FINAL PROGRAM
Venue: 7621 Pécs, Papnövelde utca 22. Conference room (1st floor)
December 4, 2025
12.30-13.00 Registration
13.00-13.15 Opening ceremony – Chair: Balázs Brucker
- Viktor Varjú, director (ELTE CERS Institute for Regional Studies)
- Jean-Michel De Waele, full professor (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Department of Political Studies/Cevipol)
13.15-14.55 SECTION 1 – REGIONAL AND ETHNOREGIONAL PARTIES: HISTORICAL DETERMINANTS, HISTORICAL APPROACHES
Chair: Maria Spirova, Leiden University, Institute of Political Science
- Ilona Pálné Kovács – The missing link. Why disappearance of Hungarian counties matters?
- Jean-Michel De Waele – Is Belgian federalism killing regionalist parties?
- Madeleine Hartmann – Regionalist and ethno-regionalist movements and parties in Upper Silesia in the interwar period and since the 1990s
- Perrine Lara – From the Fringe to the Forefront: The Political Rise of the SNP and Plaid Cymru since Devolution
14.55-15.15 Coffee break
15.15-16.55 SECTION 2 – ETHNOREGIONAL PARTIES AND THE CHALLENGES OF DEMOCRATIZATION IN CEE
Chair: Jean-Michel De Waele, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Department of Political Studies/Cevipol
- Szymon Ostrowski, Oskar Stefański – Political Parties and Paradiplomacy: A Case Study of Scotland and Scottish National Party
- Balázs Brucker – The Political Representation of Hungarian Communities Living in Neighbouring Countries in the European Parliament
- Boyka Stefanova, Maria Spirova – Success, Failure, or Reinvention? The New Beginning of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms in Bulgarian Party Politics
- Zsuzsanna Zsibók, Nóra Baranyai – Intraethnic Relations through Paradiplomacy: The Case of Hungarian Municipalities
19.00-21.00 Dinner (basement dining room of the Institute for Regional Research)
December 5, 2025
09.00-10.15 SECTION 4 – ELECTIONS AND PARLIAMENTARY PARTICIPATION OF REGIONAL AND ETHNOREGIONAL PARTIES
Chair: Balázs Vizi, ELTE CSS Institute for Minority Studies
- Balázs Dobos – The parliamentary representation of minorities: presence, effectiveness, and the problem of evaluation
- Firat Efe – Are We One Big Family?
- The Distinctiveness of Ethnoregionalist Party Family in Central and Eastern Europe – Ovidiu Vaida,
- Alexandru Mocernac – Minority Politics in Post-Communist Romania: The Case of the Union of Ukrainians
10.15-10.35 Coffee break
10.35-12.15 SECTION 5 – PROTODIPLOMACY: SECESSION AND INDEPENDENCE
Chair: Balázs Brucker, ELTE CERS Institute for Regional Studies
- Nathalie Duclos – The Scottish National Party’s evolving defence policy
- Jacopo Viti – Candidatura d’Unitat Popular: a model of anti-capitalist and progressive regionalism
- Krisztina Kurdi – Can South Tyrol become an independent state?” – New political parties and movements in South Tyrol
- Balázs Vizi – Minority participation and parliamentary elections in Kosovo
12.15-12.35 Coffee break
12.35-13.50 SECTION 6 – POLITICAL ELITE AND CIVIL SOCIETY
Chair: Nóra Baranyai, ELTE CERS Institute for Regional Studies
- Petia Gueorguieva – The shattering development of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. On the Janus-Faced “party of Bulgarian Turks
- Géza Barta – People Before Parties? Personalised Ethnoregional Representation in Upper Silesia
- Gábor Mozga – The Political Positions of Ethnoregional Parties in Central and Eastern Europe
13.50-14.00 Closing remarks – Chair: Nóra Baranyai
- Ilona Pálné Kovács, president of the Hungarian Regional Science Association
- Jean-Michel De Waele, full professor (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Department of Political Studies/Cevipol)
The conference is co-organized by the ELTE CERS Institute for Regional Studies and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Cevipol).
Project no. 146411 has been implemented with the support provided by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation of Hungary from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, financed under the K-23 funding scheme.
