What Next for Europe? Hungary, Russia and the New Era of Illiberal Democracies

Following the upcoming general election in Hungary, Index on Censorship and Pushkin House invite you to a panel discussion that examines the future of Europe as the political landscape shifts across the continent. We will be joined by writer and Hungary expert Victor Sebestyen, investigative and human rights journalist Alice McCool, and post-democracy researcher Professor Colin Crouch, chaired by Editor of Index on Censorship Sally Gimson. The event will mark the launch of Index on Censorship’s latest magazine issue, The Monster Unleashed: How Hungary’s Illiberal Vision is Seducing the Western World. All attendees will receive a complimentary copy on the night.

Viktor Orbán himself described Hungary as an illiberal democracy. His government has eroded democratic institutions, weaponised national victimhood and historical myths, and targeted the LGBTQ+ community and independent media. Hungary is not alone in adopting the new shared language of the authoritarian playbook. The Orbán government joined the network of far-right groups across Europe and has drawn interest from Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. At the same time, concerns about Russian interference in the upcoming election – and Orban’s adoption of anti-Western, pro-Russian rhetoric – highlight Hungary’s place as a conduit for Russian political and informational influence in Europe.

From Hungary’s political vision to the wider implications for Europe amid Trump’s second administration and Putin’s war in Ukraine, what does this moment signal for democracy, free expression and the future of Europe?

About the speakers

Victor Sebestyen was born in Budapest. He was a child when his family left Hungary as refugees. He has worked for numerous British newspapers, including the London Evening Standard and The Mail on Sunday, and has written for American papers such as The New York Times. He was also an editor at Newsweek. Sebastyen reported widely from Russia and Eastern Europe when Communism and the USSR collapsed, and covered the wars in former Yugoslavia. He is the author of Lenin the Dictator (2017), Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire (2009), and two books about Hungary, Twelve Days: The 1956 Hungarian Revolution (2006) and Budapest: Between East and West (2022).

Alice McCool is an investigative journalist and editor focused on social justice and human rights. They write for publications such as The Guardian, CNN, New Internationalist, VICE, Thomson Reuters, BBC News, Al Jazeera, Dazed and TIME Magazine. They have investigated disinformation, digital rights and the harms of the Big Tech industry, and prior to their career in journalism, they worked for anti-corruption group Transparency International. Feminism is central to Alice’s work, and they have covered gender issues in South America, Western Europe, South Asia and across Africa, particularly Uganda.

Colin Crouch is an external scientific member of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies at Cologne and professor emeritus of the University of Warwick. He previously taught at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Oxford (Fellow of Trinity College), and the European University Institute, Florence. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and of the Academy of Social Sciences, and a member of the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino. His most recent books include The Globalization Backlash (2019), Will the Gig Economy Prevail? (2019), Manifesto for Social Europe (2020), Post-Democracy after the Crises (2020), Rethinking Political Identity: Citizens and Parties in Europe and Exclusion and the New Politics of Hatred (2026).

Chair:

Sally Gimson is editor at Index on Censorship. She started her career at the Sunday Telegraph and the Observer and worked for Deutsche Welle in Berlin, and has worked on and off for Index for more than ten years. She wrote a book about high speed rail Off the Rails: The Inside Story of HS2 which was published by Oneworld in 2025.