On 25 November 2025, the ESC convened a comparative seminar on democratic resistance to illiberal rule. The seminar brought together Zoltán Ádám, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Political Science of ELTE University's Centre for Social Sciences, and Eric Gordy, Professor of Political and Cultural Sociology at University College London, with Jessie Barton Hronešová, Lecturer in Political Sociology at UCL, serving as discussant and Othon Anastasakis, Director of the ESC, chairing the event. The discussion examined how citizens, civic organisations and opposition actors in Hungary and Serbia confront entrenched regimes, combining detailed national case studies with a comparative perspective that highlighted both common patterns and important differences.
Ádám opened by tracing Hungary's political trajectory from the fiscal and political crises of 2006 to Fidesz's decisive electoral victory in 2010. He characterised the post-2010 system as a form of electoral autocracy, marked by patrimonial governance and increasingly sophisticated information management. Constitutional changes introduced under Fidesz's two-thirds parliamentary majority weakened domestic checks and balances, while European Union membership continued to function as an important, if limited, external constraint. Ádám argued that pre-election fiscal cycles and access to EU funds play a significant role in shaping public opinion, with consumer and business confidence closely tracking the government's electoral fortunes.
