Expelling diplomats is one of the oldest and most conspicuous ways for states to express their displeasure. The recent diplomatic dispute between Hungary and Russia made headlines in Budapest, but several parts of Africa have witnessed far more serious diplomatic confrontations throughout 2026.
The building located at 19 Nashashibi Street in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem has served Great Britain’s interests for nearly two centuries. The Consulate General, housed in this British-owned property, oversaw London’s relations with Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza (while also providing consular services) until very recently. Israel ordered the closure of the British Consulate General after London banned imports originating from illegal Israeli settlements.
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo does not prove that Europe should fear Africa. It proves something far more important: weakening global health cooperation makes everyone more vulnerable.
I thought that after earlier debates around naturalisation, there was little left that could surprise me about Hungarian citizenship policy. I was wrong.
Hungary’s diplomatic network has expanded well beyond what its foreign policy priorities, institutional capacity, and professional standards can reasonably sustain. Any serious reform of the foreign ministry will have to address not only questions of cost, but also the structure, purpose, and staffing logic of its global presence.
The End of Hungary’s “Opening to the East”. For years, Viktor Orbán’s government sold the East as Hungary’s economic future and the West as a fading dependency. But the trade numbers never supported the fantasy and after Tisza’s landslide victory, the political system that sustained it may be starting to collapse as well.
The port project in Trieste is being overseen not by the transport or economic ministry, but by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (KKM). Since then, the state-run structure has produced three loss-making companies, operating costs worth billions of forints, and an investment project that keeps slipping year after year.
Presented as an instrument of soft power, Hungary’s teqball diplomacy raises deeper questions about transparency, political priorities, and the use of public money in foreign policy.
Power, Patronage and Hidden Wealth Behind Hungary’s Diplomacy
The classical diplomatic function of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has undergone a visible transformation in recent years. On the surface, the traditional elements of foreign policy still remain visible: ministerial flights to important and less important destinations around the world, the repeated announcement of new economic successes, the consular protection of supporters in stadiums and on trains, and the building of a peculiar foreign policy network referred to as “connectivity.”
In most foreign ministries, diplomatic travel is a logistical exercise. In Hungary’s, it has become a lifestyle genre. For years, insiders on Budapest’s Bem rakpart have whispered about the increasingly operatic travel requirements of the country’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó. Now, fresh accounts confirm that what masquerades as protocol is in fact the curated comfort regime of a man who behaves less like a public servant and more like a monarch in tracksuit diplomacy.
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