrete policy areas where we can cooperate. 

But I suggest that we do the opposite. We should return to the fundamentals, which in the case of politics are ideas and ideologies. 

What do they stand for? Who are they for? Do they serve us or harm us? 

Conservatism 

If you ask a liberal or a socialist, they automatically say that ideologies are great as they help us realize the ideal form of a society. We, conservatives are not so sure about that.

One of the most brilliant conservative thinkers, the late Sir Roger Scruton wrote a book on How to be a conservative, where he outlines that ideologies such as socialism, liberalism, or even conservativism as a dogma are meaningless because they conceal the true nature of society: the community of people that politicians are supposed to serve.

And this is what distinguishes conservatives from others: that their focus is first and foremost on the interest of their community. 

Instead of an end in itself, conservatism sees itself as a way of doing politics. This is also reflected in Sir Roger’s famous saying that “Conservatism is more an instinct than an idea.” 

As many of you know by now there are three Scruton cafés in Budapest. The reason why the first Scruton café’s leadership chose this quote as a motto written on their wall because it says a lot about our political community.  

Instincts tell us how to act in a certain situation, conservative instincts guide us to find what is good for our community, what makes it thrive.

Different approach to communities 

There is a fundamental difference between progressives’ and conservatives’ approach to communities. 

Although both are elected by their co-citizens, which is essentially based on nationality, progressives see their own role in representing different communities – be it liberal intellectual groups or humankind as such.

We, conservatives disagree, and see our duty in identifying and representing the interest of our respective nations.

This is the underlying philosophical reason why there is such a big difference between the two approaches. 

In the next few minutes I am going to outline how we, Hungarian  conservatives see divisive issues of mutual interest such as migration, family, gender, and the unavoidable topic of the war.

Migration

Since 2015 Hungary has been the black sheep of the European Union for consistently opposing illegal migration. 

We did this for the reason mentioned previously – it is obvious that it is not in Hungary’s interest to have an influx of millions and millions of illegal migrants in Europe.

We are busy enough dealing with our own problems, there is really no need to import new social tensions.

The fact that 7 years after building fences to protect the Hungarian border from thousands of illegal migrants trying to enter Hungary on a daily basis, the EU Court still rules against Hungary, says a lot about the situation in Brussels. It is obvious that when it comes to migration, Brussels policies do not even attempt to serve the interest of the European people.

Family policy

Instead of bringing in millions of people with different cultural backgrounds, we see thriving traditional families (mamma, papá, bambini) as the fundamental building blocks of a well-functioning society, and a key to the survival of our community.

Workforce challenges are real, but we do not think that labor immigration should be the answer. We need to tackle demographic decline with policies that encourage Hungarians to have more children who will then go through socialization in Hungary, becoming a valuable member of our society.

We see our family policy as a key investment in our future and in the future of our community. Since 2010 we have tripled our family policy expenditure, Hungary is spending the most resources in terms of GDP per capita on family policy in the EU.

And the results speak for themselves. In just a decade we managed to reverse declining fertility, while the number of marriages increased, divorces decreased, and abortion dropped by 50%.

In the current challenging economic environment we decided to side with the families. We managed to maintain a price cap on energy and foodstuff and locked mortgage rates.

In the whole European Union, fuel, natural gas, and electricity prices are the lowest for the people in Hungary. 

One might wonder: introducing price caps sounds quite socialist, doesn’t it? Well, our answer is that from our community’s perspective this is what was needed.

And therefore, it is the Hungarian government’s duty to ensure that Hungarian people do not pay the price of someone else’s war.  

Gender

Another topic closely related to family policy is the gender issue.

It is funny because liberals often say that conservatives tend to overemphasize the topic. However, every single time we suggest that we should not bring it up in unrelated international treaties and agreements, we receive such a strong backlash that I really start to wonder. 

For instance, the post-Cotonou as I understand should be about European-African cooperation not about gender ideology. But still, gender is the one point that always comes up. This is insane.

In these difficult times, we should not encourage children to question, but the other way around, to strengthen their identity.

War in the Ukraine

The last issue I would like to discuss is the economic consequences of the war.

There is no doubt Russia violated international law by attacking Ukraine. In this war, Moscow is the aggressor, and the Ukrainians are fighting heroically.

But we cannot ignore the economic consequences of the war and of the failed Brusselian response. We are facing record-high inflation and increasing energy prices everywhere. European recession is knocking on our door. People are afraid of losing their jobs, their salaries are worth less and less, and families are struggling to pay their energy bills.

There is an ongoing public debate on whether sanctions work or not.  There are good arguments on both sides, but this is not the question. What I’m concerned about is the effect of sanctions on our everyday lives. How are we, European citizens affected by all of this? 

And as a consequence, what should we do to serve the interest of our community? 

These are the questions that no one asks.

Europeans have never been asked

• if they support the sanctions;
• if they see them as effective measures or not;
• whether they can cope with rising prices;
• whether they are afraid of the winter period coming.

The truth is, the European elite is afraid of asking their people what they think because they already suspect the answer.

Seeing this, we, in Hungary decided to launch a national consultation. In the past we have asked our citizens directly on issues affecting our nation as a whole including migration, terrorism, the COVID-19 pandemic, and gender propaganda. 

We think that Hungarians have a right to be asked about issues of such importance. We are convinced that people can make smart decisions and we don’t think that we know it better. I think other European leaders should trust the wisdom of crowds a bit more too.

And once we know the answer, the next question that follows: what to do about the war?

The answer is clear: we should do whatever we can to convince the parties to end the war as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile it has become clear that while every major power including the US, Russia, even China can still win something, Europe is the only one who will definitely lose.

We should call for immediate ceasefire and encourage parties to start the negotiations immediately. This is the interest of our people, and this is the interest of Europe.

Cooperation

Most of the things I’ve outlined here should be common sense, however, it is unfortunately less and less common across Europe.

But now the tide is turning. National conservatives are getting stronger in Europe, which is a great opportunity for us to prioritize our communities and work together along issues of mutual interest such as stopping illegal migration, prioritizing extensive family policy, saying no to the destructive gender propaganda, and calling for the end of the war.

We need European leaders who do not spend their time discussing the brand-new letter in the LGBTQ alphabet, but leaders who put the interest of Europe and our communities first, who encourage our daughters to be women and our sons to be men. 

The European Union was once created to maintain peace in Europe and provide a platform for economic and political cooperation between equal European nations. Progressive ideologies have undermined this goal.

They argue that strong nations are the ultimate threat to European peace and prosperity, which could not be farther from the truth. This was also shown a few days ago during a football game I watched. 

This Monday, the Hungarian National football team played against Italy in Budapest. The stadium was full of fans, over 70 thousand people came to see the game.

As a sidenote, unfortunately we lost the game, BUT I have to add that after many years, earlier this year we have beaten both the English and the Germans. So as a fair warning to my Italian friends: no one can escape their destiny.

But back to my original point – you cannot imagine the feeling I had during that game. When the Italian national anthem started to play, all those 70,000 people started applauding and cheering, followed by the Hungarian anthem, which ended in a roaring applause and standing ovation.

It was awesome. I remember thinking: well, this is what we need. Citizens being proud of their nation, history, and identity, while also respecting and honoring each other. This is what we call patriotism at its best.

This is the principle that the EU was originally founded on. This is what we, Hungarians and Italians deserve.

This is the way we can prevent conflicts in Europe.

And this is what we should all strive for.

Thank you for your attention. And to my Italian friends: this is when the real work begins – in bocca al lupo!