Illiberal Politics – Populist Nationalism in Hungary

According to recent statistics, Hungary was the second country (following Greece) with the highest number of irregular border crossings, with more than 350,000 border crossings recorded during the refugee crisis. Nevertheless, all migrants left the country in a few days/weeks – but this did not prevent Hungarian government to become the first to erect barbed wire fences on the borders to protect the country (and Europe) from Muslim migrants. This is puzzling since Hungary is a transit or a source rather than a destination country for migration, except for the ethnic co-nationals of the neighboring countries. This paper argues that the migration crisis just provided more ground for nationalist populist politics of the current Hungarian government, led by its PM Orban, who declared that all terrorists are migrants. Using a systematic content analysis of the official statements and speeches of the prime minister since 2010, I attempt to trace the creation of this new political discourse, to demonstrate that Orban’s nationalist populist narrative is not only displaying the ‘classic’ elite vs. people divide but is also anti-migrant, anti-Muslim, and anti-Europe. In this setting, the discursive construction and use of ‘otherness’ in the public discourse stand for the representations of migrants as a deviant groups of people, enemies of the nation, of a threatening ideology/religion that must be opposed. Yet, Christianity is evoked not as a religion but is rather hijacked as a civilizational/cultural marker to distinguish ‘us’ from the ‘other’. Moreover, this new conception of national identity mobilizes against the collapse of traditional national values as well as the liberal rationalism embodied by EU institutions (Krastev 2007) and believes national interests are above all others. Similarly, this narrative challenges EU solidarity and commitment to Europeanization presenting these as major challenges for the security of both the national and political community. Europe and its common governance systems, secular organization, religious tolerance, and liberal foundation only exacerbate this threat, making the EU become ‘the other’, against what the national identity must be protected.