Why do they keep winning and why didn’t we see it coming?
A digital event with presentations by
Eszter Kováts (ELTE University Budapest/Humboldt University Berlin) and
Weronika Grezebalska (Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw)
In the 1990s and the early 2000s, both Hungary and Poland were considered model countries of successful transition from socialism and one-party dictatorship to capitalism and liberal democracy. Few observers would have suspected that in 2020 both countries would be considered examples of “democratic backsliding” and “illiberal democracy” controlled by populist radical right parties — although to different degrees. This begs the question why Fidesz in Hungary and PiS in Poland keep on winning, why we didn’t see it coming, and how we should change our perspectives.
Schedule
18:45 Waiting Room Opens (see link below, you can wait here and will be let into the meeting at 19:00)
19:00 Introduction
19:05 Eszter Kováts on Hungary
19:35 Weronika Grzebalska on Poland
20:05 Questions and Discussion
20:45 End
Presenters
Eszter Kováts is PhD student in Political Science at ELTE University, Budapest. She is currently a guest researcher at the Humboldt University in Berlin. She was working in the Hungarian Office of the German political foundation Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) from 2009 till end of 2019. From 2012 till 2019 she was responsible for the Foundation’s gender program for East-Central Europe.
Weronika Grzebalska is a sociologist and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. Her work focuses on militarism, security, right-wing politics, and gender in Central Europe. Her PhD was dedicated to the rise of paramilitary organizing in post-1989 Poland. She is currently a Rethink.CEE Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Participation
join via zoom, waiting room opens 18:45
follow this link; meeting ID: 936 2667 7733; password: 853124