Could a local village be liberal? How could small communities deal with globalization? In our conference, we wish to answer these questions and identify liberal values, which have local relevance and can be used to promote liberal political solutions on the local level in bigger cities. In the first panel, we invite Hungarian liberal mayors to introduce the best practices, which can ensure local autonomy and could help to fight against illiberalism on the local, national and European level as well. We also want to analyze recent local elections from a liberal standpoint. In the second panel, we are interested how liberalism works on the local level, in different European regions. We wish to invite international experts from Italy, Netherlands, Poland and Hungary to discuss what liberalism means in their country on the local level, how it could help to local communities.

Programme:

10:00 Opening remarks – Gábor Horn Chair of the Board, Republikon Foundation

10:10 Opening Speech – Dávid Dorosz, Deputy Mayor, Budapest

10:30 Localism and liberalism in Europe
Susanne Dallinga, Secretary Permanent Programme Committee, Mr Hans van Mierlo Stichting
Magdalena Baran, Deputy Editor in Chief, Liberte!
Marco Mariani, European Affairs Director, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi
Zoltán Bretter, Assistant Professor, Pécs University
Moderator: Dániel Mikecz, Republikon Institute

11:45 COFFEE BREAK

12:00 Best practises on the local level – how liberalism works in the 21st century
Tamás Soproni, Mayor, 6th district of Budapest, Hungary
Tamás Wittinghoff, Mayor, Budaörs, Hungary
Tibor Papp, Mayor, Andrid, Romania
Anna Szögedi, Mayor, Tornaľa, Slovakia
Moderator: Dániel Mikecz, Republikon Institute

13:30 LUNCH

Venue: Mozsár Bisztró, Nagymező u. 21, Budapest

Register here: bit.ly/2PSzLND