Orbán-Linked Think Tank Protest: Brussels Event Hit by Eggs

A protest of an Orbán-linked think-tank esca­lat­ed in Brus­sels as anti-fas­cist demon­stra­tors tar­get­ed a con­ser­v­a­tive event with eggs and demon­stra­tions. On 22 May 2025, Eurac­tiv report­ed that scores of anti-fas­cist pro­test­ers gath­ered out­side a Brus­sels hotel where MCC Brus­sels, the local branch of Hun­gary’s Math­ias Corv­i­nus Col­legium think tank, host­ed a pan­el dis­cus­sion on con­ser­vatism and women. The protest high­light­ed grow­ing ten­sions over con­ser­v­a­tive polit­i­cal events in Europe’s capital.

The arti­cle begins:

Scores of anti-fas­cist pro­test­ers, as well as uni­formed police, showed up out­side a hotel in the heart of Brus­sels’ EU neigh­bour­hood on Wednes­day, as an event organ­ised by the con­ser­v­a­tive think tank MCC Brus­sels took place inside. MCC Brus­sels is the local branch of the Math­ias Corv­i­nus Col­legium – a nation­al-con­ser­v­a­tive think tank with finan­cial ties to the Hun­gar­i­an state. It had invit­ed a pan­el of con­ser­v­a­tive female speak­ers to an event about con­ser­vatism and women. Out­side, anti-fas­cist pro­test­ers fly­ing rain­bow pride flags and Pales­tin­ian kef­fiyeh want­ed to send a sig­nal to both speak­ers and atten­dees. After pro­test­ers had left the area, a hotel employ­ee was seen clean­ing the facade and the hotel entrance was lit­tered with eggshells. Wednes­day’s event was the lat­est in a series of instances where con­ser­v­a­tive voic­es have strug­gled to find venues to host their events.

        Read more: https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/hotels-hesitant-to-host-far-right-after-orban-linked-thinktank-event-egging/

Key Points

• Anti-fas­cist pro­test­ers flew rain­bow pride flags and Pales­tin­ian kef­fiyeh while demon­strat­ing against the MCC Brus­sels con­ser­v­a­tive wom­en’s pan­el event
• The hotel facade required clean­ing after pro­test­ers left eggshells scat­tered around the entrance fol­low­ing their demon­stra­tion against the think tank
• MCC Brus­sels direc­tor Frank Füre­di described venue hunt­ing chal­lenges, not­ing prac­ti­cal con­cerns about host­ing events amid increas­ing activist pressure
• Antifa Brus­sels spokesper­son Emma stat­ed their goal was mes­sag­ing far-right groups and poten­tial venues, claim­ing reliance on human rights law rather than per­son­al judgment

The Mathias Corvinus Collegium, Hungary, Orban, and National Conservatism

The Math­ias Corv­i­nus Col­legium (MCC) stands at the cen­ter of Vik­tor Orbán’s efforts to reshape Hungary’s high­er edu­ca­tion and cul­ti­vate a new gen­er­a­tion of nation­al con­ser­v­a­tive elites, backed by mas­sive state fund­ing and direct ties to the rul­ing Fidesz par­ty. The MCC’s expan­sion across Europe, includ­ing a new Brus­sels branch led by fig­ures with far-right asso­ci­a­tions, high­lights its role in spread­ing “illib­er­al” ide­ol­o­gy and forg­ing alliances with like-mind­ed West­ern aca­d­e­mics and politi­cians. The insti­tu­tion has become a hub for US right-wing fig­ures and con­ser­v­a­tive intel­lec­tu­als, pro­vid­ing plat­forms for anti-lib­er­al, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-“woke” nar­ra­tives that echo both Hun­gar­i­an gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy and broad­er transat­lantic cul­ture wars.

MCC’s lead­er­ship, includ­ing Balázs Orbán, active­ly pro­motes con­nec­tions with US and Euro­pean nation­al con­ser­v­a­tives, while its events and part­ner­ships rein­force Hungary’s posi­tion as a mod­el for the glob­al right. Exter­nal­ly, this strat­e­gy aligns with Hungary’s acqui­si­tion of Vienna’s Mod­ul Uni­ver­si­ty and the recruit­ment of con­tro­ver­sial West­ern aca­d­e­mics, fur­ther­ing Orbán’s vision of a Euro­pean “cadre fac­to­ry of illib­er­al­ism.” Inter­na­tion­al observers note that MCC’s activ­i­ties serve not only domes­tic polit­i­cal goals but also facil­i­tate Russ­ian influ­ence oper­a­tions by ampli­fy­ing nation­al con­ser­v­a­tive themes, as seen in the institution’s dis­sem­i­na­tion of Russ­ian-style pro­pa­gan­da and anti-LGBTQ mes­sag­ing.

As a cen­tral hub with­in the Glob­al Nation­al Con­ser­v­a­tive Alliance (GNCA), the MCC func­tions as both a plat­form for right-wing fig­ures and a con­duit for coor­di­nat­ing nation­al con­ser­v­a­tive strate­gies across bor­ders, fur­ther entrench­ing Hungary’s lead­er­ship in the inter­na­tion­al illib­er­al move­ment. These devel­op­ments are part of a broad­er pat­tern in which Orbán’s gov­ern­ment has sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly erod­ed demo­c­ra­t­ic checks and bal­ances, using insti­tu­tions like MCC to con­sol­i­date pow­er and export illib­er­al ideas, a process wide­ly doc­u­ment­ed by democ­ra­cy watch­dogs and inter­na­tion­al media. The leg­isla­tive trans­for­ma­tion of Hungary’s uni­ver­si­ties has tight­ened Orbán’s grip on aca­d­e­m­ic and cul­tur­al life, while MCC’s pres­ence in Brus­sels and beyond is seen as an effort to white­wash and legit­imize Hungary’s illib­er­al mod­el with­in Euro­pean discourse.

Exter­nal References:

1. How to Erode a Democ­ra­cy: Hun­gary’s Illib­er­al Turn Under Orbán

2. Hun­gary’s Prime Min­is­ter Orban tight­ens grip with uni­ver­si­ty leg­is­la­tion (CBS News)

3. White­wash­ing Orbán’s Image and Ideas in Brussels

Disclaimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.