Mayors of Budapest and Warsaw urge democratic renewal at Budapest Forum 2025

The 2025 Budapest Forum convened in Hungary’s capital on 17 September, bringing together political leaders, policy experts, academics, and civil society representatives for high-level discussions on the state of democracy in Europe and beyond.

 Hosted at the Central European University (CEU), the conference featured more than 40 speakers and nearly 500 participants from across Europe and the United States. The agenda covered a wide range of issues, including transatlantic cooperation, the war in Ukraine, European political trends, civic resistance in the Western Balkans, climate change, disinformation, and the outlook ahead of Hungary’s 2026 elections.

Mayors take aim at populism

Two of Central Europe’s most high-profile city leaders—Gergely Karácsony, Mayor of Budapest, and Rafał Trzaskowski, Mayor of Warsaw—used their keynote speeches to urge a stronger role for municipalities and civil society in pushing back against authoritarian trends.

Karácsony warned that progressive forces often fall into three traps when confronting populism: elitism, defending the status quo, and polarisation. “We must ask voters for a mandate to build a new model of democracy,” he argued, adding that this model must give people “a sense of home and identity” rather than focusing only on defending existing institutions.

Trzaskowski emphasised resilience as the key to safeguarding democracy. “We need to strengthen NGOs. We need to strengthen local government,” he said. “Autocracy thrives on hopelessness. We have to show people that change is possible, and that democracy offers a more effective answer to their real fears.”

• Mayors against Erdogan: Budapest’s Karácsony also visits Istanbul to see imprisoned mayor

High-level voices and critical debates

The forum featured an array of panels and keynote sessions tackling some of the most pressing issues for Europe’s democracies:

• Ivan Krastev, Chair of the Centre for Liberal Strategies, opened with a provocative talk: Who votes populists (back) into office, and why?
• A panel on European political trends included Michal Šimečka, President of Progressive Slovakia; Hungarian MEP Katalin Cseh; Austrian councillor Alexander Ackerl; and Pawel Zerka of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
• Ambassador James O’Brien, former Head of Sanctions Coordination at the U.S. State Department, discussed the shifting global security order.
• Experts such as Zsuzsanna Végh (German Marshall Fund) and Renáta Uitz (CEU) examined EU-US relations and democratic resilience.
• Peter Kraus of the Austrian Greens led a session on how cities should respond to climate change.
• Panels also covered disinformation, civic resistance in illiberal regimes, and the Hungarian political climate ahead of the 2026 elections.