Crisis governance and the quest for alternative Europeanisation in Hungary

RESPOND Policy Brief [2020/4]

Authors: Prof. Umut Korkut - Daniel Gyollai, Glasgow Caledonian University

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has ascended to power in 2010 and entrenched his hold on Hungarian politics thanks to the financial, migration, and recently coronavirus crises that hit the European Union and Hungary after 2008. Despite what appears to be his anti-EU narrative all throughout, however, the EU has accommodated Hungary and has been increasingly reticent with – if any – sanctions. A technocratic leadership style aiming for public – rather than political – accountability has been Orbán’s major crisis management technique. He carved his indispensability to any crisis management by appealing to public insecurities.

 This policy brief reflects on the issues of “West” and “Europe” in Hungarian political narrative and public philosophy (Mehta 2011) drawing insights from Viktor Orbán’s speeches collected for RESPOND Work package 6 (WP6) “Conflicting Conceptualizations of Europeanization” report as well as interviews with civil society actors in the country in 2018 and 2019 as part of the RESPOND project. Looking at the Hungarian case, it presents assumptions about strong leadership and Europragmatism amidst economic, political, and health crises. Our policy recommendations are aimed for anti-authoritarian policy and ideational circles in Europe and Hungary. In order, we follow first the leadership pattern that Orbán adopted at the detriment of Hungary’s relations with the West and second how he manipulated particular crisis contexts via both formal institutions and strategic discourses so that he could entice the public opinion with anti-western political narratives. It is still noteworthy to note that Orbán’s anti-western political discourse endorsed Hungary as the main pillar of stability of Europe noting its economic, migration and recently public health policies. To this extent, his pragmatism should dispel any convictions that the Hungarian Prime Minister is anti-EU. Orbán believes in an alternative Europeanisation and that is based in Christian values that securitizes those outside the Judeo-Christian world. Hence, while we examine the structural and discursive tenets of Orbán’s crisis leadership, in this brief, we will also offer a novel interpretation of how Europragmatism and Euroscepticism can interact reflecting on RESPOND WP6 – Conflicting Conceptualizations of Europeanisation.

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