New Forms of Intolerance in European Political Life

CPS Research Fellow Zsuzsanna Vidra co-edited the special issue of Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 'New Forms of Intolerance in European Political Life' and also contributed to two articles as a co-author.

Introduction to the Special Issue: New Forms of Intolerance in European Political Life
Hara Kouki & Zsuzsanna Vidra
Volume 12, Issue 4, 353-362

This introduction summarizes the contributions to the Special Issue that focus on the spread of intolerant and racist discourses in Denmark, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Hungary. Through a comparative approach, the issue argues that what has been decisive in this process is the role played by mainstream political parties that perceive intolerance against the "other" as the natural outcome of the failure of previous tolerant policies on immigrants and minorities. Even if brought forward with different argumentation in each case, intolerance is introduced in all five countries as a principled position under the pretext of protecting European citizens' rights.

Keywords: intolerance, racism, far-right, Europe, liberalism, civic zeitgeist, nationalist

* * *

Mainstreaming of Racist Anti-Roma Discourses in the Media in Hungary
Zsuzsanna Vidra & Jon Fox
Volume 12, Issue 4, 437-455

The article focuses on the rise and spread of racist language in public debate in Hungary. It investigates how radical right discourses — that is, the relegitimating of the racist idea of "Gypsy crime" — have been transmitted by the mainstream media thus contributing to the decline of a short-lived political correctness in Hungary. The analysis explores how racism has become more and more accepted and how the mainstream has embraced the radical right’s propositions, turning them into a "digestible" rhetoric while "breaking the taboos" of antiracism.

Keywords: antiracism, breaking of taboos, far-right, "Gypsy crime", Jobbik, political correctness, racism, Roma