The Center for Fundamental Rights (CFR), a propaganda organization for the regime of far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, announced the launch of a new transnational task force called the “Wokebusters” on July 30, 2024. The initiative was conceived as a “global campaign against the globalists” and a “rapid reaction force and political action coalition of Conservatives in the international arena.” The name, a play on the 1984 film Ghostbusters, implies the group’s desire to drive away the “woke” infestation in the West, and CFR leader Miklós Szánthó has stayed true to his brand, melodramatically tweeting out “Here come the #Wokebusters” and “swamp monsters, beware.”
Wokebusters appears to have significant support from individuals on the American far right, including those with ties to the authoritarianism blueprint Project 2025. The effort has already concluded a tour of the United States, where Szánthó met with prominent conservatives and Republican officials. The initiative has also attracted the attention of leaders from far-right parties in more than 20 countries, including Spain, Australia, Chile, Belgium, the Netherlands, Croatia, Poland, and Estonia. This is another step in the growth of a transnational far-right coalition that seeks to roll back democracy and human rights.
While the campaign has many supporters, it is primarily run by the CFR and its Director General Szánthó. The plan was conceived as a “rapid reaction force.” In practice, the group claims it will create an online emergency response information chain for members to report activity deemed “woke” anywhere in the world. During an interview with right-wing news channel Real America’s Voice, Szánthó claimed that with “both CPAC Hungary and Wokebusters, it’s about creating an international global platform for conservative, right-wing, common sense anti-globalist people.” The second goal that the group sets for itself is a focus on networking by organizing conferences, workshops, and press conferences.
This initiative responds to perceived deficiencies in the far right’s ability to counter liberal and progressive forces, which, according to Szánthó, have transnational support networks. In an interview on the sidelines of CPAC Mexico, Szánthó stated, “I think [CPAC is] fantastic and a very important event, because as we see from Hungary, from a European perspective, it is crucial for the conservative forces to get together and unite because what we see on the left, the progressives, liberals they do have very professional international networks, they do cooperate at the international level in order to promote their political agenda.” In an interview with Hungarian news outlet Index, Szánthó described the project, “The enemy must feel that he is not facing isolated small groups, but a professionally organized global but anti-globalist community.”
Over the past few years, the CFR has been working relentlessly to build an international coalition of far-right forces. They founded the first CPAC event outside of the United States – CPAC Hungary – and have had their representatives attend many of the large far-right conferences in the United States and Europe. CFR President Szánthó has been present at a number of events including CPAC Mexico, CPAC Texas 2022, CPAC Japan 2022, and CPAC 2023 in Washington D.C.
The idea for Wokebusters appears to have first been floated by Balázs Orbán, political advisor to Viktor Orbán (no relation), at NatCon III in Miami, Fla., on September 12, 2022, when he stated, “History is back, the specter haunting Western civilization, nowadays, the specter of ‘woke,’ and when there is something strange in the Western world, who are you going to call?.. The Wokebusters. We need Wokebusters to counter the Woke-Leviathan.” Later, in early 2024, the official account for the CFR began using the phrase in tweets and hashtags, attempting to build recognition for the campaign. Szánthó further touted the effort when he spoke at the Spanish far-right party VOX’s Viva24 conference on May 19, 2024.
In April 2024, the campaign started to come to fruition. At the CPAC Hungary 2024 conference, Wokebusters was used as the theme for the event, and several speakers, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość and MP Marek Kuchciński (Law and Justice, PiS, Poland), VOX leader Santiago Abascal from Spain, Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest, VB) leader Tom van Grieken from Belgium, and Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom, PVV) leader Geert Wilders from the Netherlands were all introduced as Wokebusters. On July 30, the Wokebusters held the official launch of their task force, headed by Szánthó himself and with the president of the New York Young Republicans Club Gavin Wax serving as an official ambassador, and encouraged other far-right leaders to sign their Wokebusters Declaration in support for the campaign.
The coalition that the Orbánists have been building is extensive. The CPAC Hungary event ended with the signing of the Wokebusters Declaration, agreed to by over 100 individuals, affirming that they “pledge in the name of freedom, order and security to drain the swamp and take the West back.” Among the names were American conspiracist Jack Posobiec the leaders of most far-right political parties in Europe, a number of Hungarian officials representing far-right party Fidesz, and a handful of pro-Orbán propagandists from the CFR, and Orbán’s social media propaganda campaign, Megafon, directed at the EU.
Testifying to Viktor Orban’s extensive ties with elected officials outside of Europe, several prominent individuals from other parts of the world were listed as well, including former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who has recently joined the Orbánist Danube Institute as a fellow, José Antonio Kast, former MP in the Chamber of Deputies in Chile and chair of the board of the anti-LGBTQ+ Political Network for Values, Israeli Knesset member Amit Halevi for the far-right party Likud, and Colombian Senator María Fernanda Cabal for the Centro Democrático (Democratic Centre). Other signers included many individuals associated with far-right think tanks and pressure organizations, such as the organizers of the American CPAC Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, the Polish anti-LGBTQ+ Ordo Iuris, and the CPAC México leader Eduardo Verástegui (see the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism’s (GPAHE) previous reporting on Collegium Intermarium and Mathias Corvinus Collegium here)
Others on the list were journalists, musicians, sports stars, academics, online influencers, and lower-level politicians, among others who supported the initiative.
The Wokebusters held their first gathering in Balatonszepezd, Hungary, near Lake Balaton in mid-September. Co-organized by the CFR and the Italian far-right party Lega’s think tank Machiavelli Centro Studi Politici Strategici (Machiavelli Center), the bootcamp included the participation of “25 young people” from Europe, the United States, Latin America, and Israel, and featured visits to the Hungarian Parliament.
Among the Americans participating in the event were the America First Policy Institute’s Robert Law, formerly part of the Trump administration, who discussed immigration. Also present were James Carafano of the Heritage Foundation, the organization responsible for creating the rights-stripping Project 2025, former advisor to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Daniel Whitehead, Paul Orfanedes of the conservative activist group Judicial Watch, Jonathan Jakubowski of Forge Leadership Network, and Gavin Wax. Speakers also included employees of the rabidly anti-LGBTQ+ Polish legal group Ordo Iuris, elected officials from Fidesz of Hungary, and Lega of Italy, among others. All in all, the Machiavelli Center claimed that 20 nations were represented among the participants.
Around September 10, Szánthó announced the first leg of their “international mission” would be to the United States, what he refers to as the “homeland of woke, communism in new clothes.” Tweeting out “#WashingtonDC, beware… Here come the #Wokebusters,” Szánthó gave interviews and met with far-right political figures in the United States. Szánthó’s organization has endorsed far-right politicians in the United States and Europe on countless occasions, tweeting: “We are the Wokebusters… Conservatives in America and Europe will work tirelessly to MAGA and MEGA [Make Europe Great Again]… We will Drain the Swamps in Washington and Brussels.”
Meetings with Americans that Szánthó publicized on Twitter included those with Congressman Keith Self (R-Texas), a signatory of the petition, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Executive Director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Jason Thielman, Election Integrity Caucus Chair and Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R-NY), and CPAC organizers Matt and Mercedes Schlapp. It is unclear whether Szánthó met with any of the other American signatories of the Wokebusters declaration, which include Congressmen Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Andy Harris (R-Md.), Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales, Former U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker and former Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, both of whom were in the Trump administration, and the founder of Moms for America Kimberly Fletcher. Another American signatory who joined the initiative on September 9 is Bryan E. Leib, a former Congressional candidate in Florida and also a senior fellow at the CFR in Budapest.
While the idea of an international mission implies trips to other countries, Szánthó has not yet publicly stated his plans to travel to anywhere else, though the Machiavelli Center has hinted at Italy possibly being on the shortlist of locations in 2025. Hungarian news outlet Telex has reported that Argentina, Chile, Spain, Italy, and Israel are all likely destinations in the autumn.
