Varieties of Populism in East-Central Europe: From Democratic Challenge to Illiberal Project

While the populist phenomenon is present in the political arena of almost any European country, it is fair to ask whether there is a specific dimension to populism in East-Central European countries. Many populist parties in the region have criticized the political and economic establishment as well as the ‘liberal consensus’, that is, the idea that the transformations of the communist societies were exclusively about constructing liberal-democratic systems and neoliberal markets. The chapter discusses the broader backlash against the ‘liberal consensus’ in the region and links the backlash with populist forces and the issue of anti-pluralism. In the most radical cases, this involves propositions for ‘monistic’ solutions, a hegemony of the populist party and the denial of meaningful opposition. It is argued that such stark anti-pluralism is not visible in every East-Central European society. The chapter analyses the emergence of populist parties in three East-Central European countries: the two less frequently discussed cases Czechia (in particular, ANO and Dawn of Direct Democracy) and Romania (PSD, PD), as well as the widely discussed case of Hungary (FIDESZ, Jobbik), with regard to which, however, the structural role of national-conservative populism in the post-communist transformation is frequently overlooked. The focus in the case-studies is on the emergence of populist parties, the core populist claims of such parties (by, inter alia, analysing party manifestos and other materials, such as interviews), and the populists’ relation to anti-pluralism and behaviour towards other parties in the same domestic political arena.