The Central and East-European societies overthrew their Communist governments in the name of republicanism, though the latter was a part of the original socialist idea. The relations between socialism and democracy are still undiscovered, despite the fact that a decade has gone since the fall of the Berlin wall. It seems that communism has lost the trust that had been invested in it for being an emancipatory alternative to capitalism. This is the point to start the reconstruction of the left for the 21st century.

The Left Alternative Association (BAL) organized a forum during the bombing campaign of NATO against Yugoslavia in Spring 1999. Some well-known personalities of Hungarian public life, like sociologist Erzsebet Szalai, historians Ivan Harsanyi, Tibor Hajdu and Tamas Krausz, political economist Nicholas Bardos-Feltoronyi, literary historian Daniel Jakocs, film criticist Ivan Forgoes, and an unnamed Kurdish participant presented their views on the tragic events.