War, Peace, and Brussels

Sammanfattning

This study examines how the European Union is represented in Viktor Orbán’s political speeches. It is based on a qualitative analysis of sixteen speeches and interviews delivered between 2022 and 2025. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, the study investigates how the EU is constructed across societal, political, economic, and military dimensions, guided by insights from populism and securitization theory. The findings show that the European Union is consistently framed as an external actor that challenges Hungarian sovereignty, identity, and decision-making. In the societal and political dimension, the EU is associated with migration and liberal values, which are constructed as threats to national identity and social cohesion. In the economic dimension, EU policies related to war, sanctions, and funding are presented as harmful to Hungarian households and as limiting national autonomy. In the military dimension, the EU is linked to escalation in the war in Ukraine, while Hungary is positioned as pursuing peace. Overall, the study demonstrates how populist and securitizing logics interact in Orbán’s rhetoric to construct the EU as both an elite and a threat. In doing so, it contributes to a deeper understanding of how populism and securitization can operate together in political discourse to shape perceptions of threat, legitimacy, and political authority.