As part of the World Forum on the Future of Democracy, AI/Tech and Humankind held in Berlin, on February 17th, 2026, the President of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization, Emeritus Professor Emil Constantinescu, took part in a roundtable discussion on "How to Stop the Slide towards Authoritarianism."
Moderated by Gordon Repinski, Editor-in-Chief of Politico Germany, the debate was also attended by Zuzana Čaputova, President of Slovakia (2019-2024), Vera Jourová, Vice-president of the European Commission for Values and Transparency (2019-2024) and European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality (2014-2019) ; András Baka, President of the Supreme Court of Hungary (2009-2011) and justice at the European Court of Human Rights (1991-2008) ; Katalin Cseh, Member of the European Parliament for Hungary and of the Hungarian National Assembly (since 2014) ; Berdan Öztürk, Member of the National Assembly of Turkey ; Yavuz Aydin, judge, former State Advisor of Turkey on matters of Justice concerning the European Union ; Gulchehra Hoja, Uyghur-American journalist and collaborator to Radio Free Asia.
Referring to the possibility of a total erosion or democracy, President Emil Constantinescu offered a reassuring example, stressing that "From my personal experience, I do not believe that there are irreversible steps in democratic erosion. Take, for example, the case of Romania, where, even though the interwar period saw the first establishment of democratic institutions at the national level through the Constitution, which were then replaced by fascist and communist dictatorships, a democratic echo remained enshrined in the collective consciousness, allowing for the peaceful restoration of the rule of law, seen as an ideal associated with the enduring values of freedom and truth."
The debate opened with attempts to identify the first irreversible signs of democracy's erosion, the participants agreeing that restricting individual and media rights and freedoms constitute a clear benchmark for democratic backsliding at the national level. Discussions then turned to whether supranational organisms such as the European Union or ASEAN have the authority to intervene and exert pressure on sovereign states to uphold the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Notably, although the participants broadly agreed that such pressures are indeed possible, and sometimes even welcome, they stressed that such efforts could also backfire, reinforcing authoritarian tendencies – especially in countries that lack a robust separation of powers within the state.
Discussions then turned, more broadly, to identifying appropriate concrete proposals that could be presented to authoritarian governments, in an attempt to find ways to link economic stimulus packages with the respect afforded human rights and democratic pluralism, opening the way to discussions of the ongoing situation of Hungary and Turkey, respectively.
