Registration REQUIRED by 4pm on March 31, 2025 in order to attend this event.
Please join the East Central European Center at the Harriman Institute for an event featuring political journalist and Columbia Journalism School M.A. student Iván L. Nagy in conversation with Sándor Ésik, one of Hungary’s most influential political bloggers, about the troubled geopolitics of Hungary and the lessons the U.S. can learn from Orbán’s 15-year fight against the rule-of-law and freedom of the press.
Viktor Orbán wanted to turn Hungary into a bridge between the East and the West. Instead, he made it into a pariah state in Europe by acting as an agent of Vladimir Putin’s and Donald Trump’s missions to destabilize the continent. As Ukraine is slowly admitting defeat, Orbán is declaring victory. Why? How does Orbán benefit from the worst of both worlds, and what did it cost his country? Does his foreign policy dictate his domestic rule or vice versa? What does the future hold for him as he faces a potent challenger in next year’s elections?
Sándor Ésik is a Hungarian lawyer, political blogger, and democratic activist based in Budapest. His bilingual blog “The Hungarian Muse” is one of the country’s most influential Substacks, and he has built a reputation as a political expert in the media. Ésik is also a regular author for the Journal of Democracy. He is an Eisenhower Fellow and holds an MBA from Saint Louis University.
Iván L. Nagy is an award-winning political journalist from Hungary and an MA student at the Columbia Journalism School. Before coming to the U.S., he was a political analyst and opinion writer for HVG, one of the few remaining independent newspapers in Hungary, as well as the host and producer of Hungary’s #1 news podcast. He is also a fellow at Visegrad Insight, a Warsaw-based think-tank focusing on Central and Eastern Europe.
