This past weekend was intense at CEU: 180 participants from over 30 countries attended the third edition of Budapest Open –– the first and only international academic debate tournament in Hungary. Budapest Open was launched in 2012 by CEU Debate Society and Corvinus Vitaklub. With ELTE Vita joining a year later, the tournament became one of the major student events nationwide, besides being the only academic debate tournament taking place in Hungary. Every year, the Organizing Committee succeeded to reach out beyond their campuses to non-governmental organizations, multi-national businesses present in Budapest, as well as diplomatic missions accredited in Hungary. We are particularly grateful to KPMG in Hungary for their generous donation and support.
This year we had 56 teams in the competition, and a truly great Chief Adjudication panel: Harish Natarajan (UK, ex-Cambridge Union Society), Nika Jelaska (Croatia, Zagreb Debating Union), Rebecca Meredith (UK, Cambridge Union Society), Teo Radetic (Slovenia, University of Ljubljana), and Viktor Prlja (Serbia, Open Communication). Serving as Tab Master was student Zsofia Muranyi (POLS), with student Oksana Siruk (LEGS) as co-convenor of the tournament.
CEU was represented at the tournament by 2 teams: students Alexandru Moise and Endre Borbath (POLS), and alumni Olha Koshchiyenko and Maksat Musaev. Serving as judges were alumni Ana Gurau, Igor Gurkin, Kristina Georgieva, and Maja Nenadovic, as well as student Bridget Millman (POLS). Following 5 preliminary rounds, 8 teams qualified to the semi-finals, which were held on the motion: This House opposes the sympathetic and humanizing portrayal of Nazi soldiers in popular media. After careful deliberation, the judges announced the 4 teams breaking to the Grand Final: Vermont GW, Cambridge A, Ben Gurion University and Belgrade University’’s team One Night in Paris.
Delivering the keynote speech at the Grand Final in ELTE University’’s Aula Magna was Prof. Peter Balazs (IRES), who spoke on the importance of conflict management through debate. We were also delighted to have CEU students Sergiu Burlacu and Alisa Kamarova play for the audience during deliberation time. The Finals panel decided that the winners of Budapest Open 2014 are Helena Ivanov and Stefan Siridzanski from Belgrade. The motion in front of the house at the Final was: This House would suspend elections in countries with very high levels of government debt.
At CEU, Budapest Open is undoubtedly the largest event organized by students and alumni, enjoying a great deal of support from the Student Life Office, Recruitment Office, Student Union, Communication Office and ARCS Office. We are deeply thankful to all of the CEU staff involved in the process, in particular Alexandra Zontea, Krisztina Sebok, Gloria Oh and Zsolt Ilija.
In the weeks to come, CEU Debate Society will cover all the motions debated at Budapest Open 2014 in the CEU Weekly. For details on the tournament Organizing Committee, motions, participants, and a full list of supporters, please visit http://www.debatehungary.com/
Ana Gurau, Public Policy Alumna, Moldova
Tournament Director
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