By Martin Banks

Over 500 participants took part in the 2024 Budapest Forum.

They included government ministers, ambassadors, national politicians, academics and policy experts who gathered last week at the Central European University (CEU) in Hungary.

The annual event, which seeks to find democratic solutions to challenges facing the world today, has grown in size and strength since its inception in 2021.

This year, its programme comprised 17 multi-expert discussions and high-level contributions from US Ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman; historian, journalist and author, Anne Applebaum; former energy minister for the Russian Federation, Vladimir Milov; author and academic, Alice Evans; and the author of “The Filter Bubble”, Eli Pariser.

The keynote address of the 2024 event was delivered by David Pressman, the US Ambassador to Hungary.

Pressman explored the political direction of Hungary under Viktor Orban, asking, “How can the country of 1956 also be so cosy with Putin’s Russia?

Pressman, who has served as American ambassador to Hungary since 2022, added that “the governing party’s control of the media and its attacks on civil society have created an atmosphere of fear”.

In her contribution, Anne Applebaum, the author of ‘Autocracy Inc’, warned against direct interventions by Viktor Orban, in the context of the US presidential elections.

“I think it’s very dangerous for Hungary to be involved. You don’t intervene in the affairs of your allies,” Applebaum said. “I don’t think there is any other NATO member that is openly backing either Trump or Harris. It is not done in the democratic world.”

Expert panels at the event explored the state of democracy in certain EU member states and how countries that have been captured by populist and autocratic forces can be ‘re-democratised’.

Alberto Alemanno, Professor of EU law at HEC Paris, Tomáš Valášek, Member of the National Council in Slovakia, and Zsuzsanna Szelényi, former Hungarian MP, discussed the state of democracy in a Central and Eastern European context.

Elsewhere, Dariusz Mazur, Poland’s deputy justice minister, made the case that his country could offer a blueprint to Hungary on democratic recovery.

Gert Jan Koopman, Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, Sergey Lagodinsky, an MEP for the Greens/European Free Alliance, and Donika Emini, Director of the CiviKos Platform, spotlighted the future of EU enlargement, including challenges and opportunities born from a prospective widening of the European bloc, across two respective panels.

On a panel concerning Taiwan, Tzuli Wu, Associate Research Fellow, Institute for National Defense and Security Research, laid out the implications of Chinese expansionism in the Indo-Pacific region, and offered advice about how the West should respond to any military escalation or attempt to invade the island nation.

Carlos Moreno, Professor at the IAE Paris Sorbonne University and ‘15-Minute City’ concept creator, shared his idea of ‘15-Minute Cities’ as a path to sustainable urban living.

The Ukraine-Russia conflict and the rule of law were critical issues covered at the Forum including by former Russian Deputy Energy Minister Vladimir Milov, who was sentenced to eight years in prison by a Russian court on charges of spreading false information about Russian armed forces involved in the invasion of Ukraine.

Other experts, including Former Deputy Minister of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development in Ukraine, Oleksandra Azarkhina and Head of Evidence, Truth Hound in Ukraine, Olha Opalenko, explored what it will take to win in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.