Politikai fordulat Magyarországon

Translated title of the contribution: Political Turn in Hungary

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

The study analyses the reasons of the unexpected results of the April 2002 parliamentary elections in Hungary: the victory of the Hungarian Socialist Party and the defeat of Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Party. It states that the previous centre-right government wanted to achieve two contradictory goals: to consolidate democracy and to restructure the political field by confrontational politics and replace the elite. Consolidation and confrontation could not be performed at the same period of time, therefore the Orbán government proved to be unable to create a new majority behind its politics. The government wanted to divide the political community in order to establish a long-lasting pillar for the centre-right forces while it continuously referred to the generalised values of a specific (religious, anti-communist, trans-border) cultural community of Hungarians. The politically directed homogenisation of the cultural community and the division of the political community created tension, fears, and the feeling of instability within the society.

Beyond the confrontational and new populist style of the government, mistakes in the campaign also contributed to their loss. Fidesz-MPP had intended to occupy the entire spectrum of the right which brought them closer to the far right. They were successful in marginalizing the ultra-nationalist Party of Hungarian Life and Justice, but, at the same time, they lost the political centre, which was occupied partly by the socialists and partly be a new electoral party, the Centre Party.
Translated title of the contributionPolitical Turn in Hungary
Original languageHungarian
Pages (from-to)5-19
Number of pages15
JournalPolitikatudományi Szemle
Volume11
Issue number1-2
StatePublished - 2002

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