A Comparative Analysis of Ruling Right-wing Populism towards Globalization in the Context of Refugee Crises: The Cases of Turkey and Hungary

Abstract

How do governing, right-wing populist parties in and outside the EU approach globalization on the issue of international migration? This paper addresses this question by focusing on Hungary’s Fidesz and Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the context of the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis. It studies the discourses of these parties and their leaders regarding the liberal international order and the EU, and evaluates whether EU membership makes a difference in these arguments. This fills a gap in the literature because how ruling right-wing populism in middle-power states like Hungary and Turkey challenges the global system, and what kind of globalization or de-globalization it asks for in the light of migration issues remains to be scrutinized. The paper argues: (1) Fidesz and AKP are both “selective globalizers” that still challenge globalization and the EU within a populist foreign policy framework pitting “liberal, corrupt, global, EU elites” against the people (Christians for Fidesz, Syrian Muslim refugees for the AKP), (2) They differ because: (a) Fidesz’ challenges heavily focus on the EU while the AKP’s discourse extends to the global system and its institutions (the UN), (b) Fidesz’ EU contestation revolves around the need to protect “Hungarian sovereignty” and “Christian European culture” from “Brussels elites” while AKP’s rhetoric primarily reflects expectations of satisfactory “transactionalism” from the EU.