What is at stake in the election in Hungary?

This lecture examines the evolution and consequences of illiberal politics in Hungary, with particular attention to the stakes surrounding the upcoming national election. Over the past decade and a half, Hungary has become emblematic of a broader global shift toward illiberal governance, marked by the centralization of political power, the erosion of institutional checks and balances, and the strategic instrumentalization of cultural and gender issues. 

The lecture explores how the Hungarian government’s policies, ranging from constraints on academic freedom and civil society to the reshaping of memory politics and the reinvention of gender as a „symbolic glue”, have transformed the conditions under which both domestic and transnational policymaking occur. By analysing the mechanisms through which illiberal regimes create alternative knowledge infrastructures and mobilize affective political narratives, the lecture highlights the challenges these systems pose not only to democratic norms within Hungary but also to the broader European project and argues that understanding Hungary’s political trajectory is essential for grasping the dynamics of illiberalism in Europe and for formulating effective responses at both national and supranational levels.

Andrea Pető is a Professor at the Department of Gender Studies at Central European University, Vienna, Austria, a Research Affiliate of the CEU Democracy Institute, Budapest, and a Doctor of Science at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Pető is an internationally sought-after public speaker, and her works on gender, illiberalism and politics have been translated into 25 languages. She has held guest professorships at universities in Argentina, Canada, Germany, Israel, Serbia, and Sweden.
She received numerous awards for her contributions to public life, including the 2018 All European Academies (ALLEA) Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values and the 2022 University of Oslo Human Rights Award. She is a Doctor Honoris Causa of Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden. Recent publications include The Women of the Arrow Cross Party: Invisible Hungarian Perpetrators in the Second World War, Palgrave, Macmillan, 2020, and Forgotten Massacre: Budapest 1944, DeGruyter, 2021.