Chapter 1. Orbán’s Hungary
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Christopher Bridge
Abstract
Despite Hungary’s increasingly “illiberal” drift and growing divergence from European norms, the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party has successfully deflected international criticism and maintained its electoral popularity. It has achieved this by a combination of domestic media dominance and a comprehensive discursive strategy which has re-written the political orthodoxy of the Hungarian right. A key element of this strategy is the othering of liberal Western Europe – once seen as Hungary’s manifest destiny after its escape from Soviet dominance. Liberalism is reconstructed as a hostile ideology that has taken Western Europe hostage and seeks nothing less than the destruction of the Hungarian nation. Elements of the discourse-historical approach to critical discourse analysis will be employed to uncover how intertextual references to widely-held historical identity discourses, including from the period of Soviet domination, provide credibility to the Orbán government’s discursive constructions. The Essex School’s logics of equivalence and difference also explain how multifarious critics, both domestic and international, are welded together into one monolithic “left-liberal” other, and how Hungarian society is polarized into “traitors” and supporters of Orbán’s “freedom fight” against the existential threat posed by western liberalism. Under consideration are three major speeches by Orbán, coverage of these speeches in the (then) government-friendly newspaper Magyar Nemzet , and semi-public comments posted by readers of these articles. The analysis of these source materials provides insight into how the government’s discursive strategy is realized in the discourses of right-wing voters.
Abstract
Despite Hungary’s increasingly “illiberal” drift and growing divergence from European norms, the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party has successfully deflected international criticism and maintained its electoral popularity. It has achieved this by a combination of domestic media dominance and a comprehensive discursive strategy which has re-written the political orthodoxy of the Hungarian right. A key element of this strategy is the othering of liberal Western Europe – once seen as Hungary’s manifest destiny after its escape from Soviet dominance. Liberalism is reconstructed as a hostile ideology that has taken Western Europe hostage and seeks nothing less than the destruction of the Hungarian nation. Elements of the discourse-historical approach to critical discourse analysis will be employed to uncover how intertextual references to widely-held historical identity discourses, including from the period of Soviet domination, provide credibility to the Orbán government’s discursive constructions. The Essex School’s logics of equivalence and difference also explain how multifarious critics, both domestic and international, are welded together into one monolithic “left-liberal” other, and how Hungarian society is polarized into “traitors” and supporters of Orbán’s “freedom fight” against the existential threat posed by western liberalism. Under consideration are three major speeches by Orbán, coverage of these speeches in the (then) government-friendly newspaper Magyar Nemzet , and semi-public comments posted by readers of these articles. The analysis of these source materials provides insight into how the government’s discursive strategy is realized in the discourses of right-wing voters.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Media representations of the “other” Europeans 1
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Part I. Othering as political and media practice
- Chapter 1. Orbán’s Hungary 25
- Chapter 2. Togetherness or othering? 55
- Chapter 3. The European “stranger” in Le Monde ’s headline discourse 81
- Chapter 4. Profiling of new Europeans in the British conservative press 103
- Chapter 5. Construing the Other 121
- Chapter 6. Discursive legitimation of criminalization and victimization of sub-Saharan immigrants in Spanish El País and ABC newspapers 135
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Part II. Othering as interpersonal and interactional practice
- Chapter 7. Negotiating an identity 157
- Chapter 8. Representations of Eastern Europeans in the UK in reader comments of two British online newspapers 183
- Chapter 9. Othering others 207
- Chapter 10. The othering of Roma migrants in British and Czech online news discussion forums 235
- Chapter 11. The Roma as ultimate European minority and ultimate outsider? 259
- Chapter 12. Othering in Estonian online discussions about refugees 281
- Contributors 305
- Index 309
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Media representations of the “other” Europeans 1
-
Part I. Othering as political and media practice
- Chapter 1. Orbán’s Hungary 25
- Chapter 2. Togetherness or othering? 55
- Chapter 3. The European “stranger” in Le Monde ’s headline discourse 81
- Chapter 4. Profiling of new Europeans in the British conservative press 103
- Chapter 5. Construing the Other 121
- Chapter 6. Discursive legitimation of criminalization and victimization of sub-Saharan immigrants in Spanish El País and ABC newspapers 135
-
Part II. Othering as interpersonal and interactional practice
- Chapter 7. Negotiating an identity 157
- Chapter 8. Representations of Eastern Europeans in the UK in reader comments of two British online newspapers 183
- Chapter 9. Othering others 207
- Chapter 10. The othering of Roma migrants in British and Czech online news discussion forums 235
- Chapter 11. The Roma as ultimate European minority and ultimate outsider? 259
- Chapter 12. Othering in Estonian online discussions about refugees 281
- Contributors 305
- Index 309
