Ordo Iuris at the CPAC conference in Budapest

Ordo Iuris

· An international conference of conservative circles - CPAC Hungary - took place in Budapest on April 26–27. The event brought together politicians, experts and representatives of social organizations operating on several different continents.

· The participants included: Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán, former Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki, leader of the Spanish VOX party Santiago Abascal and former senator and candidate in the Republican Party primaries for the President of the United States Rick Santorum.

· One of the speakers was also the president of the Ordo Iuris Institute, attorney Jerzy Kwaśniewski, who took part in a debate on gender ideology.

· During the conference, Ordo Iuris representatives presented publications and educational materials prepared by the Institute’s experts. A graphic presenting the effects of treaty changes currently underway in the European Union was particularly popular.

CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) is an annual conference of conservative circles that was first organized in1973 in the United States. Since 2022, the Hungarian analytical think tank Center for Fundamental Rights (Alapjogokért Központ) has organized a European edition of the event, known as CPAC Hungary.

During this year’s third edition of the CPAC Hungary conference, many leading politicians and other individuals associated with conservative circles in Europe, the Americas and Australia spoke. There were also Polish accents. The conference was attended by numerous politicians from the United Right camp, headed by former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, and representatives of several non-governmental organizations, including representatives of the Ordo Iuris Institute.

A video recording for the conference participants would be provided by US President Donald Trump, who thanked Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and announced that after the expected re-election to the highest office in the country, he would continue to cooperate with the Hungarian politician. “I recently spoke at CPAC in the US, and now I have the honor of speaking to so many patriots in Hungary who are proudly fighting on the front lines of the battle to save our Western civilization. Together we’re engaged in an epic struggle to liberate our nations from all of the sinister forces who want to destroy them," Trump said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán touched on many topics in his speech. He compared, among others, the actions of Western liberals to the oppression suffered by the inhabitants of Central and Eastern Europe during the communist period, citing as an example the recent actions of the Brussels authorities and the local police against the participants of the conservative National Conservatism conference or the court problems that Donald Trump has to face in the United States. Therefore, Prime Minister Orbán stated that "Hungary is a conservative island in the European ocean of progressive liberals" and the right wing must win the upcoming elections to the European Parliament and the presidential elections in the United States.

In turn, during his speech, Mateusz Morawiecki drew attention to the problem of mass immigration and the impact of this factor on stability and peace in Europe. "If it weren’t for Viktor Orbán and his bold policy towards immigrants, we would be in chaos," he said. The former Prime Minister of Poland also reiterated specific obligations of European Union Member States in the context of protecting external borders. “We believe in conservatism as a concept for the future, as a driving force for the economy. We believe in defending our values as the basis for Europe’s development and good future. We need to rediscover conservatism because Europe really needs it,” said Mateusz Morawiecki, recalling in this context the upcoming elections to the European Parliament.’

Jerzy Kwaśniewski, president of the Ordo Iuris Institute, took part in one of the main debates. The lawyer, together with István Kovács from the Center for Fundamental Rights and Kimberly Fletcher, head of the Moms of America association, discussed gender ideology on a panel. Among the topics discussed there were: the issue of various aspects of how to protect the most important institution of Western civilization –  the family. Mec. Kwaśniewski mentioned, among others, the activities of the Institute’s Litigation Center in the context of protecting the rights of families, parents and their children: "This has been the mission of Ordo Iuris for years. We provide legal assistance to parents and families at risk from ‘child protection’ offices across Europe.”

The topics of this year’s CPAC conference were very broad and covered many different issues, including: the issue of state sovereignty, defense against illegal immigration and gender ideology. They also discussed the upcoming elections to the European Parliament and the upcoming presidential elections in the USA. In addition to the politicians and personalities mentioned above, the conference was attended by, among others: Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, Jack Posobiec, an American conservative journalist of Polish origin, Tom van Grieken, chairman of the Flemish Vlaams Belang party, Janez Janša, former Prime Minister of Slovenia and finally Tony Abott, former Prime Minister of Australia. Polish politicians, apart from the previously mentioned Mateusz Morawiecki, also participated in CPAC, among others: former Speaker of the Sejm Marek Kuchciński. There were also many other guests from the Americas, Australia and Asia.

A delegation of the Ordo Iuris Institute participated in the CPAC conference. The participants were particularly interested in the graphic presenting the impact of the current changes to EU treaties on various areas of sovereignty, as well as the report ”Why we need sovereignty" presented in February.

“CPAC is a meeting combining various currents of not just the European right wing, which, despite many differences, has been meeting in the capital of Hungary for three years to emphasize its attachment to values such as homeland, family and sovereignty. This is particularly important if we take into account the context of the meeting, i.e. the numerous threats and problems that European nations have had to face in recent years – among them, above all, illegal and uncontrolled immigration, attacks on the family and the right to life of the most defenseless – i.e. unborn children and, finally, the current changes to EU treaties that threaten the sovereignty of individual European Union member states. Therefore, the presence of numerous politicians and representatives of various non-governmental organizations shows that in Europe there is a strong will to fight for traditional values and the sovereignty of nations”, points out Patryk Ignaszczak from the Ordo Iuris Center for International Law.