“National conservatives” are forging a global front against liberalism

Y ou might call Budapest a Mecca, were Islam not anathema to the pilgrims flocking there. An anti-Davos would be a better description: a place where conservative nationalists from all over the world gather to compare notes on how to defeat international liberalism. Either way, Hungary’s capital is at the heart of a global movement to reinvent right-wing politics. Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister since 2010, is one of the main proponents of the “national conservatism” that is newly ascendant in much of the world. “Hungary is saying outspokenly and loudly some anti-establishment things about migration, about the role of family, about gender, about the role of national sovereignty,” says Balasz Orban, the prime minister’s (unrelated) political director. The Hungarian government has spent a lot of time and money trying to propagate this ideology. State-sponsored institutes and think-tanks have cultivated warm ties with right-wing American outfits expounding the politics of Donald Tru

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• Andrew Xu