Krekó, Péter and Attila Juhász. 2017. The Hungarian Far Right: Social Demand, Political Supply, and International Context. Stuttgart: ibidem Press. 267 pp.

Abstract

Charting the dramatic rise of the far right in Hungary since the late 1990s, this comprehensive study by Péter Krekó and Attila Juhász draws on an extensive body of original research to explain both the popular appeal and electoral successes of two key Hungarian parties: the radical right Jobbik (Jobbik Magyarországért Mozgalom [‘Movement for a Better Hungary’]), and the populist right Fidesz (Fiatal Demokraták Szövetség [‘Alliance of Young Democrats’]). As the authors note at the very beginning of the book, the consolidation of illiberal politics in Hungary has over the last decade garnered a great deal of attention from Hungarian and foreign scholars, as well as from international media, and for good reason. The “meteoric rise” of Jobbik since 2006, coupled with the growing extremism of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, demand explanation, especially in light of the fact that together the two parties captured, in both the 2010 and the 2014 general elections, roughly seventy percent of the popular vote. Focusing in particular on Jobbik and its supporters, and taking the broader European context into consideration, Krekó and Juhász argue that the dramatic shift in contemporary Hungarian politics needs to be examined from two critical points of view: social demand and political supply. Although Jobbik’s popularity had already begun to wane by the time they published their study in 2017, the authors contend that a detailed analysis of Jobbik’s appeal and relative political competencies opens up new perspectives on the specific nature of the far right in Hungary, and this, in turn, helps us to better understand Fidesz’s decision to adopt, in the wake of their electoral victories in 2010 and 2014, increasingly populist, nativist, and authoritarian approaches. Stressing the need to gauge and understand the social demand behind the popularity of the far right in Hungary, Krekó and Juhász employ an evaluation criterion called the Demand for Right-Wing Extremism index (DEREX), a measurement tool developed by analysts at the Political Capital Institute (a policy research and consulting institute founded in Budapest in 2001, of which Krekó is executive director and Juhász is deputy director). A percent-based indicator, DEREX provides a quantitative overview of responses to opinion-poll surveys that gauge the attitudes and dispositions of respondents in four main categories: prejudices and welfare chauvinism; right-wing value orientation; antiestablishment sentiment; and fear, distrust, and pessimism (40). Though they do not ignore social and economic factors entirely, Krekó and Juhász contend that ideological and psychological elements, as well as emotional factors, need to