The Unfolding Illiberalism in Hungary

Abstract

The emerging literature on illiberalisms offers a framework for detecting whether or not a special Hungarian illiberalism has been unfolding. Over the last 12 years, Hungary’s former liberal constitutionalist nature has been changed to illiberal constitutionalism. This transformation of the constitutional system recently culminated with the fourth consecutive electoral victory of Viktor Orbán in April 2022. Nevertheless, the possible ideological nature of Orbán’s regime has been understudied so far. Drawing on some newly published literature on illiberalisms, I claim that changes in electoral law (2014), the revised approach to the relationship between EU law and domestic law (2016 and 2021), and identity rights (2013, 2019–2020), along with the preceding political narratives, can be viewed as seeds from which a special, state-driven illiberalism has been growing in Hungary. If it is so, it could be concluded that Hungarian illiberalism is based on and the result of two factors: i) the translation of illiberal speech into the language of the law, and ii) the creation of intertwined identities for the constitution, the state, and citizens, which are based on (ethno)nationalism, sovereigntism, traditionalism and heteronormativity against mainly EU obligations and Western values.