Athens Democracy Forum

The Athens Democracy Forum is the Democracy & Culture Foundation’s annual conference on democracy, held in Athens in association with The New York Times, with sessions led by the paper’s senior journalists. The 2026 edition runs from 29 September to 1 October at the Athens Conservatoire.

The forum was founded in 2012 and was convened by The New York Times itself from 2013 to 2018. Since 2019 it has been run by the nonprofit Democracy & Culture Foundation. It gathers politicians, academics, business leaders and authors each year, and past editions have been held in some of the city’s oldest settings, among them the Zappeion Megaron, the Stoa of Attalos and the Academy of Athens.

The 2026 edition addresses the question of why democracy matters and how it must evolve to be fit for purpose in the twenty-first century. The Kofi Annan NextGen Democracy Prize is presented during the forum, and its young laureate is given the floor.