How Orban's loss could damage the British right

How Orban's loss could damage the British right Imran Mulla on Mon, 04/13/2026 - 14:36 The outgoing Hungarian prime minister set up a trans-national right-wing network centred on Budapest, but with his ousting the future of such institutions is unclear Reform UK leader Nigel Farage at a photoshoot to publicise a slogan ahead of the local elections in May, London, 10 April 2026 (AFP) Off In recent years, Hungary has emerged as a rallying point for European and American conservatives. Outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has overseen the creation of a constellation of right-wing think tanks, publications and fellowships set up to support right-wing parties and movements across Europe and the US - and increase Hungarian soft power. Orban's network has had a particularly strong impact in Britain, attracting significant support from prominent figures in Reform UK, the British right-wing party currently dominating in the polls. Matt Goodwin, who in February lost a byelection in Greater Manchester as Reform's candidate to the Green Party, was on Monday scheduled to deliver a talk to the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), often described as Orban's "pet university". But on Sunday night Orban was ousted from office after 16 years in power, in an election that saw his opponent - the conservative candidate Peter Magyar - win with more than 53 percent of the vote. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Now a large question mark hangs over this wide collection of Orban-linked right-wing institutions. The Danube Institute, based in Budapest, has become a magnet for thinkers on the British right. "No one knows what will happen," Gavin Hayes, a British visiting fellow at the institute, told Middle East Eye on Monday. "Effectively this is an arm of Hungarian public diplomacy, so the new government could come in and decide there'll always be the place for an Anglophone institute." 'An intellectual turnstile' Danube's founder, John O'Sullivan, was Margaret Thatcher's speechwriter. Now 83, he remains an active presence in the think tank, a crucial piece in Orban's European project. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); It employs mainly British and American fellows, who write for conservative publications in the Anglosphere like The Spectator and UnHerd. Boris Johnson's former social justice adviser, Tim Montgomerie, gave a speech to the Danube Institute in 2019 urging a "special relationship" between Britain and Hungary. It is funded by the Hungarian government, through the publicly managed Batthyany Lajos Foundation. 'King Charles is a secret Muslim!': The bizarre things I heard at the Reform party conference Read More » "It's an intellectual turnstile," Hayes told MEE of Danube, reflecting that he has met more prominent right-wing thinkers from London at the institute in Budapest "than I ever did in London". "It's gotten the world interested in Hungary, in the Orban model, in questions of natalism and a quite different style of social democracy mixed with social populism. It's been something the right in Britain can look towards," he reflected. "It’s been a place where people on the hard right of British politics can flock towards, and exchange ideas with people who are their intellectual comrades." While it is unclear what will happen to Danube, the Tisza party - which won Sunday's election - campaigned on a platform that committed to ending the use of public funds to forge political networks. "We will draw a clear line between education and propaganda," the party promised, pledging to recover MCC's state assets. In 2020, Orban's government gave MCC 10 percent stakes in two large Hungarian companies including energy firm MOL, which sources most of its crude oil from Russia. Reform UK and Budapest One of MCC's former visiting fellows is Reform UK's Goodwin, who claimed in a speech hosted by MCC in Brussels that "by the end of this century, one in three of the under 40s in the United Kingdom will be following Islam". MCC runs an annual summit at King's College London, and has also given more than half a million pounds (over 90 percent of its funding) to the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation (RSLF), named after the late English conservative philosopher (there is also a cafe chain in Hungary named after Scruton). (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Michael Gove, a former Conservative minister who is now editor of The Spectator, sits on the RSLF's board. One of its directors is James Orr, a Cambridge theologian and senior adviser to Reform leader Nigel Farage. Last August, speaking at a political festival in Hungary, Orr called Orban's government a "counterexample to the ideology in my own country that rejects national pride and heritage". Also at the event was right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel, former Boris Johnson adviser Dominic Cummings and Goodwin, who hailed Orban's government as the opposite of what he described as the "national self-loathing" in Britain. Nigel Farage makes outlandish claim of Islamists 'embedded' within UK establishment Read More » In 2021 Orban described Muslim refugees as "Muslim invaders", and in 2022 he condemned the "mixing" of European and non-European races. In 2019 Farage said: "Do I see Orban as a little authoritarian monster? No I do not. He represents much more the future of Europe." Farage continued: "He actually believes in things. He does not sheepishly, slavishly go along with the European project… he firmly believes in the concept of the nation-state." In 2024, Farage even spoke at the National Conservatism conference in Brussels, which was headlined by Orban. The event was sponsored by MCC's Brussels arm and run by the Washington-based Edmund Burke Foundation, chaired by Orr. At a Conservative Political Action Conference last month in Budapest, Orban spoke alongside Argentinian President Javier Milei, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump delivered video messages. Now, with MCC potentially on the ropes, the enormous trans-national right-wing network centred around Budapest could be forced to seek new patrons. UK Politics News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0