Hungary has increasingly become a hot topic among leftists and an example to follow for the right-wing around the Western world. The hardline rhetoric and actions from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán are alarmingly effective, giving him unprecedented popularity both inside and outside Hungary's borders. Orbán and his cabinet are unapologetically conservative and traditional, recklessly offensive, unafraid to challenge and mock liberal ideology. This guy doesn't give a fuck about your feelings! Join us as we interview sociopolitical researcher and doctoral candidate Eszter Kováts and dive deep into Hungary's resurgence as a right-wing juggernaut, the social and political moment of Hungary, and fundamental lessons for the left.
Eszter Kováts is a PhD student of Political Science at the University ELTE Budapest, her research focus: the enemy image of "gender ideology" in the global context of strengthening the right and in connection with developments in progressive politics. Between 2012 and 2019, she was responsible for the gender programme of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung for Eastern Central Europe in Budapest. Femina Politica recently published (2018/1) "Conservative Counter-Movements? Overcoming Culturalising Interpretations of Right-Wing Mobilizations Against 'Gender Ideology'". She regularly writes on Hungarian politics, East-West inequalities in Europe, the care crisis, and the political controversies around the term 'gender'.
Keep up with Eszter on Twitter at: @EszterKovats
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Our breaks music is "Draco" by Yung Kartz (https://www.yungkartzbeats.com/)
Related reading and more information about our guest:
Eszter's bio page at The Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung: https://eu.boell.org/en/person/eszter-kovats
"East Central Europe's Revolt against imitation"
https://www.ips-journal.eu/regions/europe/east-central-europes-revolt-against-imitation-4205/
"The culture war over the Istanbul Convention in East Central Europe"