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Mate Hajba Radicalism in Hungary of Today__Review 4 086 4liberty.eu Review Radicalism in Hungary of Today MÁTÉ HAJBA Populism, Radicalisms, Migration 087 We often hear menacing prophecies that the 20th century was the “age of extremes”1, that there is an ongoing “clash of civilizations”2, and that the “end of history”3 is already upon us. Although these can be easily debunked both empirically and theoretically, it is without question that there are extremes in present day society, which, ironically often repeats and believes the abovementioned false prophecies. he present1 day2 Hungarian3 radical at the time, they stood in opposi- radicalism is a topic worth in- tion to the mainstream, generally accepted vestigating as it is often fea- status quo. Nevertheless, as a result of his tured in the media, it frequently efforts slave trade was banned. enters everyday conversations Tas well as expert debates. However, we do Let us then differentiate between harmful not even have a clear definition of the word radicalism and beneficial radicalism. The “radicals” as it carries different connotations former intends to stop or limit progress, for different individuals. Most commonly, the latter aims to speed it up. Harmful radi- the word carries negative implications, but calism strives to curtail individual liberties, it would be a mistake to think that it only holds a collectivist view, is unwilling to denotes unfavorable groups. Radicalism acknowledge any potential differences in means a large deviance from the average, culture, views or morals, and attempts to or – more precisely – from what is com- consolidate a static, authoritarian system. monly accepted. This, however, does not Beneficial radicalism, on the other hand, mean that radicalism is always a negative puts emphasis on individual liberties, views phenomenon. Let us look at the case of freedom and tolerance as progress and ad- Thomas Clarkson4 for instance, who raised vocates a dynamic system that is open to his voice against the slave trade in the 18th more innovation. century Britain – first as a student during an essay contest. His ideas were extreme and The presented article gives an overview of the Hungarian radical groups, with the 1 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/cap- focus on the harmful ones or to be more sule-review/1995-07-01/age-extremes-history- precise: the far-right (applying this term world-1914-1991 to those which self-identify as such), but 2 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united- also touching upon self-identified far-left states/1993-06-01/clash-civilizations groups and liberals as well, who (not be- 3 http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/09/ ing popular) also verge on being perceived its-still-not-the-end-of-history-francis-fukuy- ama/379394/ as radicals. Finally, it shall also be demon- strated how populist politics leads to radi- 4 http://fee.org/freeman/a-students-essay-that- changed-the-world/ calization. 088 4liberty.eu Review HISTORICAL BACKGROUND not cease to exist. People were simply too After the World War II, the formerly tradi- afraid to express them openly, fearing the tionalist Hungary of the Horthy era, where dire consequences. most people supported an authoritarian, collectivist, hierarchized and nationalist After the democratic changes in 1989 and system, abruptly turned to socialism, which the early 1990s, the liberal, individualist el- was deemed a polar opposite to the pre- ements appeared in politics – but the re- vious state. In fact, that system was still pressed nationalist ideas also resurfaced. authoritarian, collectivist and hierarchized Despite that, the socialist ideas did not (as only in this way could the state enforce disappear from between the options. After its preferred social order) but under a dif- a while, people started to be disillusioned ferent banner, which people who focused with democracy. Until then, they expected strongly on nationalism – which this new immediate changes in their economic and system lacked – utterly disliked. It also living conditions without having to lift their brought extensive social changes for al- own fingers. Similar disillusionment oc- though the state was now still centralized, curred after Hungary joined the European the central power was not in the hands of Union in 2004 – people were hoping for the previously ruling classes (the aristoc- an immediate and visible change and when racy, the intellectuals, and the educated it did not happen, the disappointment took upper middle class) but in the hands of the over. so-called proletariat. The notion of the na- tion state was exchanged for the idea of According to a survey5 conducted by Pew internationalism (which in practice meant Research Center, fewer Hungarians ap- the Soviet sphere of interest, so the puppet prove of the shift towards democracy in states of the Soviet Union), thus the strong 2009 than in 1991. When the first survey nationalist ideas and feelings of the people was conducted in 1991, 74% of Hungar- were suppressed – but of course, they did ian citizens claimed they are in favor of the changes, but in 2009 the approval rate dropped to a mere 56%. It shows that once the early zeal waned, it turned out that people’s expectations were not met, which lead to a general indifference towards de- mocracy and in many cases towards poli- HUNGARIANS ARE tics as such. [See Table 1] AGAINST THE FREE This trend is even more worrying if we look at the opinions of the youth. A study6 con- MARKET AND HAVE ducted in 2015 by Aktív Fiatalok Magyaror- szágon Kutatócsoport shows that in April MORE SOCIALISTIC 2015 the far-right party Jobbik had the big- gest approval rating among students (20% VIEWS AS REGARDS of support), next was a staunchly anti-cap- ECONOMY THAN 5 http://www.pewglobal.org/2010/04/07/hungary-dis- OTHER COUNTRIES satisfied-with-democracy-but-not-its-ideals/ 6 http://www.aktivfiatalok.hu/public/files/documents/ IN THE REGION gyorsjelentes_v20150510.pdf Populism, Radicalisms, Migration 089 Table 1: Approval of Change to democracy, % of people who approve of change to multiparty system 1991 2009 Change East Germany 91 85 -6 Czech Republic 80 80 0 Slovakia 70 71 +1 Poland 66 70 +4 Hungary 74 56 -18 Lithuania 75 55 -20 Russia 61 53 -8 Bulgaria 76 52 -24 Ukraine 72 30 -42 Source: Pew Research Center italist green party Politics Can Be Different about it as well. The ratio of those who pre- (LMP), with 14% and then the governing fer dictatorship or do not care what system party, Fidesz (which defines itself as cent- they live in was the biggest among the vot- er right, but on many issues rapidly drifts ers of Jobbik. towards the far-right), with 12%. The left- wing opposition parties are lagging behind, The survey7 of Pew Research Center also the most popular was rated at 4%. 19% of shows that Hungarians are against the free the surveyed students were undecided and market and have more socialistic views as 9% declared that they would not vote at all. regards economy than other countries in Jobbik’s approval rating and its popularity the region. In 1991, 80% approved of capi- is growing among the youth. talism while in 2009 only 46% – which is the most significant change among the The same research shows that in 2015 for post-communist countries. Moreover, 21% of active students under certain cir- 72% of Hungarians think they are worse cumstances (not specified directly by the off than under communism (which is the survey), dictatorship is perceived as a better highest ratio among the post-communist option than democracy. As a comparison, countries in the region) despite the fact back in 2011/2012, 33% of the students that 15% of the respondents were satisfied thought the same way. The trend is op- with life in 2009 – as opposed to the 8% posite with the active students who think in 1991. that for them it does not really matter what political system they live in: in 2011/2012 7 http://www.pewglobal.org/2009/11/02/end-of-com- 28%, and in 2015 already 32% did not care munism-cheered-but-now-with-more-reservations/ 090 4liberty.eu Review The nationalistic and socialistic ideas often dividual liberties. Nevertheless, defining po- mix together, while the early sparks of lib- litical terms in Hungary is more confusing eral thinking have failed to gain sufficient because of the ever changing political views popularity. Today, the ideological accept- of the parties as a consequence of populism ance is leaning towards the nationalist and which defines parties along the lines of at the same time socialist direction – and popular measures rather than values. this process redefines what we may now call “radicalism”. [ See Table 2, Table 3, Ta- Therefore, despite the fact that the terms ble 4] left wing and right wing still shall be applied as regards the Hungarian context, the poli- TERMINOLOGICAL CONFUSION cies of both will be also further explained in Nowadays, there is a huge confusion of order to make it clear where the later dis- political terminology in Hungary. Fidesz, cussed parties actually stand. which defines itself as a center right, con- servative party, economically is close to the THE FAR-RIGHT IN HUNGARY left wing, with its collectivist policy often verging on the far-right vis-á-vis civic lib- Attributes erties and democracy. The leader of the party, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared The Hungarian far-right of today draws for instance that he wishes to set up an il- from the traditional far-right ideologies of liberal democracy modelled on Russia8. His the Horthy era and from the Nazi move- government also nationalized various as- ment in Germany. One of its typical fea- sets, for example the pension funds9.
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