The current paper examines Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s speech acts based on the preface that his language communicates political will, power, and serves as an outline for potential future political avenues. Orbán has been one of the most outspoken critics of the European Union’s failure to adequately address the ongoing migrant crisis, as well as Europe’s immigration issues. The aim of the thesis is to examine the language tools utilized by Orbán according to securitization theory. Utilizing elements of Wodak’s Critical Discourse Analysis in combination with Tajfel and Turner’s Social Identity Theory, the thesis provides analysis of the texts through the lens of Orbán’s creation of a national Hungarian social identity construct as referent object being securitized against the migrant threat. Moreover, the thesis provides an overall analysis of Orbán’s brand of Hungarian social identity politics, and the consequences for that right-wing populist social identity politics has for Hungary.
- assigned by the advisor