Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T18:08:20.819Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hungary's “anti-capitalist” far-right: Jobbik and the Hungarian Guard

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Mihai Varga
Mihai Varga*
Affiliation:
Eastern Europe Institute, Freie Universität Berlin, Garystr. 55, Berlin, Germany
*
∗Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article discusses the political success of the far-right Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik). Jobbik is usually depicted as owing its success to anti-Roma and anti-establishment sentiment, mobilized with the help of a paramilitary organization, the Hungarian Guard. With the examples of the party programs, the speeches of Jobbik leaders during marches of the Hungarian Guard, and the press releases of the party between 2008 and 2010, this article shows how Jobbik not only attempts to mobilize anti-Roma sentiment, but also tries to present itself as a party taking considerable interest in the economic issues of poverty and inequality triggered by capitalism. It also suggests that the party's success might in fact also be due to this focus on the economy, as well as due to increasing efforts on behalf of the party leadership to differentiate their positions from those of the main center-right party, Fidesz. This could explain how even though authorities banned the Hungarian Guard in July 2009, Jobbik nevertheless doubled its number of voters in the parliamentary elections of April 2010 (and achieved a further increase in absolute vote numbers in 2014) as compared to its electoral outcome in the European Parliament elections of June 2009.

Keywords

far-rightHungarypost-communismEastern Europe
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 42 , Issue 5 , September 2014 , pp. 791 - 807
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ágh, Attila. 2010. “Post-Accession Crisis in the New Member States. Progressing or Backsliding in the EU.” Studies of Transition States and Societies 2 (1): 74–95.Google Scholar
Institute, Athena. 2013. “Új Magyar Gárda - Háttér [The new Hungarian Guard - background].” Accessed November 5, 2013. http://www.athenainstitute.eu/terkep/olvas/38#read Google Scholar
Barlai, Melani. 2012. “Jobbik on the Web.” In Proceedings of the 2012 Conference for E-Democracy and Open Government, edited by Petr Parycek and Noella Edelmann, 229-240. Krems: Danube-University.Google Scholar
Barlai, Melani, and Hartleb, Florian. 2011. “Extremismus in Ungarn [Extremism in Hungary].” In Extremismus in den EU-Staaten, edited by Jesse, E. and Thieme, T., 413–428. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.Google Scholar
Bartlett, Jamie, Birdwell, Jonathan, Krekó, Péter, Benfield, Jack, and Gyori, Gabor. 2012. Populism in Europe: Hungary. London: Demos.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 1999. “The Manichean Myth: Rethinking the Distinction Between ‘Civic’ and ‘Ethnic’ Nationalism.” In Nation and National Identity: The European Experience in Perspective, edited by Kriesi, Hanspeter, 55–71. Zurich: Ruegger.Google Scholar
Bustikova, Lenka, and Kitschelt, Herbert. 2009. “The Radical Right in Post-Communist Europe. Comparative Perspectives on Legacies and Party Competition.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 42 (4): 459–483.Google Scholar
Egyedy, Gergely. 2013. “Hungary's Transition: Liberalism for the Few?” Hungarian Review 3 (5): 34–41.Google Scholar
Feischmidt, Margit, and Szombati, Kristof. 2012. Gyöngöspata 2011. The Laboratory of the Hungarian Far-Right. Budapest: Ecopolis.Google Scholar
Greskovits, Béla. 2007. “Economic Woes and Political Disaffection.” Journal of Democracy 18 (4): 40–46.Google Scholar
információ, Hírszerző. 2006. “Hovatovább: A Kossuth téren létrejött ‘új jobboldal’ negyedik köztársaságot akar [Where to go: The Kossuth Square ‘new right’ wants a Fourth Republic].” Accessed November 12, 2013. http://hirszerzo.hu/hirek/2006/10/7/20739_hovatovabb_a_kossuth_teren_letrejott_uj_job Google Scholar
Jobbik. 2006. “Bethlen Gábor Program [The Gábor Bethlen programme].” Accessed November 12, 2013. http://www.jobbik.hu/sites/jobbik.hu/down/File/Bethlen_Gabor_program.pdf Google Scholar
Jobbik. 2010a. Radikális változás [Radical change]. Accessed November 8, 2013. http://jobbik.hu/sites/default/files/jobbik-program2010gy.pdf Google Scholar
Jobbik. 2010b. “Vona Gábor bemutatta a IV. Béla tervet [Gábor Vona presented the Béla IV-plan].” Accessed November 11, 2013, http://jobbik.hu/rovatok/orsz%C3%Algos_h%C3%ADrek/vona_g%C3%Albor_bemutatta_a_iv_b%C3%A91a_tervet Google Scholar
Jobbik. 2010c. “Vona: Orbánt csak akkor tapsolták meg, amikor a Jobbik programjából emelt át részeket [Orbán won applause only when he took over parts of the Jobbik program].” Accessed November 12, 2013. http://kuruc.info/r/35/54714/ Google Scholar
Jobbik. 2010d. “Vona Gábor: Bentlakásos iskolákkal integrálhatók a cigány gyerekek [Gipsy children can be integrated in boarding schools].” Accessed March 22, 2014. http://www.jobbik.hu/rovatok/orszagos_hirek/vona_gabor_bentlakasos_iskolakkal_integralhatok_a_cigany_gyerekek Google Scholar
Jobbik. 2012. “El lehet menni az érzéketlen bankoknak és őrizetbe kell venni a felelősöket [Unfeeling banks can go away and the responsible ones should be taken into custody].” Accessed November 12, 2013. http://www.jobbik.hu/rovatok/orszagos_hirek/a_jobbik_az_iszapkatasztrofarol_quotel_lehet_menniquot_az_erzeketlen_bankoknak_es_orizetbe_kell_venni_a_f Google Scholar
Jowitt, K. 1993. New World Disorder: The Leninist extinction. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Juhász, A., Krekó, P., and Molnár., C. 2012. Attitűd-szélsőségesek Magyarországon - nemzetközi kontextusban. Budapest: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.Google Scholar
Karácsony, Gergely, and Róna, Dániel. 2011. “The Secret of Jobbik. Reasons Behind the Rise of the Hungarian Radical Right.” Journal of East European and Asian Studies 2 (1): 61–92.Google Scholar
Korkut, Umut. 2012. Liberalization Challenges in Hungary: Elitism, Progressivism, and Populism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kovács, András. 2012. “Antisemitic Prejudice and Political Antisemitism in Present-Day Hungary.” Journal for the Study of Antisemitism 4 (2): 443–467.Google Scholar
Ma.hu. 2005. “A ‘rendteremtés’ lesz a MIÉP választási programjának alapgondolata [Creating order is the MIÉP electoral program's main idea].” Accessed November 12, 2013. http://belfold.ma.hu/tart/rcikk/a/0/114250/1 Google Scholar
Molnár, Tamás. 2007. “A polgárháború előérzete [Anticipating civil war].” Accessed November 12, 2013. http://kuruc.info/r/2/9263/ Google Scholar
Mudde, Cas. 2005. “Racist Extremism in Central and Eastern Europe.” East European Politics and Societies, 19 (2): 161–184.Google Scholar
Ost, David. 2006. The Defeat of Solidarity: Anger and Politics in Postcommunist Europe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Paksa, Rudolf. 2012. A magyar szélsőjobboldal története. Budapest: Jaffa.Google Scholar
Rydgren, Jens. 2007. “The Sociology of the Radical Right.” Annual Review of Sociology 33: 241–262.Google Scholar
Vanhuysse, Pieter. 2007. “Workers without Power: Agency, Legacies, and Labour Decline in East European Varieties of Capitalism.” Czech Sociological Review 43 (3): 495–522.Google Scholar
Varga, Krzysztof. 2012. “Węgierski Jobbik, wzór dla naszych narodowców [The Hungarian Jobbik, an example for our nationalists].” Gazeta Wyborcza (online issue), November 13. Accessed November 5, 2013. http://wyborcza.p1/1,76842,12844980,Wegierski_Jobbik_wzor_dla_naszych_narodowcow.html Google Scholar
Vidra, Zsuzsanna, and Fox, Jon. 2012. “The Rise of the Extreme Right in Hungary and the Roma Question.” Policy Brief 9/2012 of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Florence.Google Scholar