In 1939, an article entitled “Mourir pour Dantzig?” (“Why Die for Danzig?”) argued that France should avoid war with Germany if the latter seized Poland. Today, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, as well as Russia’s belligerent foreign policy, leads us to ask similar questions.
In his most recent flamboyant sign of making a clear break with the past, Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s Prime Minister, has taken the unexpected step of moving out of the Hungarian equivalent of the White House, choosing instead a not-too-shabby castle in the historical Buda Castle District, the former place of residence for Hungary’s kings of yore.