Editorial: The Disappointment of Hungary

By | 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 17 (C-Fam). A few years ago, I was at a private luncheon for about 20 people to meet with the Hungarian Ambassador to the United States. It was a lively conversation, mostly congratulatory of Orban and all that Hungary had accomplished domestically. The point of it all was to urge American conservatives to make common cause with Orban’s government.

I asked the Ambassador if he was aware that his government was taking leftist positions at the United Nations on life and family matters. He asked me to pass along any information we had, and he would look into it.

One of many pro-lifers at the table sidled up to me and thanked me for bringing this up.  And then this person informed me that her group couldn’t because they were working with Hungary on “projects.” This interaction has been all too common in recent years. Good social conservatives demurring on key issues, presumably to maintain their “access.” The threat of losing access strikes fear into the bravest of hearts.

I went along with the charade and sent him the positions his government was taking in active negotiations, in which they sided with the enemy on life and family matters. Their response was to accuse C-Fam of misrepresenting their government’s position. This is false.

The fact is, he knew all along that Hungary was closely aligned with France, Germany, the UK, and even the Nordics in promoting gender ideology and abortion. But he did nothing about it.

When we have told conservative friends and allies about Hungary at the UN, there is, if not shock, at least surprise. How could Hungary support gender ideology or abortion in UN policy? Hungary is so solid! To be sure, Hungary is quite good on moral issues domestically. During UN negotiations, it is another matter.

Hungary has refused to fight against the phrase sexual and reproductive health and rights even though this phrase is used by the EU to push abortion and sex-rejecting procedures around the world. They have refused to push back against the phrase sexual orientation and gender identity even though this is used by EU and UN bodies to push the gender agenda upon school kids all over the world. In recent months, they voted against the phrase “child porn,” favoring instead a phrase, dictated by Brussels, that allows nations to decriminalize virtual child pornography.

Over the years, a handful of very important Hungarians have brought this to the attention of the Orban government in Budapest to no avail. Orban did nothing about it. Hungarian diplomats continued to actively lead EU delegations into anti-family positions as recently as the Commission on the Status of Women last month.

A few years ago, the good people at the Budapest-based Danube Institute [run by C-Fam board member John O’Sullivan] allowed me to lecture on this topic. While there, conservative journalists actually defended the leftist position of Hungary at the UN. What I heard was that Hungary’s leftist positions at the UN were not in conflict with domestic Hungarian laws. That answer reflects ignorance and complacency about UN policy more than serious thought. Hungary, which bangs on about national sovereignty, was happy to allow the EU and UN to violate the sovereignty of states that oppose the left-wing sexual agenda in Hungary’s name.

An American academic who moved his family to Budapest a few years ago so that he could advise the Orban government will say what happens at the UN does not matter. One wonders why, if this is indeed so, the EU nations and European Institutions spend billions of dollars trying to influence the outcome at the UN. Whatever the case, Hungarians are about to find out.

It would have been a simple thing for powerful American conservatives, far more powerful than C-Fam, with access to the Hungarian government, to have asked them to take pro-life and pro-family positions at the UN. But they didn’t.

Perhaps Orban et al were only ever interested in what was theirs and did not care about what happened to others beyond their border. There is a kind of selfishness here. In the end, we do not mourn the exit of Orban et al. We are not hopeful, but let us see what the new guy will do.

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