Iván Szelényi (1938-2026), a towering figure in sociology, one of the finest global intellectuals Hungary and Eastern Europe has ever produced, has died. Rest in peace and solidarity. 1/6

Spain: Solidarity, Consistency, Ease, Hope, Compass. Thank you guys! Spain 🇪🇸

Keir Starmer: The centrist project to bolster the status quo against "populism" ended as disgracefully as it started. Hollow corporate managerialism doesn't fix a systemic crisis.

Hey Europe, here I come. Whirling across five countries, seven cities, ten talks over the next three weeks. I'm energized, but gonna need a break after. Topics: #democracy, #FarRight, #developmentalism, #environmentalism, #politicaleconomy. Hop in if you are around:

Sorry for the decadent Warholian self-duplication, but getting published in Greek is a nice first, I couldn't resist posting it along with the translation. Two new interviews out, one for the leading Greek daily, Ta Nea's 'Int' magazine supplement, and another for Caucasus Watch.

In a new essay for #ResilienceResistance, 2025 CFK Global Fellow @gscheiring.bsky.social unveils three pitfalls to look out for as Hungary works to revive its democracy https://kettering.org/hungary-and-the-triple-trap-of-post-illiberal-democracy/

Hungary and the Triple Trap of Post-Illiberal Democracy

Orbán is out after 16 years. What comes next is harder. Gábor Scheiring names three traps that can fuel backlash: economic insecurity, weak political voice, and resentment.

kettering.org

Honored to join Sari Hanafi on his podcast Connecting Social Research to Society (AUB & the Arab Council for the Social Sciences). A few weeks after hosting him at Georgetown, the conversation continued, this time with him in the host's chair. 1/5

The Palentir statement on its desired “Technological Republic” is one of the scariest things I have seen in a while. It is a call for a world dominated by an authoritarian U.S., generated by AI (both the statement and the world), run by tech-surveillance companies. Technofascism pure!

Grateful to @tvpworld.bsky.social and host Sascha Fahrbach for the chance to discuss my recent @jacobinmag.bsky.social piece on Hungary's post-Orbán transition, and the harder question behind the celebration: what does sustainable democratization actually require? www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIYb...

EU flags return to Parliament. Will Hungary come together? | Gábor Scheiring

YouTube video by TALKING WITH TVP WORLD

youtube.com

Politics junkies, if you are interested in how #Orban lost, whether the #fFarRight is over in #Hungary and beyond, and what traps lay ahead on the road toward sustainable #democratization, then check out my essay, it just came out on @jacobinmagazin.bsky.social : jacobin.com/2026/05/hung...

Democracy After Orbánism?

Péter Magyar will be sworn in as Hungary’s new prime minister this week. His government has a strong technocratic thrust — a departure from Viktor Orbán’s cronyism but hardly a revitalization of demo...

jacobin.com

When the petite bourgeoisie works out the class politics of hyper neoliberalism.

New podcast on Hungary's morning after. We discuss what the post-Orbán transition tells us about Europe's far-right landscape, and why professional-class enthusiasm about the death of illiberalism is running ahead of structural reality. twentyfourtwo.substack.com/p/peter-magy...

🎙️ Pumpled (pumped & humbled) about two podcast episodes out today, both recorded with my dear friend and former party co-founder Kristóf Szombati in the aftermath of Viktor #Orbán's defeat. 🎧 kettering.org/hungary-afte... 🎧 kettering.org/hungary-afte...

Last week, 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. Discover #TheStakes here: bit.ly/4toZ3mz

Hungary after Orbán: The Work of Democracy Begins

Viktor Orbán loses in a landslide—but Hungary’s illiberal system remains. CFK Global Fellows Gábor Scheiring and Kristóf Szombati discuss how the opposition broke through and the challenges ahead with...

bit.ly

What a week. Since #Orbán's defeat I have been in and out of studios and phone calls with journalists trying to make sense of the elections in #Hungary, literally talking to each inhabited continent (Antarctica still pending), reflecting the gravity of this political change. Links below.

Most analyses of the elections in #Hungary focus on how Magyar won – @dfeher.bsky.social of #UBIE asks why it took sixteen years to bring down #Orbán. The answer reveals something fundamental about economic dependency and the case for #UBI as democratic infrastructure. 🔗 www.ubie.org/hu26 1/7

Dependency Is the System: What Hungary Teaches Us About Basic Income and Democracy - UBIE - Unconditional Basic Income Europe

The fall of Viktor Orbán’s government in Hungary raises a question the celebrations have obscured: why did dismantling such a corrupt and inhuman system take sixteen years? The answer lies less in ide...

ubie.org

Hungary is Back. Orban is out. Constitutional majority in sight for opposition! 30% of votes counted; yet, it's almost 100% that the opposition Tisza party won, based on the current trajectory, new government might control at least 2/3 of seats. New era.

Yesterday, I spoke to il manifesto and @aljazeera.com (Inside Story, a 25-minute segment with @rdanielkelemen.bsky.social) about tomorrow's elections, focusing on the economic exhaustion of the regime. 🎦Al Jazeera: www.aljazeera.com/video/inside... 📰 Il Manifesto: ilmanifesto.it/la-piazza-gi...

I was back on @tvpworld.bsky.social to talk about the economic fallout of the Iran war. A 15-minute interview, plus link to the underlying analysis: where are we and why is June the month that might transform this crisis from painful to catastrophic. Interview: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXu4... 1/7

Three major new studies on democracy and freedom all find the U.S. is slipping further away from democracy. Leaders of two of those studies say President Trump's goal is to rule as an autocrat.

Trump is dismantling democracy at 'unprecedented' speed, global report finds

Three major new studies on democracy and freedom all find the U.S. is slipping further away from democracy. Leaders of two of those studies say President Trump's goal is to rule as an autocrat.

n.pr

💥Not how one wants to be featured in the @nytimes.com, but I’m glad a US audience sees what’s happening in this small country’s wild election campaign. As with other Orbán-related news, here's my warning to US colleagues: Orbán's actions still serve as a blueprint for Trump/MAGA.

My new study is out with @feps-europe.eu. "Laboratories of Counter-Hegemony: Orbán, Trump and the Transatlantic Far-Right Ecosystem" maps the infrastructure that has turned a small Central European country into a launchpad for reorganizing the Western right. 🧵 1/9 👉 feps-europe.eu/publication/...

Polarization is not just a political problem. It is a health problem. If you agree, check out this Social Science & Medicines pecial issue, edited by @josephharrisbu.bsky.social and Nora Kenworthy on "Polarization and Health Policy in a Global Context." www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

USA under #Trump 2.0 emerging as the most rapidly #autocratizing country, finds @vdeminstitute.bsky.social 2026 Democracy Report. Speed of #backsliding outpaces the most paradigmatic cases. Scholars of Hun 🇭🇺,🇮🇳,🇷🇺,🇷🇸,🇹🇷 - now is the time to analyze American politics: 👉 www.v-dem.net/documents/75...

I did two interviews recently on the fallout from the #IranWar and what it means for #Europe and the #WorldEconomy, and wrote a more detailed analytical note on the war's economic consequences. Happy to share them here. 🧵 1/4

This is the largest oil supply shock in history in mb/d The enemy gets a vote. Iran is now delivering pain to Trump via multiple paths (1) Gulf Kings (2) Financial meltdown (3) AI tech oligarchs (4) Fuel, fertilizer, food disruptions Read our Polycrisis Dispatch: buttondown.com/polycrisisdi...

My analysis on #Europe and the #Iran war is just out on @socialeurope.bsky.social. Europe's response to the US-Israeli strikes on Iran exposes a continent locked in dependency and struggling to find its voice. 🧵👇 1/6 www.socialeurope.eu/spain-and-no...

This Friday, I'll be speaking at the symposium "Make Illiberalism Great Again" in Regensburg, exploring how a small state punches far above its weight globally. Organized by @sonjapriebus.bsky.social & @sudosteuropa.bsky.social, I'm glad to join @veghzsuzsanna.bsky.social and Ivana Ranković. 1/6

Join us next week for a symposium on how the Hungarian government has been actively seeking to transnationalize its political project and position itself as a reference point for like-minded forces in Europe and beyond. Registration to participate in Regensburg or online: sogde.org/de/events/sy...

Welcome, new followers! And a particular groetjes to the Dutch wave; not entirely sure how I landed in your corner of Bluesky, but I'm glad to see the engagement. I write about political economy, illiberalism, the lived experiences of economic shocks, and how to save democracy from the polycrisis.