Successful organization of the primaries, high voter turnout, and (partial) successes for most of the participating parties are all reasons for the Hungarian opposition to celebrate, but there is still a lot for them to do to win enough votes for a majority in the National Assembly, especially from small settlements. Forging their coalition party list will be the main source of future conflict, but the dynamics of the six-party machine are also threatened by an internal fight for domination over the alliance, and the ruling party could be an active actor in disrupting the unity of the opposition.

Environmental and climate policies are not in the spotlight of the winners of last weekend’s elections in Czechia. As right-wing coalitions are going to form a new government, rising energy prices and the starting climate transformation, combined with austerity policies, could cause social conflict and open the way for the renewal of progressive movements and parties. Socially sensitive modernisation should be one of the key points for their new agenda.

Summary of the panel 'People's power vs Climate crisis' at the Budapest Forum on the 16th September 2021. The conference was co-organized by the Municipality of Budapest, Political Capital Institute and CEU Democracy Institute. Heinrich Böll Foundation was a strategic partner at the conference. The panel was moderated by Benedek Jávor, former MEP of The Greens/EFA, currently the Head of Representation of Budapest to Brussels. The keynote was delivered by Ellen Ueberschär, co-president of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Following the recent parliamentary elections, many Czechs celebrated the opposition parties’ victory over the business magnate and incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. However, the new center-right governing coalition must be careful not to return to the previous status quo that helped Babiš to power eight years ago.