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<p>The paper focuses on the question of what it means both conceptually and practically to talk about counter right ‑wing extremism (RWE) measures in an illiberal populist regime while the dominant political ideology or narratives are very close to those of right ‑wing extremists. Through a qualitative analysis of policies in the Hungarian context, the paper explores both the political and the policy scene to understand how the political context and policies identified as counter ‑RWE measures interact. Relying on the categorisation of counter ‑measures, different sets of policies are scrutinised: legal, security, anti ‑terrorism, and public order measures including education, prevention, exit, deterrence, training, and communication programmes. It was concluded that there is a lack of government strategy and policies for countering RWE including almost all relevant policy fields. It was also observed that hate crime incidents have increased under the illiberal regime while at the same time previously strong extremist militant activities have declined. However, as it is argued, it is not due to effective policies but the manipulating political strategy of the incumbent party.</p>
</abstract>

The paper focuses on the question of what it means both conceptually and practically to talk about counter right ‑wing extremism (RWE) measures in an illiberal populist regime while the dominant political ideology or narratives are very close to those of right ‑wing extremists. Through a qualitative analysis of policies in the Hungarian context, the paper explores both the political and the policy scene to understand how the political context and policies identified as counter ‑RWE measures interact. Relying on the categorisation of counter ‑measures, different sets of policies are scrutinised: legal, security, anti ‑terrorism, and public order measures including education, prevention, exit, deterrence, training, and communication programmes. It was concluded that there is a lack of government strategy and policies for countering RWE including almost all relevant policy fields. It was also observed that hate crime incidents have increased under the illiberal regime while at the same time previously strong extremist militant activities have declined. However, as it is argued, it is not due to effective policies but the manipulating political strategy of the incumbent party.

Measures against right-wing extremism in an illiberal populist country: The case of Hungary

Politics in Central Europe

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The paper focuses on the question of what it means both conceptually and practically to talk about counter right ‑wing extremism (RWE) measures in an illiberal...

Measures against right-wing extremism in an illiberal populist country: The case of Hungary

Published Online: Jun 15, 2023

Page range: 325 - 351

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2023-0015

Keywords
countering right wing extremism, right wing extremism, right wing terrorism, illiberal regime, hate crime, radicalisation

© 2023 Zsuzsanna Vidra et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Measures against right-wing extremism in an illiberal populist country: The case of Hungary

Published Online: Jun 15, 2023

Page range: 325 - 351

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2023-0015

Keywordscountering right wing extremism, right wing extremism, right wing terrorism, illiberal regime, hate crime, radicalisation

© 2023 Zsuzsanna Vidra et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
countering right wing extremism, right wing extremism, right wing terrorism, illiberal regime, hate crime, radicalisation