Further proof was hardly needed. The meeting between Hungary's national-conservative PM Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin on 28 November in Moscow (to discuss energy supplies and a “peace plan” for Ukraine) once again reveals Budapest's complicity with the Kremlin – and its defiance of Brussels if not the European project itself. But Hungary's April 2026 parliamentary elections are now just a few months away. The latest polls show Orbán and his Fidesz party, in power since 2010, losing to Peter Magyar of Tisza (“Respect and Freedom”), created in 2020.
So how is democracy faring in Hungary, and who is the autocratic Orbán’s challenger? Is there still support for the EU and a European identity? What of press freedom and the independent media that still exists? How do Hungarians see the war in Ukraine and Donald Trump's peace plan? How is the economy doing?
We'll be discussing all this with Hungarian journalists Boróka Parászka and György Folk from the independent magazine HVG on Tuesday 9 December at 1:30 p.m. Paris/Brussels time. The chat will be in English and moderated by Catherine André and Gian-Paolo Accardo.
🤝 This live is produced in partnership with HVG as part of the PULSE project, a European initiative aimed at promoting cross-border journalistic cooperation.
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