I am participating at CBEES Annual Conference 2019: "Central and Eastern Europe 1989-2019: Orders and Freedoms", 7-8 November 2019, Södertörn University. I will hold a lecture with the title
It seems to be that Hungary under the Orbán-era has become one of the main fighters for sovereignty after the Hungarian regime change. In this paper I am trying to challenge this over-simplification and show the many faces of the system. According to my hypothesis under the populist-nationalist surface of the Orbán-regime there is disappointing compromise between the government and the globalized capitalism. The most state direct (subsidies, tax benefits) and indirect (labour law against the employees) aids have been given by the “nationalist Orbán’s governments” since the regime change. In this sense I put an emphasize on the investigation this new from of post-modern nationalism which is based on discursive fight for sovereignty, but at the same time sacrifice it in the context of neoliberal capitalism. In this sense, I will analyse the pact between the Orbán’s governments and neoliberal (especially German) companies. The other face of Orbán’s nationalism is much more brutal and relating to the hate campaign against refugees and migrants which has destroyed the traditionally weak Hungarian solidarity networks after 1989. I am convinced because of the mentioned pact with neoliberal capitalism which damaged the state and national sovereignty, the regime has found a way to over-emphasize the fight for sovereignty. That is why the Hungarian nationalism has been articulated in the last few years in the framework of civilizationism. Emphasizing and analysing this embarrassing phenomenon, the abdication of sovereignty and the brutal fight for it, are the main goals of this paper.
The program of the event is here and the abstracts are available from here.
