For the sixth episode of Budapest, I was joined by Thomas Carothers — senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and one of the world's leading scholars of democratic backsliding and democracy promotion.

From the United States to Poland, autocracies don't rise by chance — they follow a playbook. Together with Thomas, we explore how that playbook deploys, how to recognise it before it's too late, and why a solid system of checks and balances remains democracy's most reliable defence. European democracies are under pressure too: from the economic fragility of the middle class, and from a failure to make the case for what immigration actually brings. Yet Carothers reminds us that democracy is an ongoing process — and there is always time to challenge our own way of thinking.

In this episode:∙ The pressures on Western democracies∙ The legacy of Donald Trump's presidency on the US system∙ Immigration and diversity: challenges or resources for democracies?∙ How the autocratic playbook works

With reason, not rage.

Timestamps1:05 – Elections in Hungary matter for the EU4:40 – The turning point in American politics10:00 – The legacy of Trump's presidency16:00 – Building democracy is a cultural process18:50 – Why the autocratic playbook spread22:20 – The anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda25:40 – Weaknesses in Western Europe30:50 – All the reasons why we need immigration33:40 – The Polish case and the role of the judiciary37:30 – Democracy can always get back41:00 – Get out of your bubble

Author and host: Ivan ScalfarottoEditor and social media: Ludovica TaurisanoGraphic designer: Paola De BartoloVisual identity: Martina SanturriSound designer: Enrico Cabua

Catherine De Vries is Vice Dean and Professor of Political Science at IE University, where she specialises in far-right politics, populism, and European public opinion.

De Vries brings a scholar's rigour and a rare gift for connecting theory to everyday life. The far right succeeds not by solving problems, but by being seen to take them seriously. Politics, she argues, is not only about facts — it is about emotion. If liberal democracy fails to recognise this, it will keep losing ground to forces that offer recognition over solutions.

The conversation moves from the Netherlands — a country at the heart of the European Union — to the broader crisis of European legitimacy. De Vries argues that the EU has the potential to navigate the current international chaos, but only if it learns to reconnect with the citizens it has lost.

In this episode:

- The Dutch case and a very personal story

- Why the far right wins

- Immigration as a false problem

- How the EU can survive in a hostile environment

With reason, not rage.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

01:32 Budapest is everywhere — even in small cities

03:00 A personal story of resistance and anger

05:22 JD Vance sees the symptoms, not the cause

07:45 How the far right rose in the Netherlands

11:30 The state is not delivering for people — and it's not just about money

16:00 Is immigration really a far-right issue?

22:00 Politics is emotion, not just fact

24:00 What is the perception of the EU right now?

29:00 What effective sovereignty for member states means

32:35 How Europe can survive Euroscepticism

35:00 Donald Trump is hostile to the EU — and he is not the only one

42:30 The Green Deal's real impact

44:20 Healthy political debate can save democracy

Author and host: Ivan Scalfarotto

Editor and social media: Ludovica Taurisano

Graphic designer: Paola De Bartolo

Visual identity: Martina Santurri

Sound designer: Enrico Cabua

For the fourth episode of Budapest, I was joined by Marika Mikiashvili — lecturer at Alte University in Tbilisi, and Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Droa, part of the Coalition for Change, Georgia's largest democratic alliance.

Georgia sits at a strategic crossroads in the South Caucasus — and its ruling party, Georgian Dream, has been steadily opening the door to Russian influence. How does a government build legitimacy on electoral fraud and war propaganda? Together with Marika, we explore the Georgian crisis: a hypercentralized state where the billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili is pulling his country away from Europe — and toward the Kremlin.

If you want to support the struggle for democracy and freedom of the Georgian people, donate at georgiaprotest.com

In this episode:

∙ The South Caucasus in the international chessboard

∙ The true face of Georgian Dream

∙ The 2024 electoral fraud

∙ Political prisoners and chemical weapons

∙ The Russian Trojan horse

∙ What the European Union can do for the Georgian people

With reason, not rage.

Timestamps 

1:03 – What is your Budapest? The Caucasus dilemma

4:30 – The true face of Georgian Dream and the power of false narratives

9:10 – Elections in 2024: the fraud

17:30 – A year of protest: the regime versus the population in a limbo

22:30 – Too many political prisoners in Georgia

28:40 – Chemical weapons on the population

29:30 – Who is the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili

32:00 – How a hypercentralized, feudal State controls your life

35:00 – Georgia: the Russian Trojan horse

39:00 – The global power of narrative on war and morality

44:45 – A call for European leaders

52:00 – Four actions to support democracy in Georgia

Author and host: Ivan Scalfarotto

Editor and social media: Ludovica Taurisano

Graphic designer: Paola De Bartolo

Visual identity: Martina Santurri

Sound designer: Enrico Cabua

For the third episode of Budapest, I spoke to Péter Krekó, director of the Political Capital Institute and one of Hungary's leading experts on disinformation, working in partnership with the European Digital Media Observatory. As a behavioral and political scientist as well as a disinformation expert, in this episode he takes us into the nuances of a regime that can be considered hybrid.

Since 2010, Viktor Orbán and Fidesz have transformed Hungary into a hybrid regime by reshaping institutions and consolidating control over the media. Rather than relying on open repression, the government built an "informational autocracy," manipulating the media landscape to tilt the electoral playing field.

Hungary is heading toward its 2026 elections: will the government change, and with it its relationship with the European Union?

In this episode:

• The Orbán model: from 2010 to the current hybrid regime
• Who is still supporting Viktor Orbán
• How media pluralism shapes democracy
• Hungary and its membership in the European Union
• The relationship between Giorgia Meloni and Viktor Orbán

With reason, not rage.

Timestamps:

• 1:15 — What is your Budapest? 
• 4:30 — Not Just a Common Election: The Rise of Orbán in 2010
• 7:15 — How Orbán Captured the Media
• 11:10 — Has Hungary Given Up on Democracy? 
• 20:40 — What an Orbán Voter Looks Like
• 25:25 — How an Independent European Think Tank Can Survive in a Hybrid Regime 
• 31:15 — An Ambiguous Triangle: EU, Hungary and Italy 
• 35:00 — The Peacock Dance
• 40:00 — Giorgia Meloni Seen from Budapest" 
• 50:18 — Democracy Needs Pluralist Media

Author and host: Ivan Scalfarotto

Editor and social media: Ludovica Taurisano

Graphic designer: Paola De Bartolo

Visual identity: Martina Santurri

Sound designer: Enrico Cabua

For the second episode of Budapest, I was joined by Cecilia Malmström — former MEP, European Commissioner, and Swedish EU Minister — one of the key figures in European Union trade policy over the past two decades.

Trade was long conceived as a strategy to strengthen bonds between countries, and helped hundreds of millions come out of poverty. When did it become a means for aggressive foreign policies? Together with Cecilia, we explore international trade — its potential for the EU and beyond — despite the populist fantasy of self-sufficient national economies.

In this episode:

∙ Trade as a weapon

∙ European commercial policy: what we are doing right or wrong

∙ The true impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs on our economies

∙ Which countries are still benefiting from WTO

∙ The legacy of populism on international trade

With reason, not rage.

Timestamps

1:33 – What Budapest means to Cecilia Malmström

2:55 – Trade: from tool for cooperation to its weaponization

7:32 – Can the EU still act as one?

12:55 – The new relationship with NATO

14:48 – How the EU is handling tariffs and why it’s hard to negotiate with Donald Trump

21:13 – The Airbus affair

24:00 – The US no longer like us: can we still be friends?

25:15 – How the WTO is doing and how China is benefiting from it

29:48 – Populists are manipulating Mercosur

40:41 – We need to see positive benefits of trade in domestic policies

46:44 – Do not obey in advance

Author and host: Ivan Scalfarotto

Editor and social media: Ludovica

Taurisano

Graphic designer: Paola De Bartolo

Visual identity: Martina Santurri

Sound designer: Enrico Cabua

In my inaugural episode, I sit down with Nathalie Tocci — Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali, former special advisor to EU High Representatives Mogherini and Borrell, and one of Europe's leading voices on foreign policy.

From Trump's legacy to Greenland, from Iran's streets to Meloni's true intentions, we map the global state of liberal democracy — where it's crumbling, where it's holding, and what we can do about it.

In this episode:

• ​What the US can (and cannot) resist
• ​Venezuela, Iran, and the limits of protest
• ​Is a new colonial order emerging?
• ​Europe's internal enemies
• ​One concrete thing you can do to defend democracy

With reason, not rage.

Timestamps:

0:57 What is your Budapest?

4:55 Trump's legacy for the United States

6:38 The errors analysts make

8:32 US vs the illiberal virus: past vs present

12:15 From Venezuela to Greenland: the changing liberal order

21:50 What oppositions in Iran and Venezuela can expect

27:00 A new colonial order?

31:55 European liberal democracies today

41:19 The enemy within Europe

44:55 Mamdani's victory explained

49:45 What Meloni really thinks

52:00 What we can do to defend democracy

52:27 Conclusions

Author and host: Ivan Scalfarotto

Editor and social media: Ludovica Taurisano

Graphic designer: Paola De Bartolo

Visual identity: Martina Santurri

Sound designer: Enrico Cabua

Budapest is a podcast about the crisis of liberal democracy.

Why it happens. How we fight back.