Populist Construction of the Past and Future: Emotional Campaigning in Hungary between 2002 and 2006
Populist Construction of the Past and Future: Emotional Campaigning in Hungary between 2002 and 2006

Summary/Abstract: This article was finalized in April 2006, just after the last general elections in Hungary, and it explains the political developments until that date. It is well known that on 17 September an unprecedented revolt broke out in the country, with a direct confrontation of civilians and the police forces including the siege of the National television and the detention of hundreds of protestors. The explanation given for the revolt was the prime minister’s leaked speech on the political lies of his own socialist party and the unrevealed economic situation of the country. Yet this article—written before the revolts—shows that confrontation was not solely the consequence of the leaked speech of the prime minister but of an already existing climate of political confrontation, here called “new populism.”

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