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. 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. 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…” – Read more