The Border as a Resource in Right-wing Populist Discourse: Viktor Orbán and the Diasporas in a Multi-scalar Europe
Résumé
Europe and now the United States are characterized by the growing presence of populist parties and leaders able to attract a significant share of the electorate. The successful strategy of populist politicians consists in proposing a series of discourses based on a differentiation between an endangered “Us” and a threatening “Them”. The protection of the “Us” community from the evil “Them” formulated by right-wing populist politicians is often expressed through the necessity of closing the national border, this measure being a key discursive resource incorporated in their speeches. However, is the border only presented by populist leaders as a boundary which has to be controlled, securitized and sealed? Based on the analysis of discourses produced by Viktor Orbán, the only long-standing European populist leader in power, the research shows that populist discourses can be based on opposed and complementary conceptions of the state border to entrench the opposition between an “Us” and “Them”.