We talked to Márton Ugrósdy, Deputy State Secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister's Political Director, about the political significance of Viktor Orbán's White House visit.
The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians – about their unique ideas.
Host: Tamás Maráczi, a journalist at the Danube Institute.
Since 1990, every July, across the Carpathian basin, from Sopron to Szeged, from Kaposvar to Koloszvar, Hungarians pile into friends' cars, or slow trains, and set out on a long journey East. From Budapest itself, the Hungarian capital, they will travel more than 800 kilometres.
Actually, it is less a journey, and more like a pilgrimage. And it is one that will take them ‘across the forest’ - Trans-Sylvania - and deep into the wooded, winding, and rather uncanny valleys of the Eastern Carpathians in Romania. But for Hungarians, while this is to enter another state, it is also to enter a world by a different name: Nagy Magyarorzsag - greater or historic Hungary.
For these distant, green valleys are the home of a Hungarian minority known as the Szekelys. Around two million of them still live in what was, until 1919, Hungarian soil.
They go to take part in Tusvanyos. Or to give it its full title, is the Balvanyosi Summer Free University and Student Camp. This year was the 34th Tusvanyos.
To foreign eyes, Tusvanyos is an unusual hybrid: part literary and cultural festival, with panel discussions running all day, and part music and drinking festival in the evening, all enclosed by a fence to keep the 25-30 000 attendees off the menu for the bears that prowl the woods around the site.
But it is also a political rally of sorts. On the last day, one bear always breaches the fence: Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian PM arrives to deliver what amounts to his ‘State of the Nation’ address, to a crowd of ten thousand.
Despite its remoteness, and indeed despite being held in another country, Tusvanyos is perhaps the most significant fixture in the calendar in the life of Hungary’s conservative political establishment.
How did such an odd hybrid come to be? Answering that means going back: to the chaotic early 90s freedom era. To the heady days of the ‘rendszervaltas’ – the ‘system change’ or the ‘regime change’ – that came with the end of communism in 1990.
It’s a surprising story - of a revolution, a young activist from Hungary, a British writer, and the strange afterlife of young dreams.
In 1989, Zsolt Nemeth was mid-20s, and nine weeks before an election where he’d become a member of parliament.
David Campanale was also that age, an English journalist, working for the BBC in Eastern Europe, covering the fall of the Iron Curtain and what came after.
In this episode of Danube Culture, they explain to Research Director Calum Nicholson how the festival was born out of a strange ragged road trip into Romania, as the embers of Communism still smouldered.
We asked the former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore about everything you always wanted to know about the geopolitics of the Pacific, but were afraid to ask.The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians – about their unique ideas. Host: Tamás Maráczi, a journalist at the Danube Institute.
We asked Curtis Yarvin, political philosopher, entrepreneur, computerscientist, and CEO of Urban Tiger about the ideological causes and politicalconsequences of Charlie Kirk's assassination.The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers,experts, academics, and politicians – about their unique ideas.
Host: Tamás Maráczi, a journalist at the Danube Institute.
In February of 2024, Vladimir Putin sat down with Tucker Carlson for a long-form interview.
This was billed as a titanic clash. After years of hearing about the Russian leader, now, Western audiences were to hear from him, shattering a taboo that had held since the outbreak of the Ukraine War.
The world waited to hear. And what we heard was… baffling. Boring.
With only his opening question, Carlson came up against a sheer wall of history. Suddenly, we were in the 10th century, in Kievan Rus, with Volodymyr the Great. Then Peter the Great. Catherine The Great. Knitting these nodes into a grand arc that proved to him that Ukraine was always part of Russia.
On and on, Putin propounded a view of the past that Westerners had never heard. Didn’t particularly care about, and on aggregate did not care for.
Many saw the interview as Putin throwing up a smokescreen. They dismissed it as cheap parlour games.
But some commentators saw something else.
They said that Putin was at least telling a history he had been told. And that if we were to understand why Russia fought, we should investigate the long view they held. In short, as much as an actual war, Putin was also on one side of a Culture War.
Perhaps most enlightened version of this thesis was that we had moved from the gentle world of history, into the hard turf of historiography.
History is to do with facts. Historiography, to do with how cultures interpret those facts. It’s often said that he who controls the past, controls the future.
But it is not so often said that we don’t always have control over the past. It emerges, from a collision of scholarship, national identities, and the vagaries of time itself.
Often, we lose sight of that dynamic. But historiography is all around us. Would we just see it.
For Danube Knowledge, Gavin Haynes is joined by two men who possess just such X-Ray vision. Dr Eric Hendriks. And Stefano Arroque. Both are fellows at the Danube Institute. Eric is a Dutch sociologist. Stefano is a Brazilian researcher, with a specialism in EU and European politics.
They’ve recently published a paper for the DI, along with our academic Daniel Farkas, which addressed the question of clashing narratives. But in the context of the intra-European culture wars. The war between liberal anti-nationalist interpretation of history and the anti-totalitarian nationalist one.
The paper is called: Why Europe Needs Historiographic Tolerance
They argue that if we want to make the European Union work, we have to acknowledge that there are different legitimate interpretations of the darkest chapters of 20th century history.
And that work started in one of the least historically dramatic of all Europe’s coves, but one that seems to hold the key to explaining Europe’s own culture war … Luxembourg.
We spoke with John Whittingdale, former Political Secretary to PM Margaret Thatcher, about the Iron Lady's life and legacy at the Danube Institute's Thatcher conference in Budapest.
The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians – about their unique ideas.
Host: Tamás Maráczi, a journalist at the Danube Institute.
Sweden. Europe’s eternal model of the right path. And increasingly, also its vision of the wrong road.
Since the year 2000, Sweden has run the mass migration experiment at hyper-speed. And equally, it is now running a counter-revolution at similar pace. Anyone familiar with the country will be aware of the Law of Jonte and the concept of the Thought Corridor.
Swedes are herd-like: it is very hard to break with Orthodoxy. But when the herd moves, the herd moves.
In 2022, populism came to Sweden. The country fractured its historical cordon sanitaire, to elect a coalition of the centre-right Moderate Party, with support from the hard right Sweden Democrats, led by Jimmy Akkeson.
Akkeson has been a fixture in Swedish politics for over 15 years. His career is a classic case of First they laugh at you, then they denounce you, then you win. From national joke, into the Riskdag. Akkeson has modified his positions somewhat, presented a more clean-cut image. But in the main, it is public opinion that has done the real pivot.
The Sweden Democrats are now three years deep into a coalition that has not faltered. And, as a result of the historic Tidö Agreement, has made great strides in regulating immigration.
Yet despite delivering what they promised on that score, the public appetite does not appear to be sated. Indeed, Swedes today are drifting further right than they ever have on questions of culture. With an election due in 2026, it now appears that Akkeson could not only bolster the traditional parties - he could lead a government.
What happens next? Could Sweden now point the way to a sophisticated dismantlement of the mass migration project? And could Akkeson prove central to that?
To explain, Gavin Haynes is joined by visiting fellow at the Danube Institute, Markus Johansson-Martis.
We asked Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden, about Europe's bright or dark future at the Brain Bar festival in Budapest.
The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians – about their unique ideas.
Host: Tamás Maráczi, a journalist at the Danube Institute.
Something’s brewing in Central.
Here in the so-called Visegrad Four - Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, the shape of your average parliament no longer mirrors that of the wider Europe.
In Hungary, Viktor Orban’s challenger in the 2026 elections will be a centre-right former Fidesz cadre.
In Poland, Donald Tusk ran from the centre-right to narrowly beat the conservative right of Law and Justice.
In Slovakia, the heterodox anti-EU populist Robert Fico remains the dominant figure.
And in Czechia, Andrej Babis has just been returned to power, after four years in the wilderness.
Babis’ headlines in the West often describe him as a maverick billionaire of the populist right — a Trump for Prague.
Babis now needs an additional twenty one seats to find a workable coalition.
But the bigger picture is already clear: between Fico, Orban and Babis, Central Europe is now the beating heart of nationalist-populism - and an effective blocking vote against EU centralism.
As Babis comes back, how should we interpret Central Europe’s nationalist turn?
Gavin Haynes is joined by two Danube researchers who’ve been studying the issue, in the context of the Czech elections. Visiting Fellow Hugo Martin, and Senior Fellow Peter Sztitas.
We spoke with Robert Wilkie, Chairman of the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute and former United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs about Trump's three unresolved geopolitical games.
The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians – about their unique ideas.
Host: Tamás Maráczi, a journalist at the Danube Institute.
What is Israel planning to do after the Western recognition of Palestine? Will there be a point when Washington doesn’t back Israel further? Why has the Hungarian government become a staunch pro-Israeli government?
We spoke with the former Political Director of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the fragile situation of the Jewish state.
The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians – about their unique ideas.
Host: Tamás Maráczi, a journalist at the Danube Institute.
Is there a season to burn? And are we now in it?
Vice President JD Vance guest-hosted the Charlie Kirk Show, in lieu of his assassinated friend. At the end of the webcast, Vance gave one of the most extraordinary closing monologues in TV history.
Visibly upset, naming the Soros Foundation and the Ford Foundation as wealthy accomplices to violent left-wing radicalism, he promised little short of vengeance, a righteous fury that would purify America of the institutions and actors that have legitimised political violence.
There can be no doubt that Vance spoke for tens of millions of Americans who are sick of the growing radicalism of the woke era. But how far will this vengeance go?
Is the right now ready to take on the structures of power themselves?
One man who might know is Curtis Yarvin. Yarvin is America’s foremost advocate for the proposition that democracy is outdated.
He represents a more radical view from Charlie Kirk of what should be done. For him, to take power always means to reform its deepest structures -- and that requires a will to power that leaves little off the table.
It’s time to talk about the limits of anger. To whom can vengeance belong, in a democracy? What does the present moment demand?
Wrath and the future of the conservative movement: this time, on View From The Danube.
View From The Danube is the video podcast of the Danube Institute, a conservative think tank based in Budapest. This month, it stars Curtis Yarvin, Zsófia Bódi-Rácz, and Calum Nicholson. It is hosted by Rod Dreher.
Britain has become a meme.
Twenty years ago, it was still the floppy charms of Hugh Grant that served to frame American impressions of this distant province within its imperium.
Notting Hill England still lived, alongside other cliches.
But in the past twelve months, the varnish has truly rubbed off in the minds of many foreign spectators.
Thanks in part to ardent anglophile Elon Musk, Britain has become renowned for its anti-speech surveillance state, its ethnic grooming gangs, its vast levels of unintegrated mass migration, and its general air of economic sag.
Today, that impression risks becoming dominant. In the public mind. Online, the United Kingdom has become known Yookay - a creole spelling — denoting a garish and alien country, hermit crabbing in the ashes of old England.
This unwelcome image change poses several questions:
Questions about its overall truth, which is of course a refraction of online discourse.
Questions about ho the political class are dealing with a society in obvious decline - and how much of this reality they can even accept.
Then, about the power of Britain to change itself.
Is what is happening here a deep, almost ethnogenic endpoint of one kind of society? Or is it simply a call to get our house in order?
Gavin Haynes, a visiting fellow at the Danube Institute, is joined by David Frost, Lord Frost of Allenton, who is himself senior fellow here at the Danube Institute.
Will there ever be a Palestinian state?
Do the Palestinians have a right to form a state? If there is a one-state solution, what will happen to the Palestinian population? Why is compromise impossible with Hamas and the Palestinian Authority?
We asked the head of the Shomron Regional Council, the quasi-leader of the Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria about the fading two-state solution.
The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians – about their unique ideas.
Host: Tamás Maráczi, a journalist at the Danube Institute.
Is reliance on Russian energy a choice or a necessity?Has Hungary made efforts to diversify its energy resources since 2022? What alternative energy supply routes does Hungary have? What will Hungary do if Donald Trump asks it to stop buying Russian oil?We asked the Hungarian State Secretary for Energy about Hungary’s energy policy.
The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians – about their unique ideas.
Host: Tamás Maráczi, a journalist at the Danube Institute.
In October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis sent 40000 volts through the global geopolitical system.
The discovery of Soviet missile bases, 90 miles off the coast of America could not stand. But could it be reversed?
Today, we know how the story ends.
The boats turned back. World War Three was postponed.
But at the time, it wasn’t so obvious.
Sean Nottoli is a visiting fellow at the Danube Institute.
Sean joins host Gavin Haynes to tell us about another island, another sea, and another crucible of the potential next World War 3. Of Taiwan. And China.
Plenty of Western countries have good relations with America, he argues. But few have equally good relations with China. And for that matter, Taiwan.
Could the Swiss model – a new kind of neutrality – allow Hungary to leverage its geopolitical strengths in the 21st century?
What is the importance of Hungary in Europe? What is the significance of the upcoming election in Hungary? Why do European institutions continuously criticize the policies of Fidesz?
We asked the head of the MCC School of Media about the changing political landscape in Hungary.
The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians – about their unique ideas.
Host: Tamás Maráczi, a journalist at the Danube Institute.
China and the West have known each other for longer than we commonly admit. For most of that time, a small cognoscenti have taken each other's ideas and run with them, in mutual admiration.
In this episode of Danube Culture, Philip Pilkington and David Dusenberry look over their recent lectures and seminars on the topic, up to an essay they co-authored entitled: 'The Western Roots of China and the Chinese Roots of the West.' from Confucianism, travelling to Europe, to the power of Marxism in Chinese ideas in China.
What are the ideological roots of this self-hating Western mentality? What did the ancient people know about the purpose of life that we do not? What are the symptoms of the decline of Western civilization?We asked Swedish-American author and philosopher Benedict Beckeld aboutour significant problem.The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks the institute's guests, decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians about their unique ideas.Host: Tamás Maráczi, a journalist at the Danube Institute.
Will Romania ever grant autonomy to Szeklerland? Why does Romania consider Russia an imminent threat to Europe’s security? Why do Hungary and Romania view Ukraine’s possible EU membership from different angles? We asked a Romanian foreign policy analyst and former presidential adviser about Hungarian-Romanian relations and the Russian threat.The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks the institute's guests, decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians about their unique ideas. Host: Tamás Maráczi, a journalist at the Danube Institute.