Budapest Forum 2025 - Building Sustainable Democracies - Panel Summaries
The fifth Budapest Forum was once again co-organized by the Municipality of Budapest, Political Capital, and the CEU Democracy Institute to address the most pressing challenges facing citizens of democratic — and nominally democratic — countries. This year’s theme, “Building Sustainable Democracies,” provided a framework for exploring and debating forward-looking policy proposals.
Since its launch in 2021, the Budapest Forum has become a key event on the international policy calendar, bringing together mayors, commissioners, MEPs, decision-makers, policy experts, academics, and activists.
With 44 speakers and nearly 400 participants on 17 September 2025, the Forum was a resounding success.
Below you can find recaps of all panels, along with the video recordings:
- Opening speeches (Carsten Q. Schneider, Benedek Jávor, Péter Krekó, Gergely Karácsony) & Undoing autocracy: Rebuilding the rule of law and democratic norms (keynote speech by Rafał Trzaskowski)
- Markets under pressure: The economic impact of the return of geopolitics (Ming-chin Monique Chu, Tamás Matura, Krisztián Orbán, Richard Turcsányi, Elliot Wang, Lili Takács)
- Liveable, innovative and climate neutral: How do cities respond to a changing climate? (Peter Kraus, Diána Kupper, Attila Varga, Adela Jurečková)
- European Political Trends from different mainstream points of view (Alexander Ackerl, Katalin Cseh, Pawel Zerka, Lars-André Richter)
- Understanding populist electorates: Who votes populists (back) into office, and why? (Maciej Kisilowski, Ivan Krastev, Raluca Nicoleta Radu, Gábor Scheiring, Ebru Ece Özbey)
- Truth under threat: Defense of democracy and safeguarding democratic resilience against disinformation (Art O’Leary, Anett Mádi-Nátor, Maryia Sadouskaya-Komlach, Ágnes Urbán, Péter Krekó)
- Transformation of the global security scene and the future position of Europe (Ambassador James O’Brien, Zsuzsanna Szelényi)
- The future of Ukraine in Europe (Ambassador James O’Brien, Dorka Takácsy, Renáta Uitz, Zsuzsanna Végh)
- The changing face of civic resistance in illiberal regimes: Cases from the Western Balkans (Andi Dobrushi, Srđan Cvijić, Vujo Ilić, Ferenc Németh, Una Hajdari)
- Hungary’s political climate before the elections (Eszter Kováts, Nóra Schultz, Andrea Szabó, Szabolcs Dull)
