The environmental communication of Jobbik: between strategy and ideology

This chapter examines the environmental agenda of the Hungarian far-right party, Jobbik, with the aim of understanding how environmentalism fits into its broader programmatic commitments and ideology. Specifically, it analyses Jobbik’s discourse and policy positions in the party’s manifestos and the media. It finds that Jobbik has expressed a profound concern about nature and the environment, has drafted extensive ecological programs, and has been increasingly able to communicate its green agenda to the public. Further, it argues that Jobbik’s environmentalism serves both ideological and instrumental purposes. First, through environmentalism Jobbik expresses and reaffirms its adherence to organic nationalism, e.g. by equating nature with the ‘sacred’ homeland that needs to be revered and safeguarded. Second, environmentalism helps Jobbik to single out and attack the party’s enemies: the ‘establishment’, on the one hand, and left/liberal parties and activists, on the other hand, claiming that only nationalists can be ‘true’ environmentalists. Third, environmentalism helps expand the range of the party’s expertise beyond identity-politics, thus assisting in Jobbik’s recent strategy to show a more moderate image.