National conservatism is an idea whose time has arrived. The battle for our future is not between democracy and autocracy, capitalism and socialism, or even “right” and “left,” in the old meaning of those terms. It is between the nation and the forces that would erase it.
For decades, many in power — not just here, but across the West — have been locked in a cultural war with their own nations. We see it across Europe today, where the immigration crisis threatens to transform the ancient fabric of those nations — and an increasingly totalitarian censorship state menaces all who object. America, too, is threatened by these elites, driven by the same interests and ambitions.
Settled, founded, and built by the most adventurous and courageous sons and daughters of the West, America realized the destiny of Western civilization.
They are the elites who rule everywhere but are not truly from anywhere. National conservatism is a revolt against this fundamentally post-American ruling class.
This revolt is from the right — but also within the right. For too long, conservatives were content to serve as the right wing of the regime. They waged foreign wars in the name of global “liberalism” and “democracy.” They rewrote our trade policies in service of global capital. They supported amnesty and mass migration.
The Washington Consensus was a bipartisan affair. Until President Trump, the mainstream right quibbled over the left’s means but hardly ever challenged its ends. Conservatives cheered intervention after intervention — not to defend America’s national interests, but to pursue the Wilsonian fantasy of a “world safe for democracy.”
They backed the North American Free Trade Agreement and welcomed China into the World Trade Organization, not because it was good for American workers, but because it served the vision of a borderless marketplace. On immigration, the old conservative establishment may have opposed illegality on procedural grounds, but it took no issue with the substance. If the same end were achieved “legally,” many celebrated it.
At this point, it should be clear that the fact that the government sanctions something does not mean it’s good for our country.
For decades, we were told “high-skilled immigration” was an urgent necessity. The H-1B visa, for example, was sold as a way to keep America competitive. But programs like H-1B have imported a vast labor force not to fill jobs Americans can’t or won’t do, but to undercut American wages, replace American workers, and transfer industries into the hands of foreign lobbyists.
Millions of foreign nationals were funneled in to take the jobs and futures that should belong to our children — not because they were more talented, but because they were cheaper and more compliant. While trade agreements kneecapped blue-collar workers, abuse of H-1B is kneecapping white-collar workers before our eyes.
For tens of thousands of Americans forced to train their foreign replacements just to get severance, the fact it was “legal” is little comfort.
For decades, the left and the right alike seemed to accept the idea that America was merely an “idea.” President Bill Clinton said in 1998 that immigration proved America was “not so much a place as a promise.”
But America is not just a proposition. Our founding principles are rooted in a people and a way of life. Take a trip to rural Missouri, and you’ll see that the Second Amendment is not a theory. It’s who they are. If you imposed a carbon copy of the U.S. Constitution on Kazakhstan tomorrow, Kazakhstan would not become America.
What makes America exceptional is not only our commitment to self-government, but also that we, as a people, are capable of living it. The left drained our principles of their substance, turning the American tradition into an ideological creed that demanded transformation of the nation itself. So the statues come down. The names are changed. Yesterday’s heroes become today’s villains.
On the right, too many accepted this worldview. Neoconservatives spoke as if the whole world were Americans-in-waiting. America, they said, was “the first universal nation.”
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Donald Trump rejected this. He knew America was not just an idea but a nation and a people. His movement is the revolt of the real American nation — a pitchfork revolution, driven by millions of Americans who felt like strangers in their own country.
They were the forgotten men and women, mocked as “deplorables,” sneered at as “bitter clingers,” but still loyal to their nation. In Trump’s defiance, they heard their own. In 2016, they discovered millions more felt the same way.
It is their interests, their values, their lives that the American right must defend, without apology, if it wants a future.
The Pilgrims at Plymouth, the Continental Army soldiers at Valley Forge, the pioneers of Missouri — they did not fight for a proposition. They believed they were establishing a homeland. America is their gift to us. It belongs to us. It is our birthright, our heritage, our destiny.
If America is everything and everyone, it is nothing and no one. But America is real, distinctive, unique — the most essentially Western nation. Settled, founded, and built by the most adventurous and courageous sons and daughters of the West, America realized the destiny of Western civilization.
For decades, elites tried to turn our past into a repressed memory. But we are done being ashamed.
That spirit explains why Americans mapped the genome, invented the microchip, built the airplane, and planted footprints on the moon. We are the nation of explorers, builders, and pioneers.
Yet for some time now, we’ve been taught to be ashamed. The left says our curiosity and ambition were sins. But the American frontier was not a crime. It was an expression of our pioneer spirit — a spirit that raised cities, cured diseases, explored galaxies, and forged new worlds.
We’re not sorry. America is the proudest and most magnificent heritage ever known to man.
On July 4, 2020, as riots raged, President Trump stood at Mount Rushmore and declared: “This monument will never be desecrated.” Mount Rushmore is who we are. Americans carved the faces of heroes into a mountain — not out of necessity, but because they could.
For decades, elites tried to turn our past into a repressed memory. They made shame our civic religion. But we are done being ashamed. We love our country, and we will never apologize for the great men who built it.
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To transform a nation, you must transform the way it understands itself. That’s why the left tears down statues, rewrites language, and mocks traditions. It wants a new America with new myths. But America does not belong to the left. It belongs to us.
This fight is about whether our children will have a country to call their own. It’s about whether America will remain what she was meant to be: the apex and vanguard of Western civilization.
A strong, sovereign nation — not just an idea, but a home, belonging to a people, bound together by a common past and a shared destiny.
Editor’s note: This article has been adapted from a speech delivered on Tuesday, September 2, at the fifth National Conservatism Conference (NatCon 5) in Washington, D.C.
Heritage Foundation president Dr. Kevin Roberts emphasized in his Tuesday speech at the National Conservatism conference in Washington, D.C., that America's true source of greatness is the family and that conservatives unapologetically oppose that which serves to weaken it — even if championed by fair-weather friends within the Trump coalition — and defend that which serves to strengthen it.
Roberts, whose organization's so-called Project 2025 caused so much consternation on the left last year, further stressed the need for conservatives both to get "uncomfortably honest about our present crisis" and to reject the "temptation to separate the personal from the political, to believe that our private lives are of no concern to our public work," as "that separation is a lie."
'The family's decline is not a law of nature; nor is it an unstoppable force.'
Roberts, among the first speakers at this year's NatCon, noted at the outset of his speech that whereas the stability of the great empires of yesteryear's Europe rested on the monarchs' bloodlines and on the strength of their thrones, America "bet her future on something humbler yet infinitely stronger" — "on what Chesterton called 'the most extraordinary thing in the world': an ordinary man and an ordinary woman bound in covenant love, passing on their faith and virtue to ordinary children."
"We staked it all on the American family," continued Roberts. "The family is the seedbed and safeguard of our grand experiment in ordered liberty — the source and summit of our political order, the true origin of our exceptionalism."
Roberts noted that whereas America's political architecture is still outwardly intact — "the Constitution that gives our body politic its structure remains in its glass case at the National Archives" — "the American family, the spiritual heart and soul that animates that Constitution, has grown weak, fractured, and hollow."
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The Heritage Foundation president noted that the weakening of American families — evidenced by a declining marriage rate, delayed marriages, an all-time low fertility rate, a staggeringly high number of abortions, and crushing loneliness among young Americans — was no accident but rather "the result of a deliberate campaign to uproot the most fundamental institution of human life."
"You can call this campaign liberalism or enlightenment, rationalism or modernity — the name doesn't matter," said Roberts. "What matters is realizing that our current crisis has been centuries in the making."
Roberts indicated that American conservatives are now in a position to do something about this crisis, which was brought about with the help of radical feminists and industrialists who dragged the mother out of the home; eugenicists like Margaret Sanger who promoted the notion that "children are a burden"; and educational activists like John Dewey who "shifted children's formation from home and church to state institutions."
"The family's decline is not a law of nature; nor is it an unstoppable force," said Roberts. "It's the product of human choices — and human choices can change."
"The American people have entrusted us with the power of government. They are asking us to make America great again. They are urging us to usher in a new golden age in American life. To honor their request, we have one clear task," said Roberts. "We must do intentionally what the founders did instinctively: stake our future on virtuous and ordinary mothers and fathers."
'[Prudence] demands that we ask of every policy, every proposal: Will this strengthen the American family?'
Roberts suggested that it's not enough to seek an end to DEI and Pride flags; to combat the "uniparty" interventionists' prioritization of the "family of nations" over the families of Americans; and to rethink policies that work on the assumption that "maximizing GDP is an overriding and unspoken goal."
Conservatives must take back their homes and live by example — entering into marriage, embracing its commitments, and remaining faithful through its trials; welcoming children into the home and giving them the love, discipline, and kitchen-table education they need to prosper; and ruling with prudence, which Roberts noted is the "opposite of ideology."
Roberts noted that prudence "recognizes that the interest of the family and the national interest are not merely aligned — they are one and the same. [Prudence] demands that we ask of every policy, every proposal: Will this strengthen the American family? Will it advance the common good of the American people? Will it cultivate the virtues without which liberty cannot endure?"
"If the answer is no," continued Roberts, "even if the proposal aligns with some past ideological commitment, prudence requires that we reject it."
'Prudence is not a retreat from conviction.'
Tariffs, for example, may have been imprudent years ago but, based on the needs of the family today, may be prudent now, suggested Roberts. He suggested further that conservatives ruling with prudence may simultaneously demand the deregulation of certain industries such as construction — in the interest of helping young couples afford homes — but greater regulation of other industries, such as pornography, sports betting, and social media, which adversely impact children and the family.
"Prudence is not a retreat from conviction. It's the application of conviction to reality," stressed Roberts. "In this moment, conviction and reality both tell us the same thing: The surest test of any policy, any law, any reform is whether it fortifies the institution upon which the future of our nation stands."
Roberts' apparent willingness to upset libertarians and strike at the liberal status quo is par for the course at the National Conservatism conference, a project of the Edmund Burke Foundation chaired by Israeli-American philosopher Yoram Hazony.
The project defines "national conservatism" as "a movement of public figures, journalists, scholars, and students who understand that the past and future of conservatism are inextricably tied to the idea of the nation, to the principle of national independence, and to the revival of the unique national traditions that alone have the power to bind a people together and bring about their flourishing."'
There have been several NatCon conferences in recent years both at home and abroad. Past guests and speakers include Vice President JD Vance, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.), Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), elements of Blaze Media, and a host of international leaders of various political stripes.
The momentum and influence enjoyed by elements of the national conservatism movement have not gone unnoticed by liberals, who have lashed out in various ways, some more forceful than others.
Last year, for example, police stormed the NatCon conference in Brussels on the orders of a leftist mayor who appeared eager to shut down the event.
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The National Conservatism Conference is a project of the Edmund Burke Foundation, chaired by Israeli-American philosopher Yoram Hazony. For years, NatCon has offered conservatives of different stripes and from different countries a rallying point to discuss ways of reinforcing, improving and thinking about their respective nation-states.
The organizers define "National Conservatism" as "a movement of public figures, journalists, scholars, and students who understand that the past and future of conservatism are inextricably tied to the idea of the nation, to the principle of national independence, and to the revival of the unique national traditions that alone have the power to bind a people together and bring about their flourishing."
The attempt earlier this year by socialist officials in Belgium to shut down a NatCon conference highlighted the perceived threat posed by speakers at these conferences — to leftist internationalism, globalism, and other schemes aimed at the erasure of borders and individual sovereign states. Some speakers ostensibly also threaten libertarian agendas.
'America is a nation. It is a group of people with a common history and a common future.'
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) revealed in an address at NatCon Wednesday the fundamental understanding underpinning his economic nationalism — an understanding that both attracted him to President Donald Trump's America First agenda and justifies the kind of protectionism that Vivek Ramaswamy criticized at the conference a day earlier.
According to Vance, while America was founded "on great ideas," it is not, as some have suggested, reducible to "just an idea."
"America is a nation. It is a group of people with a common history and a common future," said Vance. "One of the parts of that commonality as a people is that we do allow newcomers to this country, but we allow them on our terms, on the terms of the American citizens, and that's the way that we preserve the continuity of this project from 200 years past to hopefully 200 years in the future."
The senator reflected on the generations of his family who came up in central Appalachia and others like them — "people who love this country, not because it's a good idea but because, in their bones, they know that this is their home and it will be their children's home, and they would die fighting to protect it."
Vance emphasized that the people who have "fought for this country, who have built this country, who have made things in this country, and who would fight and die to protect this country if they were asked to" were not motivated to sweat, bleed, and potentially give their all for an abstraction — the idea of America — but rather for their homes, their families, and their children's future.
Vance indicated that while he was initially a critic of President Donald Trump, he became a "convert" upon recognizing that Trump's America First agenda was not devoted to the protection of an idea but rather to the protection and prioritization of concrete realities, namely the American people and their physical homeland.
Vance's citizen-centered nationalism accounts for his desire to secure the border, to axe immigration policies that flood the market with cheap foreign labor, to reverse the trend of de-industrialization and offshoring, and — as suggested in a recent New York Times interview — to apply "as much upward pressure on wages and as much downward pressure on the services that the people use as possible."
'There are still these weird little pockets of the old consensus that continue to bubble to the surface and continue to fight us on all of the most important questions.'
Blaze News previously reported that Ramaswamy suggested at the NatCon conference that moving forward, the America First movement has the choice of embracing one of two types of nationalism: "national protectionis[m]" — what some have alternatively referred to as economic populism — or "national libertarianis[m]." He advocated for national libertarianism and intimated that Vance is partial to national protectionism.
National protectionism, according to Ramaswamy, is animated by a desire to ensure that "American workers earn higher wages and American manufacturers can sell their goods for a higher price, by protecting them from the effects of foreign competition." National protectionists apparently also "believe in reforming the regulatory state to redirect its focus to helping American workers and manufacturers."
In his speech Wednesday, Sen. Vance made no secret of his national protectionism, instead doubling down on the kind of commentary that has sent libertarian observers into fits of rage.
Vance, who stands a good chance of becoming Trump's running mate, insisted, for instance, that America should not let China "make all of our stuff" and should instead re-industrialize America.
"Even the libertarians, even the market fundamentalists — and I think we have a few in the audience, and we won't beat up on you too much," said Vance, "even they acknowledge that you can't have unlimited free trade with countries that hate you. It'd be the equivalent of allowing the Nazi Germans in 1942 to make all of our ships and missiles."
"People recognize that that era has come to a close. Even the people who are generally going to disagree with us about how much to protect American industry from this point forward agree that you can't let the Chinese make all of your stuff," continued the Ohio senator. "And yet I will say that as much as we've made some great progress, there are still these weird little pockets of the old consensus that continue to bubble to the surface and continue to fight us on all of the most important questions."
Vance also noted that the "real threat to American democracy is that American voters keep on voting for less immigration, and our politicians keep on rewarding us with more."
He suggested that while Western elites are have been more than happy to flood "the zone with non-stop cheap labor," immigration has "made our societies poorer, less safe, less prosperous, and less advanced."
Jason Miller, senior adviser for the Trump campaign, indicated Monday that the former president is poised to announce his running mate within a week's time. Vance, whose name has been raised in the past by the campaign and who reportedly received a vetting package, appears to be a top contender for the role. As of Thursday morning, Vance — whose speech appeared to resonate well with Donald Trump Jr. — was the top named pick on Polymarket.
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Police stormed the National Conservatism conference in Brussels Tuesday and barricaded the doors on the orders of a leftist mayor. The clampdown was demanded and celebrated by Antifa and other extremists who sought to make clear to the world leaders, lawmakers, and intellectuals inside that they were not welcome to openly discuss the conservation of their respective nation-states.
The shutdown backfired greatly, not only confirming attendees' suspicions that leftists are animated by totalitarian energies and that post-national liberals will become increasingly authoritarian as their influence wanes, but causing a significant international stir.
In the face of immense backlash over the socialist clampdown on free speech, Belgium's supreme administrative court and the Belgian prime minister intervened in the conservatives' favor.
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo noted on X, "What happened at the Claridge today is unacceptable. Municipal autonomy is a cornerstone of our democracy but can never overrule the Belgian constitution guaranteeing the freedom of speech and peaceful assembly since 1830. Banning political meetings is unconstitutional. Full stop."
Meanwhile, foreign leaders — including the British and Italian prime ministers — and multitudes of critics worldwide blasted the attempt to thwart the efforts of patriots to prevent their respective nations from becoming pseudo-states like Belgium.
Times of London columnist Melanie Phillips, who took the stage upon the defiant resumption of the event Wednesday, summarized the scandal thusly: "I feel a bit of history has been made here in the last day or so. What's happened here at this conference is that this process of silencing us has been dramatized in such a spectacular fashion that even the Belgian prime minister has denounced it along with [Prime Minister] Rishi Sunak in Britain, various German politicians, and a chorus of condemnation condemnation across the board and across continents."
"Talk about an own-goal," continued Phillips. "At a stroke, ideological enemies have shown that it is in fact the left that is intolerant and oppressive and a threat to democracy and a dictatorial risk to freedom and national cosnervativism is now the resistance."
"At a stroke, our ideological enemies have shown that it is, in fact, the Left that is intolerant and oppressive and a threat to democracy and a dictatorial risk to freedom. And National Conservatism is now the resistance."\n-@MelanieLatest #NatConBrussels2— (@)
The NatCon conference is a project of the Edmund Burke Foundation and is chaired by Israeli-American philosopher Yoram Hazony.
The project defines "National Conservatism" as "a movement of public figures, journalists, scholars, and students who understand that the past and future of conservatism are inextricably tied to the idea of the nation, to the principle of national independence, and to the revival of the unique national traditions that alone have the power to bind a people together and bring about their flourishing."
Past conferences have taken place across what was once regarded as the free world, in cities such as Orlando, Washington, D.C., London, and Rome. Past guests and speakers included Republican Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.); Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; elements of Blaze Media; and a host of international leaders of various political stripes.
This year, the conference — which counts former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Catholic Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Brexiteer Nigel Farage, and French politician Eric Zemmour among its speakers — had difficulty finding a venue in Brussels hosted by someone with the requisite intestinal fortitude to support free speech.
Politico reported that the conference, this year focused on the theme of "Preserving the Nation-State in Europe," initially secured the Concert Noble, but the host venue pulled out just days ahead of the conference.
Frank Füredi, the executive director of MCC Brussels, the think tank helping organize the event, said, "What has happened in these last few days represents nothing less than a crisis for free speech and political expression for all of Europe."
According to the Brussels Times, communists and other radicals pressured the venue to axe the event to preclude people from discussing and hearing about the fallout of mass migration, climate alarmism, LGBT imperialism, and the erosion of the nation-state.
Another venue caved to leftist pressure, canceling the conference's booking just 20 hours before the event was set to begin, prompting organizers to accuse Brussels' socialist mayor, Philippe Close, of trying to cancel the event for ideological reasons.
Neighboring municipalities also made clear that the conference would not be welcome.
The NatCon conference ultimately found a venue in the Claridge events hall reportedly run by a Tunisian man "who believes in free speech and who did not surrender to the tremendous political pressure to cancel a conservative conference."
Extra to receiving a standing ovation Wednesday, the host was personally thanked by Orbán.
Farage similarly lauded the Tunisian for standing up to the "bullyboys."
While the conference overcame the initial cancellation efforts, it still had to deal with the local authorities.
Emir Kir, the socialist mayor of the Brussels suburb Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, announced Tuesday morning that he had "issued an order from the Mayor to ban the 'National Conservatism Conference' event to guarantee public safety. In Etterbeek, Brussels City and Saint-Josse, the far-right is not welcome."
Kir previously indicated he would "immediately take measures to ban" the event.
Police dutifully stormed the event and sealed the entrances, ensuring attendees could not enter.
Here is the police presence outside not letting anybody in and if we leave not letting anybody back in! Insane!— (@)
Police enter venue of Nat Con conference in Brussels to serve a request to close down event. Farage on stage— (@)
Politico indicated that police informed organizers the event was being shut down hours before Nigel Farage's keynote speech.
"It's really something out of a tin-pot dictatorship" Füredi told Politico. "They're trying to use a technical reason to make a political point. They told the owner that if it doesn't get shut down they're gonna cut the electricity."
Farage noted that the socialist mayor's efforts to shut down conservative speech and appease the leftist mob were "like the old Soviet union. No alternative view allowed."
A second wave of officers came by at 12:45 p.m. to hand Anthony Gilland, the event's local organizer, the official shutdown order.
"One of the reasons that we've been given, it's not the only reason, is that there will be a counterprotest this afternoon around about 5 p.m. and the idea is that the police are not able to protect free speech at this event," said Gilland.
An apparent English translation of the shutdown order claims the the event "is likely to cause a serious disturbance of the public peace due to its provocative and discriminatory nature" and that some of the attendees "are reputed to be traditionalists, homophobes, and disrespectful of human rights and minorities; we can also cite an author of controversial works on political Islam."
Hazony announced the event would be "gradually" wound down Tuesday.
NatCon organiser Yoram Hazony announcing the conference would be closed gradually... Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman allowed to speak— (@)
Orbán said in a statement, "The Belgian police decided to shut down the @NatConTalk conference in #Brussels, just two hours after it started. I guess they couldn't take free speech any longer. The last time they wanted to silence me with the police was when the Communists set them on me in '88. We didn't give up then and we will not give up this time either!"
The Guardian reported that Farage told those gathered outside the venue, "I've experienced cancel culture personally here … but what has happened in there on the stage with global media, we can see that legally held opinions from people who are going to win national elections is not longer acceptable here in Brussels, the home of globalism."
"This is the complete old communist style where if you don't agree with me, you've got to be banned, you've got to be shut down," added Farage, who was de-banked last year over his political views.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the shutdown, saying, "What is happening in Brussels leaves us in disbelief and dismay. The mayor of one of the Belgian capital's municipalities has banned a conference, which is scheduled to be attended by heads of government, national and European parliamentarians."
"Following the order, police physically prevented guests and speakers from entering the conference," continued Meloni. "I immediately asked Prime Minister Alexander De Croo of Belgium to follow up on what was happening, and I thank him for his timely and clear stance against the hateful oppression of freedom of expression taking place in Brussels."
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, "Speaking more broadly to the principle of such events, he is very clear that canceling events or preventing attendance and no-platforming speakers is damaging to free speech and to democracy as a result."
British parliamentarian and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman tweeted, "It's laughable that the Brussels thought police were sent out to shut down a conference of democratically elected politicians representing the views of millions of people. They clearly didn't want to hear about how we can secure our borders & protect our citizens."
Proponents of the conference challenged the mayoral order with the help of the Christian advocacy group ADF International. Belgium's supreme administrative court said in an emergency session Tuesday that the conference could resume.
ADF International executive director Paul Coleman said in a statement, "While common sense and justice have prevailed, what happened yesterday is a dark mark on European democracy. No official should have the power to shut down free and peaceful assembly merely because he disagrees with what is being said."
Farage posted a video Wednesday morning wherein he gleefully noted he was on his way to the conference.
"It's still happening!" said Farage, who elsewhere penned an editorial suggesting the scandalous shutdown proved Brexit was a good call for Britons. "The local mayor has had his comeuppance. It's going to be a full house, a load of fun. It's a victory for free speech."
Nigel Farage | Return of the Nation State | NatCon Brussels 2youtu.be
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The European Union wants uniformity of vision and policy among its remaining member states. To this end, bureaucrats in Brussels have worked to crush dissent wherever it crops up. This cultural imperialism has proven ineffective against Hungary, which refuses to embrace the leftist orthodoxies of the day despite facing steep financial penalties for doing so.
Gergely Gulyas, chief of staff for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, made clear Thursday that while the Hungarian government is open to meeting various EU standards, "it would be undemocratic and unacceptable" to cave on policy issues of importance to the Hungarian people, particularly those concerning LGBT indoctrination and open borders.
In recent years, Hungary and Poland have resisted EU demands concerning various matters of policy and governance. This resistance — the product of mandates dictated by their respective populations through fair and free elections — has been characterized as a violation of both countries' respective EU member agreements promising to uphold democratic standards and common values.
The BBC noted that Orbán's Hungary has been accused of various supposed improprieties, including the curbing of minority rights.
A sticking point for leftists in Brussels as well as the Biden administration has been a law, approved in 2021 by Hungary's National Assembly in a 157-1 vote, which increased the punishment for convicted pedophiles and banned LGBT propaganda targeting children.
Orbán has also drawn the ire of EU officials for limiting the influx of so-called asylum-seekers to Hungary by requiring economic migrants and other foreign nationals to submit pre-asylum applications at its missions to Serbia or Ukraine. Ukrainians fleeing Russia's invasion are, however, exempt, reported Politico.
Brussels has similarly blasted Poland for various policy manifestations of its Christian national identity but accused its former government of undermining the independence of its courts.
To induce compliance, the EU starved both nations of billions of dollars in funding, including pandemic recovery funds that were otherwise given in abundance to other member states. This pressure campaign came to a head in December 2022 when the European Court of Justice ruled that funding was conditional on meeting the EU's so-called democratic standards.
After eight years of resistance with the conservative Law and Justice Party at the helm, Poland appears to be on the verge of capitulation under the new leadership of incoming premier and former European Council President Donald Tusk.
"We have confirmation from the European Commission — Poland meets the last three conditions necessary for the full mobilization of structural funds — €76 billion for the implementation of programs until 2027," Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nalęcz, the funds and regional policy minister, said on Friday.
Budapest, on the other hand, faces a longer road toward appeasement, which Orbán appears uninterested in traveling.
According to EuroNews, Hungary had to meet 27 "super milestones" as well as four additional "horizontal enabling conditions" to receive the whole of the over $32 billion owed to Hungary that has been frozen.
Hungary managed to unlock over $10.9 billion of the funds last month, having apparently addressed the EU's concerns about judicial reform. However, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen suggested last week that Hungary would have cave to LGBT activist demands, guarantee the right of so-called asylum, and bolster academic freedom to thaw out the remainder of the funds, reported Barron's.
The funds "will remain blocked until Hungary fulfills all the necessary conditions," said Leyen.
The European Parliament is not content to even allow Hungary to have the $10.9 billion it is owed. Last week, the legislature reportedly threatened to sue the EU's executive arm over the release of the funds to Hungary. It also raised the possibility of theoretically stripping Budapest of its EU voting rights.
"Parliament will look into whether legal action should be pursued to overturn the decision to partially unfreeze funds, and notes that it can use an array of legal and political measures," the legislature said in a statement.
The Hungarian government has underscored that the democratic will of its people is incompatible with so-called democratic standards abroad.
Gergely Gulyas stressed Thursday that there would be "limits" to reaching an agreement with the EU, given what is demanded runs contrary to the will of Hungarian voters, reported the Associated Press.
"The Hungarian government is willing to reach an agreement with the Commission, but in cases where people have expressed a clear opinion, it would be undemocratic and unacceptable," said Gulyas. "For Hungary, even despite the will of the European Commission, it is unacceptable to spread LGBTQ propaganda among children, and we also cannot abandon our position on migration issues."
Orbán indicated in a Friday radio broadcast, "The only thing we can say, very calmly, as a reply is that there there is not enough money in the world to force us to let migrants in. There is not enough money in the world for us to allow them to take away our country. We will not create conditions like we see in Western European states — the threat of terrorism, crime, I could go on and on."
"And there is not enough money in the world for which we would put our children or grandchildren in the hands of LGBTQ activists. That's impossible," added the prime minister.
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico commended Orbán last week for standing up for his country's sovereignty and indicated further he would shoot down any effort by the European Parliament to wrest away Hungary's voting rights in the legislature.
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Until SBC leaders are willing to risk real debate, real disagreement, and a real vision for the future, the convention will continue to feel more like an empty pageant than a movement.
Importing culturally foreign, economically dependent people is destroying the American way of life.
It’s unthinkable that an emergency legal challenge had to be mounted to gather in peace in the political heart of Europe.
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