Former prime minister Stephen Harper has called for more collaboration between conservative parties dedicated to democratic values globally on the tails of a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Harper made the comment in a tweet posted to his official Twitter account.
Harper also gathered with other center-right leaders in Budapest this week for the International Democratic Union (IDU) Alliance conference.
“I was pleased to meet with Fidesz Party Leader (Viktor Orbán) today in Budapest. We discussed the IDU’s strong support for Ukraine and the importance of centre-right parties strengthening their collaboration,” tweeted Harper.
The former prime minister has maintained strong ties with Hungary since leaving office. In 2018, Harper congratulated Orbán on winning his fourth term in office.
Since then, Orbán has made great strides implementing various conservative policies in Hungary, much to the chagrin of the Canadian legacy media and the EU bureaucracy.
Under Orbán’s leadership, the country has adopted a number of pro-family policies such as tax exemptions for young mothers and spending 5.5% of the nation’s GDP on social support programs for families.
Recently, Hungary’s policies have earned the praise of psychologist and renowned author Dr. Jordan B. Peterson.
“My impression of your family policy is that if people understood it internationally, it would be very popular with most people,” Peterson told the Hungarian Conservative in May.
Harper currently chairs the IDU, which is dedicated to promoting the values of freedom and democracy globally. Its member states include 84 parties across 65 different countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Germany, France, Austria, Spain, Japan and elsewhere.
While at the conference, Harper also met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
While on a recent G7 meeting trip, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used the conference as an opportunity to take a political jab at Meloni’s opposition to gender ideology and accuse her of having a poor record on LGBTQ rights.
Speakers at the IDU conference also included former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, former UK prime minister Boris Johnson and former president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.
