Launch of Centre for the Study of Global Nationalisms (CSGN)

Multiple Nationalist Demographic Panics: Immigration, Emigration and Transborder Nation-building in Hungary

Across a growing number of states, demographic change is simultaneously characterized by immigration-driven diversification and emigration-driven depopulation. To borrow Hans Magnus Enzensberger’s metaphor of demographic bulimia, such circumstances produce fears “that too many and too few people could simultaneously exist in the same territory.” In the presentation, I will discuss how the Hungarian government under Prime Minister Orbán uses anti-immigrant politics, transborder nation-building and civilizationist discourse to maintain the myth of an ethnoculturally homogeneous Hungarian nation.

Orbánism goes Global: From Europe's Nightmare to the American Right's Dream

This talk first examines Viktor Orbán's transformation of Hungary through autocratic legalism—systematically dismantling checks and balances while maintaining democratic façades. But what happens in Hungary does not stay in Hungary. Orbán's model has spread beyond Hungary, influencing Central and Eastern European strongmen and becoming the EU's first autocracy. Orbán’s officials have quietly advised American conservatives through the Heritage Foundation and CPAC conferences, exporting Orbánist techniques—media capture, judicial packing, culture-war mobilization—to Trump's second administration. Hungary serves as both laboratory and transmission belt for transnational illiberalism.

Szabolcs Pogonyi

Szabolcs Pogonyi is Associate Professor in the Nationalism Studies Program at Central European University. His current research focuses on diasporic nation building, transborder minorities, non-resident citizenship and external voting. He is the author of several articles in political theory and editor of books in the history of political thought. His research on contemporary Hungarian diaspora politics and transborder nation building '(Extra-Territorial Ethnic Politics, Discourses and Identities in Hungary)' was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2017.

Miklós Sükösd

Miklós Sükösd is a Hungarian political scientist, sociologist, and media researcher, and Associate Professor at the Institute of Communication, University of Copenhagen. Educated at Eötvös Loránd University, Columbia University, and Harvard University, he participated in Hungary’s democratic transition and later became an analyst of democratic backsliding, and autocratization and the media. He has (co-)edited or (co-)authored over twenty books, including 'Media, Nationalism and European 'Identities' (CEU Press) and Finding the Right Place on the Map: Central and Eastern European Media Change in a Global Perspective' (Intellect).

Vibe Termansen

Vibe Termansen is a Danish historian and author with a great interest in Central Europe, especially Poland and Hungary.

Aurelio Poles

Aurelio Poles is a PhD fellow at the Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies and develops his research on the Far Right in Argentina at CSGN.

Elena Burztein

Elena Burztein is a feminist, filmmaker, animator, lecturer and researcher at the University of Buenos Aires. Studied Documentary Filmmaking at University of San Martin. Co-director and screenwriter of the feature film "Extraordinary Common People”, "The Unrest” and four short films screened in festivals around the world.

Filmography as director: I still can´t make it (2020, documentary, short film), Maradona (2020, documentary, short film), IT CAN BE DONE (2022, documentary, short film), The unrest (2021, documentary, feature film), 27,610 - The other side (2022, documentary, short film), Extraordinary Common People (2023, documentary, feature film), Panic Show (2025, documentary, short film), I'm Positive (2025, in postproduction, documentary, feature film).

Axel Rosito

Axel Rosito is a filmmaker, photographer, cinematographer, lecturer and researcher, University of Buenos Aires, Image and Sound Designer. Graduated from the University of Buenos Aires. Co-director and screenwriter of the feature films "Extraordinary Common People", "The Unrest" and five short films screened and awarded in national and international film festivals. National Arts Funds Grantee, Award-winning photographer, Finalist of the 2025 National Visual Arts Salon, Amnesty International Spain photography contest winner.

Filmography as director: Sunset, (2008, fiction, short film - 2008), Pablo and the World Cup, (2011 documentary, short film), The Promise, (2012, fiction, short film - 2012), IT CAN BE DONE, (2022, documentary, short film), 27,610, from the other side, (2022 documentary, short film), The Unrest, (2022, documentary, feature film), Extraordinary common People, (2023, documentary, feature film, 2023), I'm Positive, (2025, documentary, feature film, currently in post production).