The largest foreign policy and democracy conference will begin in Budapest in 10 days
Who will vote for populists again, and why? Can democracy be defended in an environment of growing disinformation? What is the political climate like in Hungary ahead of the elections? Security policy issues, Ukraine's European future, and environmental considerations will also be discussed at this year's largest international foreign policy conference.
In September, the Budapest Metropolitan Government, Political Capital, and the CEU Democracy Institute will host the fifth Budapest Forum with leading international political figures, focusing this year on building sustainable democracy. The conference will be opened by Gergely Karácsony, Mayor of Budapest. Renowned experts and politicians from around the world will not only analyze the challenges facing democratic societies in a changing geopolitical environment, but will also present concrete policy proposals.
Since its inception, nearly 2,000 people have attended the event in person and hundreds of thousands have followed it online.
Ivan Krastev, Chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies, will interpret the behavior of populist voters in his keynote speech, followed by a panel discussion featuring, among others, Hungarian economist, sociologist, and former member of parliament Gábor Scheiring.
Rafał Trzaskowski, Mayor of Warsaw, will give a presentation entitled "Undoing autocracy: Rebuilding the rule of law and democratic norms."
Katalin Cseh, Member of Hungarian Parliament, will examine European political trends from different perspectives with Michal Šimečka Member of the National Council of Slovakia, and Pawel Zerka, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
The pre-election political climate in Hungary will be analyzed in a Hungarian-language panel discussion moderated by Szabolcs Dull, journalist and political analyst, with Eszter Kováts, researcher at the University of Vienna, Nóra Schultz, political consultant, and Andrea Szabó, director of the Institute for Political Science at the HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences.
How are cities responding to climate change? Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, professor at Central European University, talks to Peter Kraus, Vienna City Councillor and Co-Leader of the Vienna Green Party, who is committed to climate protection and fair urban development, and Diana Kupper, green finance expert at the Global Green Growth Institute Hungary.
Art O'Leary, chief executive director of the Electoral Commission of Ireland, who, as a senior official of an independent state organization, is responsible for election and democracy-related tasks, will discuss the relationship between disinformation and democracy. Ágnes Urbán, director of Mertek Media Monitor, will talk about the situation in Hungary. The discussion will be moderated by Péter Krekó, director of Political Capital.
Krisztián Orbán, managing partner of Oriens, will discuss the changing dynamics of transatlantic cooperation and the economic impact of geopolitical changes, with Ming-chin Monique Chu, lecturer at the University of Southampton, joining in from the international side.
Several security policy topics will be discussed in the afternoon sessions. Zsuzsanna Szelényi, program director at the CEU Democracy Institute, will ask James O'Brien, former Head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the U.S. Department of State, about the transformation of the global security situation. The subsequent roundtable discussion on the future of Ukraine will also feature Dorka Takácsy, researcher at the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy, and Renáta Uitz, senior research fellow at CEU Democracy Institute and at Royal Holloway, University of London.
The changing forms of civil resistance in the Western Balkans will be examined by, among others, Andi Dobrushi, Director of Open Society Foundations Western Balkans, Srđan Cvijić, President of the International Advisory Committee of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, and Ferenc Németh, Western Balkan expert.
Date: 17 September 2025
Venue: 1051 Budapest, Nádor utca 15.
Language: English and Hungarian with simultaneus translation
The program of the event is available here.
Registration link: Budapest Forum 2025 - Registration Form
More details on Budapest Forum website.
