István Hegedűs, ‘Populism in Central Europe and Beyond: The Hungarian Case’

Are we witnessing a populist momentum (Zeitgeist) worldwide? In Europe, especially in the central European region, where former communist states have been successfully transformed to liberal democracies, we see the emergence of populist political forces as a significant tendency in the last decade. Hungary has received a special status in this process: the country has become the first member state of the European Union, where the national government led by Viktor Orbán started to deconstruct the constitutional order and the rule of law while representing a majoritarian concept of democracy and offering a new semi-authoritarian model to populist politicians across Europe. This lecture will examine the possibilities for European and Hungarian political elites and civil movements to block dangerous political entrepreneurs and (re)gain the support of their societies in a rapidly changing political and media environment.

István Hegedűs is the chairman of the Hungarian Europe Society, a Budapest-based NGO. His involvement in politics goes back to the very beginning of the Hungarian regime-change.