By MARTINA PLANTAK | The emergence of Péter Magyar as the central opposition figure fundamentally altered the dynamics of Hungarian politics, leading to broad debates about democratic backsliding within consolidated democratic frameworks and regime resilience. The legacy of Orbánism continues to pose significant challenges for democratic reconstruction and political transformation in Hungary.

By MORITZ FÖLLMER | Achilles argues that constitutional patriotism was vibrant in Weimar Germany and that it was embraced both by political leaders in Berlin and by ordinary citizens in small towns. She conveys her appreciation of “civic habitus of democratic equality” but recognizes that this popular republicanism encountered some serious problems, describing how hostility to the Republic remained strong throughout the 1920s.

By PAUL O’KEEFFE and ADA FREANEY | Considering the overlapping crises shaping global food systems and food security, and the mismatch between the scale of global food production and human and planetary well-being, the urgency of food literacy is particularly evident. It extends beyond nutritional knowledge to encompass skills, understandings, and values that enable individuals to make informed, ethical, and sustainable decisions about food.

Translated by JEFFREY ZUCKERMAN | At Birkenau there is nothing to do but walk. We approach the hills. Rays of sunlight still come down. On the ramp, a man plays at throwing a child up in the air. Every so often a security guard comes through on a Segway. Practically a supersonic roly-poly in a light-blue short-sleeve shirt who goes through a barbed-wire door and disappears behind a hut. We walk down the railroad tracks. The tracks built to receive Hungarian Jews.

By NESPOON | By bringing lace patterns into the public space, NeSpoon transforms a form historically associated with private interiors and luxury into a universal visual language accessible to everyone. Her works function as ornament, cultural research, and a quiet gesture of harmony in the shared space of the city and bridges centuries-old craftsmanship and contemporary artistic expression.

This month’s recent book recommendations by GlobalEurope editors HÉLÈNE B. DUCROS, NICK OSTRUM, and OKSANA ERMOLAEVA. Read about the enduring fascination of the ultra-rich for the Versailles aesthetics, the entangled riparian systems through successive empires in Mesopotamia, and the interactions between the Russian military and local populations in WWII.