“Here, the Hungarian people will decide how to raise our children”: Populist rhetoric and social categorization in Viktor Orban´ ’s anti-LGBTQ campaign in Hungary
“Here, the Hungarian people will decide how to raise our children”: Populist rhetoric and social categorization in Viktor Orban´ ’s anti-LGBTQ campaign in Hungary

Summary/Abstract: This paper analyzes how the Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban uses social categorization and ´ populist rhetoric in an anti-LGBTQ campaign. Drawing on social identity theory and the scholarship on populist rhetoric and anti-LGBTQ politics, the article examines 46 interviews, press statements, public speeches, and op-eds by Orban. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA) and Wodak ´ ’s discourse-historical approach, it shows how the prime minister frames LGBTQ communities as an out-group that poses a threat to Hungarian values and way of living. Similar to the issue of immigration and existing anti-LGBTQ frames in other countries, Orban presents LGBTQ groups ´ within his well-established anti-Western narrative. In addition, he connects LGBTQ communities to other out-groups that have been portrayed as a threat for a long time. The study sheds new light on the linguistic strategies of Orban and shows how populist rhetoric and social categorization ´ complement each other in a political campaign.

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