Gergely Prőhle welcomed our guests in the John Lukacs Lounge at the Ludovika University of Public Service. The director of the Otto von Habsburg Foundation noted that the choice of venue was not a coincidence: the room is named after one of the defining figures of 20th-century conservative thought, and even some of his personal memorabilia are on display here. In addition, the speaker’s father-in-law was a student at the Ludovika during the interwar period.
Subsequently, Janne Haaland Matlary outlined the principal ideas of her 2021 book in her lecture titled “Democracy at Risk: When Everything Becomes Political.” She stated that both the woke movement and populism are politicising the non-political, with the result that the personal becomes political and the political becomes personal – and in this respect, the situation has only deteriorated over the past three years. She warned that it is a dangerous trend when rights are defined, made binding, and rendered exclusive by supranational organisations and institutions, as this runs counter to the fundamental principles of classical democracy (separation of powers, equality before the law, and social contract). The former State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway noted that American populism, which has arisen as a counter-reaction to the woke movement, responds with similarly questionable acts of legitimacy from a democratic perspective. The expert expressed her hope that the politics of our continent will soon return to normality – that is, will restore national politics to the competence of nation-states, treat subsidiarity as a priority, and that the European Union will become a “home of nations”, not merely in slogans but in reality.
Márton Ugrósdy, Deputy State Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office and Head of the Office of the Prime Minister’s Political Director, reflected on the remarks. Afterwards, the participants discussed the current relationship between Hungary and the European Union, the redefined role of the United States in world affairs, and the Russian–Ukrainian war, moderated by Gergely Prőhle.
Janne Haaland Matlary’s book was published by Helikon Publishing House in cooperation with the Otto von Habsburg Foundation.
