„Közép-európaiasítás”
“Central Europeanisation”

Summary/Abstract: In my study, I am not investigating how far Central Europe extends, but who, when, why, and how thematize and construct Central Europe as an imagined community. Where do they want Central Europe to be (and not where it is), why, with what political intentions is the issue of Central Europeanism being raised, and who is “Central Europeanising” today? Why is a centre of power defining itself as Central European beginning to emerge among the V4 countries, and why is it orienting itself in an illiberal direction, distancing itself from the Western countries? Following István Bibó, I discuss this phenomenon as political hysteria. Bibó analysed political hysterias from the perspective of what he called false positions or false constructions of legitimacy, as well as from historical traumas. In this spirit, I first examine the legitimacy deficit that emerged in our region after the regime changes of 1989, drawing on world-systems theory. I then explore the crisis situations and traumatising factors that existed in the region’s historical past, which have added to the current crisis phenomena.

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