Peter Techet for NZZ on the Historical Parallels of Viktor Orbán´s EU-Criticism

In the Swiss daily newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Péter Techet published an essay on the parallels between the rhetoric of sovereignty used by Hungarian elites in the Habsburg Monarchy and that in the European Union. Just like the Hungarian elites in the Habsburg Monarchy rejected any form of democratization and federalization in their “struggle against Vienna,” Viktor Orbán today uses the rhetoric of “sovereignty” to secure his own power against the Hungarian people and the European Union. According to Techet, this rhetoric of sovereignty is by no means “anti-imperialist” but rather fundamentally anti-pluralistic and therefore anti-democratic. 

The article can be read here.