Hungarian Border Politics as an Anti-Politics of the European Union

ABSTRACT

This essay contextualises Hungarian antipolitics of Europe as an element of radical conservative nation-building and as a reflection of the strategic use of borders. Two concrete examples of border politics will be elaborated that document shifts from EU-conformity to EU-contestation and the increasing political significance of culturalist arguments. These cases, moreover, are exemplary of the dual nature of then nationalist-conservative agenda which involves: 1) the implementation of an ethnopolitical and thus extraterritorial, de-bordered notion of nation and 2) the unilateral securitisation of Hungary’s borders, for example with Serbia, in a self-proclaimed defence of European integrity. The research that informs this essay is based on a review of media sources, academic and policy-focused literature. The essay begins with a discussion of links between Hungarian euroscepticism and the radical conservative nation-building project and continues with an analysis of post-1989 border politics with regards to the areas mentioned above. Considerable attention will be devoted to the Hungarian government’s politics of borders and contestations of European Union within the context of the so-called refugee crisis and wider debates regarding immigration and asylum.

Acknowledgments

This article is based on research funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development within the scope of the EUBORDERSCAPES project [grant number 290775]. The background research was also supported by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Distinguished Guest Scientist Fellowship [grant 28.148/2012].

Notes

1. Rick Lyman in the New York Times edition of 12 September 2015 writes that “Eastern Bloc’s resistance to refugees highlights Europe’s cultural and political divisions”. Similarly, Henry Foy reports in the Financial Times of 23 September 2015: “Eastern EU states fight migrant ‘diktat’ ”.

2. FIDESZ, formerly the Fiatal Demokrátak Szövetség or ‘Association of Young Democrats’, is now officially known as the Hungarian Civic Alliance, It governs in a coalition with the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP).

3. Characteristic for this view is the article written by Lórant Károly “Az Európai Unió politikai jövője (The European Union’s political future)” Magyar Nemzet, 1 June 2013.

4 Egedy (2013) makes an important distinction between traditional ‘patrician’ conservatism and its more populist variants to which FIDESZ adheres. This is reflected as well in the emphasis of moderate conservatives on constitutionality, institutions and the strengthening of Hungary as a European state, while FIDEZ has unequivocally seen its role in recreating and strengthening a cohesive nation through ethnopolitical strategies and a centralisation of public institutions.

5. ’Magyar Magyarországot, európai Európát akarunk’ (We want a Hungarian Hungary and a European Europe), Magyar Demokrata Online (12 June 2017), available at http://www.demokrata.hu/hir/belfold/magyar-magyarorszagot-europai-europat-akarunk. accessed 15 June 2017. See also the blog posted on 6 November 2016 by MIGSZOL, the Migrant Solidarity Group of Hungary, entitled ’Protecting Hungary’s “national identity”? - Orbán’s constitutional amendments and EU law’, available at http://www.migszol.com/blog/protecting-hungarys-national-identity-orbans-constitutional-amendments-and-eu-law. accessed 31 March 2017.

6. As reported in “Elfelejtett magyar kisebbség” [The Forgotten Hungarian Minority] in Magyar Nemzet of 17.05.2006; in conjunction with the EU accession of Romania the Hungarian government voiced complaints that the interests of the Hungarian minority were not been appropriately taken into consideration.

7. The Petite Entente was an alliance formed after Wold War I by Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia and that was supported by France. The aim of the alliance was to safeguard against Hungarian irredentism and the possibility of a Habsburg restoration.

8. In Hungarian: Kárpát-medencei Magyar Képviselők Fóruma (KMKF).

9. Balog Zoltán: a Kárpát-medence több szempontból is egységes magyar nemzeti tér (From a number of standpoints the Carpathian Basin is a unified Hungarian national space), available at http://felvidek.ma/2015/05/balog-zoltan-akarpat-medence-több. accessed 12 August 2017.

10. ‘Lázár: Putyin nagy iskola, a hatalomgyakorlás speciális kultúrája’, Index HU (24 February 2016), available at http://index.hu/belfold/2016/02/24/lazar_schiffer_vona_lmp_josz_terrorizmus_oroszorszag_europa/. accessed 12 July 2017.

11. Reference to: ‘egységes Kárpát-medencei térben kell gondolkodni (we need to think in terms of a unified Carpathian Basin space). Available at http://www.fidesz.hu/hirek/2017-07-20/balog-egyseges-karpat-medencei-terben-kell-gondolkodni/. accessed 20 July 2017.

12. In addition, this speech was published on Hungarian websites located in neighbouring states, such as vajma.info, a Serbian-Hungarian website which offers direct information from Hungarian ministries and government agencies, including advice for simplified naturalisation of ethnic Hungarians. The concrete reference used here is to the article ‘Orbán Tusványoson: A magyar külpolitika vezérlőcsillaga a magyar érdek’ (Orbán in Tusványos: Hungarian interests are the guiding star of Hungarian foreign policy), Vajdaság ma, (22 July 2017), available at .http://www.vajma.info/cikk/karpat/12039/Orban-Tusvanyoson-A-magyar-kulpolitika-vezerlocsillaga-a-magyar-erdek.html. accessed 28 August 2017.

13. Reference is to the Gallup poll at: http://www.gallup.hu/gallup/orszagkep/oim19.htm.

14. This is evidenced by widespread media coverage since 2015 of Hungary’s refusal to accept refugees according to EU rules. See the Politico article ’Hungary’s zero refugee strategy’, available at http://www.politico.eu/article/hungary-zero-refugee-strategy-viktor-orban-europe-migration-crisis/. accessed 15 February 2017.

15. See, for example, the following Reuters article of 21 July 2016: ‘Hungary’s Orbán says ‘obvious connection’ between terrorism and migration’,available at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-hungary-idUSKCN1011FM. accessed 12 July 2017.

16. Hungarian Government (2016) ‘Action against the compulsory resettlement quota should be a national issue’. Available at: http://www.kormany.hu/en/the-prime-minister/news/action-against-the-compulsory-resettlement-quota-should-be-a-national-issue.

17. See, for example, the following Reuters article: Hungary’s Orbán says ‘obvious connection’ between terrorism and migration. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-hungary-idUSKCN1011FM

18. George Soros has been accused of undermining national and European border security. Both the international and domestic media have noticed the exploitation of anti-Semitic stereotypes in the portrayal of George Soros.

19. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s speech at the 6th meeting of the Hungarian Diaspora Council, source: miniszterelnok.hu 30 November 2016, Budapest. Available at http://www.miniszterelnok.hu/prime-minister-viktor-orbans-speech-at-the-6th-meeting-of-the-hungarian-diaspora-council/. accessed 12 May 2017.

20. See the Guardian article of 3 September 2015: ‘Migration crisis: Hungary PM says Europe in grip of madness’, available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/03/migration-crisis-hungary-pm-victor-orban-europe-response-madness. accessed 31 March 2017. Similarly, he Guardian of 26 July 2016 reports that ’Hungarian prime minister says migrants are ‘poison’ and ‘not needed’’, available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/26/hungarian-prime-minister-viktor-orban-praises-donald-trump. accessed 23 March 2017.

21. Reported, for example, in the Sunday Express of 27 September 2016, with dramatic headlines: ‘You’re DESTROYING Europe’ Hungary PM predicts ‘parallel Muslim society’ due to migration’, available at http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/715040/Hungary-referendum-Viktor-Orban-parallel-Muslim-societies-EU-migration-refugees. accessed 21 March 2017.

22. Speech by Orbán, http://www.politico.eu/article/viktor-orban-interview-terrorists-migrants-eu-russia-putin-borders-schengen/?utm_source=mandiner&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=mandiner_201512.

23. Viktor Orbán speaking at the Round Table of the Bratislava Global Security Forum in 2015. Text available at the website of the Hungarian Government: http://www.kormany.hu/en/the-prime-minister/the-prime-minister-s-speeches/speech-by-viktor-orban-at-the-round-table-of-the-bratislava-global-security-forum. accessed 10 February 2017.

24. Ibid.

25. The Hungarian Spectrum of 14 June 2017 reports that “Hungary’s transit zones are actually prisons where even pregnant women are handcuffed,” http://hungarianspectrum.org/2017/06/14/hungarys-transit-zones-are-actually-prisons-where-even-pregnant-women-are-handcuffed/. accessed 20 June 2017.

26. See ‘Action against the compulsory resettlement quota should be a national issue’, Website of the Hungarian Government (15 February 2016), available at http://www.kormany.hu/en/the-prime-minister/news/action-against-the-compulsory-resettlement-quota-should-be-a-national-issue, accessed 12 June 2017.

27. See the discussion included in Szilágy (2016).

28. To quote István Bibó (…)- ‘rossz hatarok melett reménytelen dolog lélektani megbékelésről beszélni’.. Tudnunk kell azonban, hogy végsőleg stabilizálni csak jó, megszokható határt lehet (It is hopeless to speak of psychological reconciliation within bad borders (…) Ultimately, we know that stabilisation is only possible with good, accommodating borders that can be accepted). From: Bibó, I. A kelet-európai kisállamok nyomorúsága (Budapest: Szikra Irodalmi és Lapkiadó Vállalat 1946). p. 19.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Seventh Framework Programme [290775].