Facing the Tide: Understanding and Countering the Illiberal Populist Surge
- Conference of the Hungarian Europe Society -

Venue: Central European University, Budapest, 1052 Nádor utca 15, Room 106
Date: Friday, 21 November 2025 

RSVP by 18 November 2025

Populist, illiberal, anti-European and authoritarian tendencies have strengthened globally. Political representatives of these worldviews and partisan formations have gained increasing electoral support in recent years. The birth of the Patriots for Europe party family shows that the collaboration of national anti-liberal political forces at European level has become a reality which creates a significant challenge regarding the essence and even the future of the European Union project. The liberal world order has been replaced by power politics; whilst it is the President of the United States who has given up solidarity with members of the Euro-Atlantic alliance as the historic fundament of normalcy between friends. Still, liberal-minded political and civil actors have not been defeated in most of the EU member states at all. Viktor Orbán’s Hungarian government is regularly isolated during decision-making processes especially in the field of European foreign and security policy and in the joint refusal of appeasement to imperialistic Russia. Moreover, respecting the rule of law has gradually become the cornerstone of intra-European cohesion and the mutual mode of operations.

The conference of the Hungarian Europe Society is going to focus on the current state of Europe and how liberal, pro-European parties and elite groups in EU member states have reacted to external and internal attacks against their core values. Can we witness successful efforts to renew liberal democracy and good realisation of smart strategies and intellectual concepts to convince the majority of citizens – rationally and emotionally – to support democratic political ideals, inclusive identity politics and progressive public policies? Can liberals and democrats stop populists and authoritarians at the gates of Europe?

Draft program:

13.30 – 14.00 Registration

14.00 – 14.10 Welcome

Lars-André Richter (Head of the Central European Office, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, Prague)

14.10 – 14.30 Introductory Speech

István Hegedűs (Chairman, Hungarian Europe Society): Fighting Back Against Illiberal Populists

14.30 – 15.45 First Session: How Dangerous Are Illiberal Populists for Liberal Democracy?

Moderator: István Hegedűs (Chairman, Hungarian Europe Society, Budapest)

- Federigo Argentieri (Director, Guarini Institute for Public Affairs, John Cabot University, Rome): Forza Italia: De-populistisation; La Lega: Putinisation; Fratelli d’Italia: De-fascistisation

- Mila Moshelova (Postdoctoral Researcher · Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski): Illiberal Populism in Bulgaria and the Balkan Region

- Yannis Karamitsios (Author of the Book “Time for a European Federation”, Brussels): Europe's Crossroads: Federalist Unity or Nationalist Fragmentation?

15.45 – 16.30 Coffee Break

16.30 – 17.45 Second Session: The Future of Liberal Democracy: Optimism Versus Pessimism

Moderator: Anna Kende (Professor, Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)

- Volodymir Dubovyk (Director, Center for International Studies, Odesa Mechnikov National University, Warsaw): Dealing with Illiberal, Populist Challenges in Times of a Big Existential War: The Case of Ukraine

- Erik Uszkiewicz (Vice-chairperson, Hungarian Europe Society, Budapest): Creative Civil Resistance in Illiberal and Authoritarian Regimes

- Zsolt Enyedi (Professor, Department of Political Science, Central European University, Vienna): Towards an Illiberal International?

17.45 Farewell Speech

The event and the forthcoming publication have been supported by the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung für Freiheit.