Over 81 politicians, policymakers and experts from 22 countries will attend the fourth Budapest Forum, an annual pro-democracy conference that has grown in size and strength since its launch in 2021.
The two-day conference, taking place on 18-19 September 2024, will be opened by Gergely Karácsony, Mayor of Budapest, and will bring together ministers, mayors, commissioners, MEPs, policy experts, academics, and grassroots activists to discuss the most pressing issues currently facing citizens of democratic and nominally democratic countries.
Under the overarching theme of “The Year of Elections,” the forum includes discussions of global geopolitical issues as well as those of the region. It will examine how the 2024 elections are set to shape our collective European experience and impact beyond our borders. With Hungary currently holding the rotating presidency of the Council of Europe, discussions on the rule of law, democracy, media capture, US elections, Russia’s future, China-Taiwan tensions and the trajectory of European integration will be central to the discussions.
The event this year has attracted an impressive list of speakers, including David Pressman, Ambassador of the United States to Hungary, Alberto Alemanno Professor of EU law at HEC Paris, Nathalie Tocci, Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali, Zuzsanna Szelényi, former Fidesz MP, foreign policy expert, and program director of the CEU Democracy Institute Leadership Academy, Eli Pariser Founder of Awaaz and author of Beware Online “filter bubbles”, Director, moveon.org, Gert Jan Koopman Director-General Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (NEAR), Anne Applebaum, journalist and historian, László Bruszt, Director of the Central European University Democracy Institute and Oleksandra Azarkhina, Former Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development.
Vladimir Milov, former Russian Deputy Energy Minister, will speak for the first time at a Hungarian event. He was sentenced to eight years in prison by a Russian court on charges of spreading false information about Russian armed forces involved in the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine as an associate of Navalny. Joining him this year is Mikuláš Dzurinda, former Prime Minister of Slovakia, who will speak on Populism, Authoritarianism, and Dictatorship and Alice Evans, author of The Great Gender Divide, will explore “Is a new global gender gap emerging?”
For the first time in the event’s history, two recent research papers by Hungarian think-tank Political Capital will be presented: One examines how the parties that make up the radical groups in the newly formed European Parliament related to Russia and China during the voting in the previous cycle. The second presents the main findings of its latest international poll on disinformation narratives, conspiracy theories and foreign policy issues.
Ahead of the 2024 event, Péter Krekó, Director of the Political Capital Institute, said: “Our democracies face mounting challenges exacerbated by various internal and external factors. While some tensions are deliberately stoked by populist movements, others stem from organic societal shifts, necessitating a unified approach and extensive collaboration to navigate. In the forthcoming Budapest Forum conference, we aim to confront these challenges alongside global decision-makers and experts. Together, we seek to steer discussions and formulate impactful policy solutions that address the evolving dynamics of our democracies and the European integration process.
“Budapest Forum is a markedly pro-democratic, anti-populist Central Eastern European platform. After the success of last year’s policy-heavy discussions, with nearly 5,000 participants and 40,000 online viewers last year, focusing on the most pressing challenges democracy is facing – we are convinced that it is not only the multitude of crises that define our time but also the commitment and the intellectual prowess of broad segments of our societies to tackle these crises.”
This event is jointly organised by the Municipality of Budapest, Political Capital, and CEU Democracy Institute, and boasts strategic partnerships with the National Endowment for Democracy, the European Policy Centre, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, and the Green European Foundation.
The conference will be held at CEU Nádor Event Center, at the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, and be conducted in English and Hungarian.
