Zsófia Bán & Zoltán Ádám: HUNGARY - LAST CALL FOR THE ELECTORAL AUTOCRACY?

Cathrin Kahlweit in conversation with Zsófia Bán and Zoltán Ádám


HUNGARY: LAST CALL FOR THE ELECTORAL AUTOCRACY?


 


On the evening of April 12th Viktor Orbán will know whether he
won the parliamentary elections in Hungary for the fifth time in
a row. Although the polls show his main challenger Péter
Magyar in the lead, many foreign experts and Hungarians
themselves are sceptical: Orbán has changed the country into an
electoral autocracy which makes it extremely hard to beat his
party, Fidesz, legally. And then: legality is not a moral issue
that is on the top of Orbán’s mind. His campaign is based on
threats, money and fake news, his opponents speak of blackmail
and pressure. Will the Hungarian voters end the era of the long
time prime minister? And how are the chances of the country to
return to the rule of law, given that Fidesz changed the texture
of society, the juridical system, media and science to stay in
power?





Zsófia Bán, appraised writer, scholar and critic, and 
Zoltán Ádám,  political economist at ELTE university with an
expertise in regime change and authoritarian populism will talk
about the elections and their consequences with Cathrin Kahlweit,
specialist on Eastern Europe and long-time Hungary correspondent.


 


Zsófia Bán, Hungarian writer, essayist, and
literary and art critic


Zoltán Ádám,political economist with an interest
in regime change, democratic backsliding and authoritarian
populism; senior research fellow at ELTE Centre for Social
Sciences in Budapest, in Sep. 2025 – Feb. 2026 fellow
at WIKO Berlin


Cathrin Kahlweit, langjährige
SZ-Korrespondentin, Publizistin und Moderatorin