Launch event · Budapest, 26 November 2026

The Reconstruction Agenda: A Classical Liberal Blueprint for Post-Orbán Hungary

A reform map for the next eighteen months, presented by KEFIM and EPICENTER at Corvinus University of Budapest. Keynote by Tom G. Palmer.

Date
Thursday, 26 November 2026Public launch 18:00 to 21:00
Venue
Corvinus University of BudapestBuilding E
Organised by
KEFIM and EPICENTERCo-hosted by Széchenyi István Szakkollégium (SZISZ)
Keynote
Tom G. PalmerIn English

Open registration. Panels in Hungarian; keynote and presentation in English. Recorded for podcast and YouTube.

Why a Greek think tank is in Budapest

A change of government is only the beginning. The real question is whether the instruments of bad governance are dismantled or inherited.

Athens, 2019Agenda 2021

KEFIM presented Agenda 2021, a reform programme for Greece after years of populist government. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, then leader of the opposition, delivered the keynote at its launch.

Within months he became Prime Minister, and Agenda 2021 became the reference point for the reform programme that followed.

Budapest, 2026The Reconstruction Agenda

Hungary now stands at the same point. Following the April 2026 elections and the Tisza supermajority, the country’s institutional architecture will be rewritten within the next twelve to eighteen months.

Together with EPICENTER, KEFIM has documented what sixteen years of Fidesz rule did to Hungary’s institutions, and now presents a classical liberal blueprint for the road ahead.

Two papers, one project

Published May 2026

The Autocracy Playbook

Orbán’s Hungary and the price of institutional capture

How sixteen years of Fidesz government captured and eroded Hungary’s core democratic institutions and economic freedoms, tracked from 2009 to 2023 and benchmarked against the EU average.

Both papers are published jointly by KEFIM and EPICENTER.

Programme

Thursday, 26 November 2026, Building E, Corvinus University of Budapest.

17:30
Registration and welcome coffee
18:00
Opening remarks
Széchenyi István Szakkollégium (SZISZ)
18:10
From Agenda 2021 to the Reconstruction Agenda: why a Greek think tank is in Budapest, and what the paper proposes
Nicos Rompapas, President, KEFIM
18:30
Keynote address
Tom G. Palmer
19:00
Panel 1: Rebuilding political freedom in Hungary
Courts, media, civil society and the cardinal-laws architecture
Moderator: Luis Cano, EPICENTER. Panellists: Edit Zgut, Dr. Eszter Nova and further panellists to be announced
19:45
Break
19:55
Panel 2: Rebuilding economic freedom in Hungary
Property rights, central bank independence, regulation, procurement and fiscal discipline
Moderator: Adam Bartha, EPICENTER. Panellists: Zoltán Kész and further panellists to be announced
20:40
Q&A with the audience
20:55
Closing remarks
Nicos Rompapas
21:00
Reception

Speakers

Tom G. Palmer
Keynote speaker
Nicos Rompapas
President, KEFIM
Presents The Reconstruction Agenda
Edit Zgut
Adjunct Professor at IFiS PAN, Head of REWIRE, Center for Democratic Renewal and Innovation
Panel 1
Dr. Eszter Nova
Political Scientist and Lecturer at Cevro University, Prague, and Cergy, Paris
Panel 1
Zoltán Kész
Former MP (2015 to 2018), founder of the Free Market Foundation
Panel 2
Luis Cano
Head of EU Institutional Outreach, EPICENTER
Moderates Panel 1
Adam Bartha
Director, EPICENTER
Moderates Panel 2

Further panellists will be announced here as they are confirmed.

Join us in Budapest

When

Thursday, 26 November 2026Doors open 17:30, programme 18:00 to 21:00

Where

Corvinus University of BudapestBuilding E

Languages

Hungarian and EnglishPanels in Hungarian; keynote and presentation in English

Registration

Register for the launchFree, open to the public. Seats are limited.

Questions about the event: info@kefim.org

Organised by KEFIM, the Center for Liberal Studies, and EPICENTER, the European Policy Information Center. Co-hosted by Széchenyi István Szakkollégium, the Corvinus student college founded in 1987.

KEFIM, Center for Liberal StudiesEPICENTER, European Policy Information CenterSzéchenyi István Szakkollégium