Kim, Seongcheol
Book Pa — Published Ve sion
Hunga y
P o ided in Coope a ion wi h:
WZB Be lin Social Science Cen e
Sugges ed Ci a ion: Kim, Seongcheol (2020) : Hunga y, In: Ka sambekis, Gio gos S a akakis, Yannis
(Ed.): Populism and he Pandemic. A Collabo a i e Repo , Uni e si y o Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki,
pp. 29-30
This Ve sion is a ailable a :
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Populism & he Pandemic Repo POPULISMUS In e en ions No. 7, 2020
29
Seongcheol Kim
8. Hunga y
Populism in Hunga y has been a subjec o in e na ional a en ion especially in he pas decade,
one ha began wi h Vik o O bán’s Fidesz winning an unp eceden ed wo- hi ds majo i y o
sea s in he 2010 pa liamen a y elec ions. While Fidesz had ea u ed a social-populis discou se
pi ing ‘ he people’ and ‘ he new majo i y’ agains ‘ he a is oc acy’ in powe ollowing hen-
PM Fe enc Gyu csány’s in amous ‘Őszöd speech’ o 2006, O bán’s ou i now shi ed gea s
on o an ins i u ionalis 75 discou se o na ional ha mony a he han an agonis ic di ision and,
ollowing i s landslide ic o y, decla ed in a pa liamen a y esolu ion ha ‘na ional uni y’ had
p e ailed and ha he o e s had gi en he pa y a manda e o ins i u e a ‘Sys em o Na ional
Coope a ion’ (NER) ounded on ‘peace, eedom, and acco d.76 Wha has been cha ac e is ic
o Fidesz’s pos -2010 discou se is an au ho i a ian ins i u ionalism o enac ing an exclusi e
claim o he ‘na ion’ in a me hodical, adminis a i e, la gely non-an agonis ic manne ia wo-
hi ds majo i y while e ec i ely igno ing o bypassing ( a he han seeking di ec con on a ion
wi h) opposi ion. Populism akes on an ins i u ing unc ion o his ins i u ionalism by making
he bounda ies o he new o de in elligible, ha ing p e iously de ined he O he o ‘ he
people’ (albei no in au ho i a ian e ms a he ime) as a small, p i ileged, disc edi ed
‘a is oc acy.’ Simila ly, he ‘S op So os’ campaign ha climaxed wi h he 2018 elec ions
ep esen s a phase in which populism, in close conjunc ion wi h na ionalism and na i ism, e-
eme ges in Fidesz’s discou se o e-de ine he iden i y o ‘ he na ion’ agains e e newe
enemies in he o m o he So os ‘empi e’ and i s alleged agen s a home and ab oad.
In sho , Fidesz’s pos -2010 ule is cha ac e ized by a cons an in e play be ween momen s o
he poli ical as an agonism (o which populism is one possible mani es a ion) and a non-
an agonis ic ins i u ionalized no mali y o ‘business as usual.’ The same holds o he
go e nmen ’s esponse o he COVID-19 pandemic. As widely epo ed in in e na ional
media, he wo- hi ds Fidesz majo i y in pa liamen adop ed on 30 Ma ch a so-called ‘Enabling
Ac ’ g an ing he go e nmen eme gency powe s wi hou any kind o buil -in ime limi , which
made he law unusual among i s Eu opean coun e pa s. Impo an ly, he go e nmen decided
o pu he bill up o an ea ly o e on 23 Ma ch, equi ing a ou - i hs majo i y unde he ules
o p ocedu e, which i hen p edic ably los . By designing he eme gency legisla ion so as o
make i unaccep able o he en i e spec um o opposi ion pa ies – om Jobbik o he
Hunga ian Socialis Pa y (MSZP) – and hen o cing an ea ly o e ha i knew i would lose,
Fidesz e ec i ely s aged an an agonis ic on ie o go e nmen s. opposi ion as he ounding
momen o he COVID-19 c isis egime: he go e nmen de ending he eme gency legisla ion
in e ms o ‘na ional uni y’ on he one hand, he opposi ion supposedly placing i sel ou side
‘ he na ion’ by opposing he law on he o he – and O bán smugly elling opposi ion MPs ha
‘we a e going o esol e his c isis e en wi hou you.’77
I is in his discu si e con ex ha Fidesz’s o he wise un-o - he-mill, holding- oge he
ins i u ionalism du ing he pandemic – wi h slogans such as ‘Le ’s ake ca e o each o he ’ –
appea s in a no so innocuous ligh : he ‘we’ o ‘us’ implies a ounding exclusion o hose who
e used o wo k in he in e es o ‘na ional uni y’ in he hou o g ea es need. Fidesz poli ician
and p esiden o he pa liamen László Kö é only made his implici exclusion bla an ly explici
75 Unde s ood he e ollowing Laclau as a concep ual opposi e o populism: whe eas he la e cons uc s an
an agonis ic di ision in socie y (be ween a popula subjec and a powe bloc), ins i u ionalism p oduces a non-
an agonis ic image o socie y as a ield o di e ences. E nes o Laclau, On Populis Reason, 2005, London: Ve so.
76 O ice o he Na ional Assembly, ‘The P og amme o Na ional Coope a ion,’ 22 May 2010,
h ps://www.pa lamen .hu/i om39/00047/00047_e.pd (accessed 18 May 2020).
77 Ma ianna Bi ó, ‘O bán: Ez a álságo önök nélkül is meg ogjuk oldani,’ Index.hu, 23 Ma ch 2020,
h ps://index.hu/bel old/2020/03/23/pa lamen /o ban_holnap_ eggel_ issza ehe ik_ha_ugy_la jak/ (accessed 18
May 2020).
Populism & he Pandemic Repo POPULISMUS In e en ions No. 7, 2020
30
when he claimed in an Ap il in e iew ha ‘[ ]his opposi ion is no pa o he Hunga ian
na ion’ o opposing he Enabling Ac and cou ing in e na ional c i icism o he go e nmen :
Abo e all, le ’s ecognize clea ly ha on his ma e , he in e na ional objec ion
and he domes ic opposi ion c i icism do no di e . The wo a e one and he
same. The Hunga ian le -libe al opposi ion is pa o he global, an i-na ional
ne wo k, he Wes e n Eu opean opinion-make s base hei own p opaganda
campaign on i s delibe a ely alse in o ma ion and slande .78
To be su e, he logic o his exclusion is ha dly a populis , bu a he an au ho i a ian na ionalis
one ha delegi imizes opponen s as o eign-like and ‘an i-na ional’79 – a ecu ing s ain in
Fidesz’s discou se since he 1990s. A conspi acis populism o accusing he global mega- ich
powe s- ha -be, such as Bill Ga es o indeed Geo ge So os, o sp eading COVID-19 – a claim
commonly hea d in he weekly ‘Co ona demons a ions’ in Ge man ci ies – has no been he
message o he Fidesz go e nmen ; ins ead, he la e ’s accusa ions ha e been di ec ed a an
opposi ion allegedly ailing o s ick wi h ‘ he na ion’ in he momen o c isis. This s a egy is a
elling one gi en how pa y compe i ion in Hunga y has been slowly bu su ely shi ing owa d
a p o- s. an i-NER logic, wi h he libe al pa ies and Jobbik allying behind uni y candida es o
sco e nume ous successes in he 2019 local elec ions (as well as he pa liamen a y by-elec ion
in Dunaúj á os, Jobbik’s lone single-membe -dis ic win om he 2018 elec ions). Ye he
NER as a hegemonic o ma ion is p edica ed on a di e en ial, agmen ed opposi ion ha
canno o m a uni ed on agains Fidesz – a ba ie ha now inally appea s o be c umbling.
In designa ing he en i e opposi ion as a uni a y an i-na ional bloc – including i s e s while a -
igh (and now inc easingly de- adicalized) compe i o Jobbik – Fidesz is ge ing a head s a
on wha was al eady expec ed o be a di y and ha d- ough 2022 elec ion campaign, in which
he ep oduc ion o he wo- hi ds majo i y o de agains a mo e uni ed opposi ion will be a
s ake.
* * *
Seongcheol Kim is a Resea ch Fellow a he WZB Be lin Social Science Cen e . His esea ch
is cen e ed on he applica ion o pos - ounda ional discou se heo y o he s udy o pa y
poli ics in a compa a i e Eu opean pe spec i e, especially in ela ion o na ionalism, populism,
and adical democ acy.
78 ‘Bunke ben á ják a csoda egy e ,’ Demok a a, 28 Ap il 2020, h ps://demok a a.hu/magya o szag/bunke ben-
a jak-a-csoda egy e -2-237021 (accessed 18 May 2020).
79 Fo he concep ual dis inc ion be ween populism and na ionalism, see also Benjamin De Cleen & Yannis
S a akakis, ‘Dis inc ions and A icula ions: A Discou se Theo e ical F amewo k o he S udy o Populism and
Na ionalism,’ Ja nos , 24(4), 2017, pp. 301-319.