Hungary's Orbán to be keynote speaker alongside Trump's favourite people
The Center for Fundamental Rights, an institute linked to the Orbán government, invited Donald Trump back in February, but the former US president will not attend the Budapest event, which is not to be confused with the "regular" Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held in Florida.
The thinktank’s mission statement says it acts as a “counter against today’s overgrown human rights fundamentalism and political correctness”. It is known for echoing the government’s communications and creating propaganda videos, The Guardian summed up the Center for Fundamental Rights. According to research by the investigative Hungarian news outlet, Átlátszó, almost all of their budget is provided by grants financed from public funds.
Balázs Orbán, deputy minister and state secretary to the Hungarian PM and chairman of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium board of trustees, confirmed on Tuesday on Twitter that the keynote speaker at the event, inspired by the American right, will be the President of the Fidesz party, Viktor Orbán.
The Budapest conference was originally scheduled for 25-26 March 2022, then rescheduled for 18-20 May, and finally to 19-20 May.
Donald Trump's favourite influencer Candace Owens will be joined by several politicians, including former Republican presidential candidate and senator Rick Santorum, former Czech President Václav Klaus, Herbert Kickl, President of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), and Tom Van Grieken, leader of the Flemish populist radical right party Vlaams Belang (VB, Flemish Interest).
British politician Nigel Farage, Santiago Abascal, president of the Spanish right-wing party VOX, and US Tucker Carlson, host of a nightly political talk show on fox news, will join the conference online or via video.
Tucker Carlson was in Hungary earlier this year, broadcasting from Budapest and making a "documentary" in which he painted Hungary as a conservative paradise, under constant attack by the Hungarian-born billionaire, George Soros.
It was Carlson’s second trip to Hungary in less than a year. Last August he travelled to Budapest to interview Orbán. A few weeks after the Hungarian PM’s appearance on Fox, Trump sent him a letter of congratulations:
Great job on Tucker, proud of you!
A Fox News egyik, ha nem a legismertebb arca, Tucker Carlson tavaly nyáron a kormányközeli Mathias Corvinus Collegium által szervezett fesztiválon, az MCC Feszten is fellépett.
One of, if not the best-known face of Fox News, Tucker Carlson also performed at the MCC Fest, a festival organised by the pro-government Mathias Corvinus Collegium, last summer.
Since its inception, the right-wing Fox News channel has come under criticism, most notably since Barack Obama's presidential bid and Donald Trump's campaign. Critics say that Fox News has become increasingly extremist and has given space to, among other things, birtherism, the racist theory or movement which denies that the 44th President Barack Obama is a natural-born US citizen. The best-known figure in the birther campaign was Donald Trump, whose presidency saw Fox News take an even more extreme tone.
Jordan Klepper, host and executive producer of The Opposition w/ Jordan Klepper and a correspondent on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, paid a visit to Budapest in April on the occasion of the upcoming CPAC event and the 3 April parliamentary election. His hilarious / horrific findings are in the videos below.
Cover photo: US President Donald Trump (r) and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán hold a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on 13 May, 2019. Photo by MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák
