Young, Wired and Angry: a Revised Portrait of Hungary’s Right-Wing Extremists

Though largely ignored by the national media, Hungary’s right-wing extremist Jobbik party operates within a surprisingly well-developed and self-sustained online universe. What’s more, recent studies have found that the party’s supporters aren’t the “losers” that many experts thought they were.

For years, Hungary’s right-wing extremists have very effectively utilized the Internet to reach their goals. They use it to disseminate their messages and to organize demonstrations and campaigns — many of which also involve hate speech and incitement. “The Internet has been and remains very important to us,” says Márton Gyöngyösi, a Jobbik member of parliament. He explains that this is “not only on account of our limited access to the traditional media, but also because a major part of our supporters and voters are young people who we can best reach via new media.”

Experts have been observing this trend for some time now. “During the 2010 election campaign, the Internet played a key role for Jobbik,” says Áron Buzogány, a German-Hungarian political scientist who studies social movements in Eastern Europe. “When compared with the other parties, Jobbik had the most up-to-date Internet presence based on Web 2.0 (tools). People visiting these (web)pages could take an active role in helping shape them, thereby becoming part of the campaign themselves.”

Budapest-based political scientist József Jeskó, who has been studying the online activities of Hungary’s right-wing extremists for years, reaches a similar conclusion. “Jobbik is the first party in the history of Hungary to have effectively used the Internet’s advantages for its own purposes,” he says. Jeskó emphasizes, however, that Jobbik neither built up nor controls the online network of Hungarian right-wing extremists itself. Instead, he says, “Small groups with similar convictions, but many different interests, have made contact with the help of the Internet and jointly created a virtual world for themselves.” (via SPIEGEL ONLINE)