Christian nationalism is a dead end for British conservatives
JD Vance supports re-election of Viktor Orban because the Hungarian autocrat funds a network of think tanks and writers that are crucial to his own succession of Donald Trump. This is not the way forward for the British right, says Alys Denby
“This is the horniest place I’ve ever been,” a fellow attendee said, noting the fevered enthusiasm of the men at the National Conservatism Conference for having babies. The women seemed less keen, the atmosphere being Gilead from the Handmaid’s Tale meets an expo by the Hungarian tourist board.
This strange event, which took place in 2023, also helps explain what JD Vance has been up to this week. The Hungarian state nurtures and funds an trans-Atlantic network of think tanks, writers and influencers promoting protectionist economics and Christian-nationalism as a vision for the revival of the right.
This is Vance’s milieu, therefore he sees the reelection of Viktor Orban as crucial to his own succession of Donald Trump. That’s why the Vice President stood alongside the Putin ally just days before Hungarians go to the polls and – without any apparent self-awareness – complained about foreign interference in European elections.
The influence of Orban’s Fidesz party on the British right might sound more sinister than it is. Speakers at the National Conservatism Conference included establishment thinkers like Michael Gove and discussion of serious topics like immigration control and the limits of globalisation.
Many of those who find themselves in its orbit are patriotic, frustrated with the status quo, attracted to new ideas and impressed by Roger Scruton’s historic affection for Hungary. Some have written for this newspaper. But the records of Orban, Vance and the MAGA movement should convince them that this is a dead end for British conservatives.
A failed doctrine
A doctrine framed around Christianity and hostility to gay rights will fail in a country where only five per cent of the population regularly attend church. Hungary allows IVF for single women but not for lesbians and bans pride marches – just nine per cent of Brits believe same sex relationships are “always wrong”. And a politics that abandons free market principles cannot claim to represent the interests of business – the most fundamental thing the right must do.
Orban is now facing his most serious electoral challenge in 16 years. As for MAGA, it anointed as its high priest a man who threatened to destroy a civilisation and has succeeded in destroying the world economy. Whatever Trump’s war aims were in Iran, he has failed catastrophically. There are now tolls on the Strait of Hormuz and Trump describes an Iranian peace plan, which includes the lifting of all sanctions and complete US withdrawal from the Middle East, as “workable”.
One success the MAGA movement can claim is it has made Europe become more independent in her own defence. If we are forced to test that new self-sufficiency against American troops in an ill-conceived conflict over Greenland, it will be a Pyrrhic victory indeed for this destructive ideology.
Alys Denby is opinion and features editor of Morning Wire