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Technobarbarian@21:1/5 to
All on Wed Apr 6 09:20:25 2022
"April 5 (Reuters) - America’s most prominent conservative gathering,
founded on ideals of personal liberty and limited government, convenes
in Budapest next month to celebrate a European leader accused of
undermining democracy and individual rights.
The May meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)
is seen by some Republicans as a test of how closely American
conservatives are willing align themselves with a global movement of
far-right, Russia-friendly strongmen embraced by former U.S. President
Donald Trump.
The event’s keynote speaker is Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a longtime supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The European
Union has accused Orban, who won re-election by a large margin on
Sunday, of curbing media and judicial independence, enriching associates
with public funds and recasting election laws to entrench his power.
Hungary joined in the EU sanctions imposed on Moscow in response to the
Russian invasion of Ukraine. But Orban has stopped short of criticizing
Putin directly, barred weapons shipments through Hungary to neighboring
Ukraine and opposed proposals for EU sanctions on Russian natural gas.
The Hungary meeting reflects a years-long push by CPAC’s organizers, the American Conservative Union (ACU), to promote Trump’s divisive brand of nationalist populism to foreign audiences. Last fall, a similar
CPAC-branded meeting was held in Brazil, spotlighting Brazilian
President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right leader and Putin admirer.
A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. An Orban spokesperson called the EU's criticism of him “politically-ideologically based” and part of a long-running “provocation campaign and witch hunt” by liberal elites."
[snip]
Autocrats have shown our radical "conservatives" the only way
they're getting the return to the past that they so passionately desire.
TB
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