AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE CONFERENCE KICKS OFF IN HUNGARY
Dozens of prominent conservatives from Europe, the United States and elsewhere gathered Thursday in Hungary as the American Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, was held in Europe for the first time.
The two-day conference reflects a deepening of ties between the American right wing and the autocratic government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The burgeoning alliance with Orbán has led some U.S. commentators to warn of American conservatives allegedly embracing anti-democratic tactics.
During his 12 years in power, Orbán, has generated controversy in the European Union for rolling back democratic institutions under what he calls an “illiberal democracy,” but garnered the admiration of some segments of the American right for his tough stance on immigration and LGBTQ issues and his rejection of liberal pluralism.
Delivering the opening address of the two-day conference on Thursday, Orbán called Hungary “the bastion of conservative Christian values
in Europe,” and urged U.S. conservatives to defeat “the dominance of progressive liberals in public life” as he said he had done in Hungary.
“We have to take the institutions back in Washington and Brussels,” Orbán said. “We must find allies in one another and coordinate the movements of our troops.”
The conference is the American political right’s latest embrace of Orbán, whom former President Donald Trump has lavished with praise. Trump endorsed Orbán’s bid for re-election and urged Hungarian voters to give him another term.
During speeches livestreamed from the CPAC conference Thursday, speakers enumerated their grievances over what they described as the dominance of
liberal culture in the United States and praised Hungary as a stronghold of traditionalism and on the leading edge of a culture war.
Speaking in Budapest on Thursday, American Conservative Union Chair Matt Schlapp said, “There’s no greater time for this CPAC movement of freedom and individual rights to flourish, and I look forward to that happening in the great country of Hungary.”
American conservative media personalities Candace Owens and Ben Ferguson are scheduled to speak at the Hungary event. Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, is set to speak at the conference by video link, along with Republican lawmakers from Florida and Maryland.