Ideas of Hungarism and the reformation of ‘Greater Hungary’ are now central to Hungary’s radical right, and not just at the fringes… In the Hungarian collective memory, few events evoke as much emotion as the Treaty of Trianon. Referring to the peace treaty signed at the Grand Trianon Palace at Versailles on 4th June 1920,… Continue reading “Grieving Greater Hungary: Trianon, Orbán, and the Hungarian radical right”
The radical right indulges in the erasure from its narrative of inconvenient or unwelcome facts from the accepted knowledge base of history and science. There is a general recognition that major problems and issues of our world — including understanding them and their causes and proposing remedies and coping strategies — are rarely simple in… Continue reading “Can the Radical Right’s Reductionist Narrative Withstand Real-World Complexity?”
The current crisis urgently calls for visions for the EU and, indeed, the world post-COVID-19. Displeasure with ‘the EU’ is increasing, clearly audible among acquaintances, friends, in the media, commentators as well as among some politicians. Where is the EU in the so-called ‘refugee question’, i.e. ‘migration-crisis’? Why doesn’t the EU quickly help the countries particularly… Continue reading “What future for the EU after COVID-19?”
Radical right governments are exploiting COVID-19 as an excuse to expand their power. There are few worse culprits than Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. In his televised 9 April Easter message, the Catholic Church’s spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Bucharest, Father Francisc Dobos, said that the disciples of Jesus ‘feared the Jews, and here in the bracket… Continue reading “COVID-19 Could Be A Harbinger Of Authoritarianism”
The Hungarian far right envisages agricultural alternatives to Viktor Orban’s populism. Balint is a 30-year-old PhD student from northern Hungary, with expertise in organic farming and environmentally friendly agriculture. Well educated and fluent in English, Balint talks with passion about his daily work at an organic farm, hiking and spending time in nature. An expert… Continue reading “What Hungary’s Nationalist Farmers Have Against Orban”
A descriptive and benign term, “family” has been turned into the primary frontier of social wars by the radical right. In March 2019, the World Congress of Families (WCF), in collaboration with the International Organization for the Family (IOF), organized its 13th conference, “The Wind of Change: Europe and the Global Pro-Family Movement,” in Verona, Italy.… Continue reading “Turning Family Into a Political Weapon”
Orban’s critics say that since coming to power in 2010, he has tightened control over key institutions in Hungary [File: Julien Warnard/Reuters] In the same week that Russia’s Vladimir Putin declared Western Liberalism was “obsolete”, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has consolidated his control over the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The end of a drawn-out struggle for… Continue reading “The Death of Liberalism, Academic Freedom, and Authoritarian Politics”
As I was anxiously finishing my beer and looking around an empty and fusty pub in inner Budapest, the prospects of my fieldwork and research appeared rather gloomy. I, a student from Central European University, an academic institution that was founded by George Soros and is the meta-enemy of the populist government and the wider… Continue reading “A short account on the experience of interviewing the far-right: anticipating ‘that’ moment”
In my last CARR blog, I highlighted the rise of the radical right in various parts of the world. In this blog, I tackle key definitions in the literature, including what we mean by the radical right, populism, nativism, and illiberalism respectively. I also offer some interpretations of these terms and underscore some of the… Continue reading ““The Global Rise of Nativism and Illiberalism: A Conversation on the Contemporary Political Pathology.” Part 2 – Defining and Interpreting the New Radical Right”
On November 27 2018, a panel discussion was organized at the Centre for Humanistic Inquiry (CHI), Amherst College, USA with the participation of Maria Alexandrovna Sidorkina, Chip Berlet, Tamir Bar-On and Dwaipayan Sen. After a few words of welcome by CHI director Martha Umphrey, organizer and discussant Andreas Önnerfors, Associate Professor in Intellectual History at… Continue reading “Conference Report – The Global Rise of Nativism and Illiberalism – A Conversation on the Contemporary Political Pathology”
