The Little Dictator. Een projectie van de populistische ideologie op de retoriek van Viktor Orbán

Abstract

This research explores whether or not Viktor Orbán’s rhetoric can be marked as populistic. The research starts with an elaboration on the historiographic debate around the definition and interpretation of populism. Subsequently the theory of populism as a “thin ideology” by Cas Mudde will be explored by using scientific literature. The core of this research consists of an analysis of ten different Tusványos- and State of the Nation-speeches, that are conducted by Orbán in the period of 2014-2020. The speeches are examined on the presence of core-definitions of Mudde’s populistic definition: “the people”, “the elite” and “the general will”. In this research it is found that in Orbán’s speeches the rhetoric of a “European elite”, the existence of a “homogeneous Hungarian culture-community” and the possibility to gauge “the general will of the Hungarian people” via the National Consultations, is frequently present. This research concludes by elaborating on the discursive patterns in Orbán’s rhetoric. Orbán makes use of contradictions, common-sense solutions and the communistic past, to achieve national unification and to bind the electorate for the long-term.