O, my God, the Magyar bless
With Thy plenty and good cheer!
With Thine aid his just cause press,
Where his foes to fight appear.
Fate, who for so long did’st frown,
Bring him happy times and ways;
Atoning sorrow hath weighed down
Sins of past and future days.
—Ferenc Kölcsey, “Himnusz.”

The recent election in Hungary which unseated longtime Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has rung alarms throughout European and American conservative circles. As Prime Minister since 2010, Orbán had made his country a seeming refuge of decency in a continent whose national (in most countries) and EU leadership appear bound and determined to replace their native populations, impose perversion, infanticide, euthanasia, and a host of other ills into every nook and cranny of national life, and to wipe out any sort of dissent from this toxic program. Orbán’s Hungary, by contrast, worked to strengthen the birthrate and family life, reinforce national culture, limit immigration, and reinstall national pride. 

Moreover, his government invited a host of conservative thinkers of varying styles and schools to take up residence there through such mixed government and private efforts as the Danube Institute and the Mathias Corvinus Collegium. The chain of Scruton coffee shops has become legendary throughout the country. Orbán has refused to accept Brussels’ directions in his foreign and immigration policy—and the EU has held up funding and punished Hungary in other ways as a result.

The European People’s Party—the umbrella group of formerly “Christian” Democratic parties in the EU Parliament—expelled Orbán’s Fidesz Party a few years ago for the high crime and misdemeanor of retaining the beliefs of such Christian Democratic Founding Fathers as Schuman, Adenauer, and de Gasperi. The EU administration in Brussels have attacked and insulted Orbán’s government in terms of finance, criticism, and much else.

The European People’s Party expelled Orbán’s Fidesz Party a few years ago for the high crime and misdemeanor of retaining the beliefs of such Christian Democratic Founding Fathers.Tweet This

Part of what angered them most was Orbán’s steady reassertion of Hungarian national identity. The original name, coat of arms, and national anthem of the country were all revived, as was the State’s veneration of the Holy Crown of St. Stephen. Various traditional titles for county officials were revived, and behind it all lay a great fear, that was probably spotted by the media and the political establishment throughout Europe and seen as a great danger.

This danger was exposed in the Austrian periodical Der Standard, whose August 10, 2025, issue carried an article with the shrill title “How the Habsburgs and Viktor Orbán form a political symbiosis.” The intro line shrieked, “Several members of the Habsburg family are actively involved with the Hungarian Prime Minister, some holding official positions. This also aligns ideologically.”

The article carried on in the same tone:

Catholic, revisionist, illiberal—and suddenly politically relevant: In Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, the Habsburgs are celebrating an ideological comeback. Two family members are official ambassadors; one writes books about the “Habsburg way of life,” the other gives lectures at far-right political organizations. And the Hungarian Prime Minister is enthusiastic: “We think alike.”

Among other horrific things the article accused the Habsburgs of doing, its authors zeroed in on the current Head of the House, Karl von Habsburg. “Today, he is involved in foreign policy for Ukraine, is a close friend of investigative journalist Christo Grozev—with whom he also founded several companies—and was a supporter of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny.” But he ultimately cannot be trusted: “However, in terms of social policy, he is remembered for comparing the abortion drug Mifegyne to the death penalty in 2002.”

This last outweighed, in Der Standard’s eyes, his efforts on the part of Ukraine. They condemned him further, citing his dealings with this writer:

Karl Habsburg officially rules out a return of the monarchy. And yet he wrote the foreword to a book by the US historian Charles Coulombe, which deals with the “Blessed Emperor Karl,” his grandfather. Coulombe openly advocates a Habsburg restoration, laments the liberalization of Western societies since 1968—and asks whether Europe can regain its “soul.” 

While I am certainly guilty as charged, the Archduke Karl most certainly is not. Nor was Orbán interested in a Habsburg restoration—but more of that momentarily.

Of more immediate interest, in all likelihood, to his opponents in Brussels on the one hand and George Soros on the other, was Orbán’s “intransigence” on LGBTQ+ issues, immigration (for which the EU withheld development funds due Hungary), support for “Far Right Parties” throughout Europe, and refusal to fully support the Ukraine War. The country faced unrelenting pressure from Brussels and elsewhere as a result, and one symptom of such was the rise of Péter Magyar.

Originally a member of Orbán’s government, Magyar resigned in February 2024 in response to the Katalin Novák presidential pardon scandal. On March 15, 2024, he assumed leadership of the hitherto unknown Respect and Freedom (Hungarian: Tisztelet és Szabadság, Tisza) party, emerging as the most prominent opposition leader.

The name—Tisza—was telling. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Tiszas were a noble family and leaders of the dominant Hungarian Liberal Party. Committed, on the one hand, to Magyarizing the numerically dominant Slovak, Croatian, Romanian, Ruthenian, Slovenian, and Serbian minorities within the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, on the other they constantly attempted to chisel as much power as possible away from the Habsburgs and into their own hands. This inevitably led them into conflict with Archduke Franz Ferdinand who, despite his love of the Magyars and his close connection with the Catholic Party in Hungary, wanted to federalize the Empire.

When Franz Ferdinand was murdered in 1914, his views were taken up by his nephew, Bl. Karl, who would continue having to deal with the Tisza’s obstructionism after ascending to the Imperial and Royal thrones in 1916. After the war and until 1945, the Habsburgs continued to press for a Danubian Federation. Successive Hungarian governments up to and including Orbán’s preserved what they considered to be seriously important in the legacy of Kossuth’s 1848 Rebellion, in which a major chunk of the Magyars rebelled against the Habsburgs. In name, at any rate, Peter Magyar’s party name hearkened back to the same family whom Orbán’s government derived a good deal of legitimacy from.

While in the political wilderness, Péter Magyar became close to many in the Brussels Eurocracy, even while building his alliances with the disaffected in Hungary and such as George Soros abroad. Foreign funding was key to his party’s rapid rise. But Orbán’s perceived tolerance of widespread corruption among his pals led to a great sense of outrage over time. All of these realities forced Magyar to appear in three different guises.

While in the political wilderness, Péter Magyar became close to many in the Brussels Eurocracy, even while building his alliances with the disaffected in Hungary and such as George Soros abroad.Tweet This

To a great many Hungarians, he must be made to look like a great reformer. To many others, he must seem to be like Orbán, only incorruptible—combining what was most popular in his rival’s program with personal financial rectitude. But for a minority within Hungary and his foreign supporters, Magyar must appear as the one who reopens Hungary to all the moral corruption, repopulation, and secularization so popular in the rest of Europe. In a word, to satisfy all of his constituents, he must be all things to all people.

As a result of this, he sends extremely mixed signals in the wake of his election. At the Hungarian National Day, he wore the kind of native costume that is associated with the Right Wing in Hungary. At the same time, he appointed Judit Lannert as Minister of Education and Child Care Affairs of Hungary. Having promoted LGBTQ+ activism on her Facebook profile in the summer of 2021, when the national Assembly of Hungary passed the Child Protection Act, she is the darling of some and the focus of hatred of others.

In addition to these interesting points, Magyar has declared: “We used to share a country, and Austria is a key economic partner of Hungary. I would like to strengthen the relationship between Hungary and Austria for historical but also for cultural and economic reasons.” He has gone on to call for closer bonds between Hungary, Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Croatia.

This is actually a rather key statement. Together with Poland, these countries (with the partial exception of Austria) are, for the most part, conservative in terms of family and other social issues. Apart, they are merely small units of the EU and not in a position to resist Brussels’ social and “moral” demands in the long run. Together, however, in a sort of “federation-within-a-federation” in the EU, they would be a force to be reckoned with. Possessed of a population of some 40.6 million people, “Danubia,” or whatever it might be called, would be quite capable of holding its own within the European Union. Moreover, it could be a center of gravity for all sorts of decent-minded folk across Europe.

This outcome, however, depends on several things. First, Magyar would need to be playing a canny if dishonest card. He must be truly committed to Hungarian survival and as much a devotee as ever a Hungarian was of the Crown of St. Stephen; but he must conceal this devotion from his would-be masters in Brussels. More than this, however, he must also be willing to give up those attitudes of ethnic superiority, which have governed a large percentage of Hungarian patriotism since 1848. 

But even being willing to do so, if Magyar wishes to accomplish more in the outside world, he will have to overcome the mutual hatred which has kept the peoples of Central Europe divided. Traditionally, only two things have done so. One of these is the Catholic Faith. It remains stronger in Central Europe as a cultural force than in the West, but it certainly could use a great deal more lay and clerical zeal if it is to regain its role as mediator of the Nations. This is perhaps best symbolized by Our Lady of Mariazell, who is at once Magna Mater Austriae, Mater Gentium Slavorum, and Magna Domina Hungarorum. Another religious expression of regional religious unity is the growing cultus of Bl. Karl and his wife, Servant of God Zita.

This latter reminds us of the second factor, which Orbán—despite Der Standard—had little intention of restoring: the illustrious House of Habsburg. A number of its members are still quite active in the region, especially the head, Archduke Karl, and his brother Archduke Georg. If Magyar can force himself to behave like a statesman, he will bring about not only a wonderful situation for Central Europe but ultimately the whole continent. A united, free, Christian, and Monarchical Central Europe shall be a catalyst for all of Europe.

Of course, it may well be that Magyar will not be a secret paladin of truth. He might well work to obliterate all that Orbán accomplished and have the EU construct of gender confusion and population replacement imposed upon the country. In this scenario, his regime mirrors the worst fears of the Hungarian majority. All this will mean, however, is postponing the inevitable regime change which appears to be a phenomenon toward which all of the Mother Continent is heading.