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TA NEA: THE END OF ORBÁN'S LABORATORY
This interview in the magazine supplement of Ta Nea, Greece's leading daily, covers the structural roots of Orbán's illiberalism, from Hungary's three lost decades of real wage stagnation to his systematic construction of a transatlantic counter-hegemonic network designed to outlast his own government. We discuss how that network, centered on institutions like the Mathias Corvinus Collegium, shaped the American and European right, and what Magyar's two-thirds majority now mak
Jun 141 min read
CAUCASUS WATCH: IS THE DEFEAT OF VIKTOR ORBÁN OF ANY CONSEQUENCE TO THE CAUCASUS?
From American conservatives and European populists to political allies in the Caucasus, Viktor Orbán has built a network that increasingly rivals the influence once associated with Open Society. How did Hungary become a laboratory for the global right? And what does that mean for Georgia? https://caucasuswatch.de/en/interviews/is-the-defeat-of-viktor-orban-of-any-consequence-to-the-caucasus.html
May 251 min read
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ILLIBERALISM
I talk about my up coming book comparing the post-socialist population crisis in Eastern Europe and the deaths of despair epidemic in the US, and how they fuel populism through worse health and social disintegration.
May 51 min read
THE STAKES: HUNGARY AFTER ORBÁN: THE WORK OF DEMOCRACY BEGINS
Hungarian voters delivered a decisive electoral upset to strongman Viktor Orbán, who spent 16 years consolidating power, capturing institutions, and portraying himself as the global template for illiberal democracy. Opposition leader Péter Magyar won a landslide victory, with turnout exceeding 77 percent. The new government now holds a two-thirds parliamentary supermajority. In this episode of The Stakes, CFK Global Fellows Gábor Scheiring and Kristóf Szombati, both veterans
Apr 281 min read
METEOR: THE LANDSLIDE DEFEAT OF VIKTOR ORBÁN
Orbán tried to reframe the election around geopolitics, parading his friendships with Trump and Putin – but that backfired.
Apr 131 min read
AL JAZEERA: IS MAGYAR’S ELECTION WIN THE END OF THE EU’S TROUBLES WITH HUNGARY?
The 2026 Hungarian parliamentary election marked a significant turning point in the country's relationship with the European Union. The victory of Péter Magyar and the Tisza Party signaled a potential departure from the governance model that had characterized Hungary's political landscape for over a decade. Observers have suggested that the new administration's stated commitment to strengthening democratic institutions, enhancing judicial independence, and addressing corrupti
Apr 121 min read
GÁBOR SCHEIRING
Tracing the path of the polycrisis of liberal globalism, while mapping the responses
that foster economic and political revival.
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