CPAC In Hungary Amid Security Concerns
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News reporting from Budapest, Hungary
BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – America’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is holding its first-ever meeting in Europe to strengthen global ties despite security concerns surrounding delegates.
Well-informed sources say Hungary’s capital Budapest, where CPAC gathers, has become the second most crucial Russian intelligence outpost after neighboring Ukraine, where a war is raging.
Conversations by prominent right-wing leaders could be compromised by at least some of the many people linked to Russia’s security services, critics suggest.
Among those attending the two-day meeting is a U.S. contingent consisting of Republican members of Congress, ex-President Donald J. Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and the chairman of the American Conservative Union, Matt Schlapp.
European hardline right leaders include the former head of Britain’s Independence Party, Nigel Farage, Herbert Kickl, head of Austrian Freedom Party, and Santiago Abascal, president of Spain’s Vox party.
Among media personalities addressing the gathering online is Fox News tv talk show host Tucker Carlson whose father, a public relations guru, lobbied for Hungary’s government.
Richard Kraemer, an American Republican and analyst at the European Values Centre for Security Policy (EVCSP) in the Czech capital Prague, accused participants of reckless behavior. “If you walk into this environment, you’re looking at – by at least one count –about a thousand security agency-related Russians in Hungary right now,” he said in published remarks.
LOW-HANGING FRUITS
“And to put that in perspective, they have 170 diplomats in Washington. There are all these kinds of avenues whereby they’re able to put agents of influence in there and in front of Americans. They are basically low-hanging fruit that has decided to get even closer to the ground by showing up in Budapest,” Kraemer warned.
“CPAC has basically decided that the culture wars being fought right now by American conservatives are more important than America’s national security,” he told The Guardian newspaper.
Yet Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, believes it’s worse the risk. The keynote speaker at the rightwing love-fest views CPAC as a critical instrument to strengthen conservative ties and protect Christian values.
Ahead of the gathering, Orbán effectively told Parliament about the “great replacement” ideology discussed at the meeting.
The ideology claims there is a liberal plot to dilute “the white Christian” populations with other civilizations by a massive influx of, for instance, Muslim migrants.
“I see the great European population exchange as a suicidal attempt to replace the lack of European, Christian children with adults from other civilizations – migrants,” Orbán said.
DEADLY SHOOTINGS
However, liberal commentators say the ideology preached by Orbán and other CPAC fans was cited by the killer who opened fire on Saturday in a supermarket in a predominantly black area of Buffalo, New York.
Speaking in Buffalo on Tuesday, Joe Biden called it a “perverse ideology” and “a lie.” Orbán and other delegates vehemently denied those allegations saying they wanted to prevent the destruction of Christianity and related values.
Orbán also used his speech marking the start of his fourth term in office to lash out at the European Union over what he called “gender madness.”
He referred to LGBTQ+ rights on the continent and the EU pressure to overturn Hungarian legislation banning gay and transgender education and information to minors.
And, to CPAC delegates, Orbán is seen as an example of how the United States should return to at least some of its conservative and Christian roots.
They also praise his decision to set up a massive anti-migration fence along Hungary’s long border with Serbia after hundreds of thousands of migrants entered.
CPAC delegates believe the Biden administration should finish a similar wall near Mexico and improve border security.
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