ABSTRACT
The paper focuses on the issue of populist parties’ ‘incumbency challenge’ in government position. While populism became a key issue in political science during the past years, research projects focusing on the adaptation of populist parties to government positions are comparatively rare. Based on the research of West-European right-wing populist parties, scholars of the topic often argue that incumbency results in adaptation and mainstreaming processes for populist parties and in the weakening of their populist discourse and claims. The paper conducts a case study analysis of the Hungarian populist radical right party Fidesz, one of the most successful populist parties in East-Central-Europe. The research operationalizes the performative and discursive theory of populism, and analyses the discourse maintained by Fidesz during its two consecutive government period between 2010 and 2018. Based on the research results, the paper ultimately argues that the externalization of the populist ‘them and us’ dichotomy allowed a strategy to maintain, or even radicalize, populist discourse in government position. These findings challenge the dominant stream of populism literature stating that long-term incumbency of populist parties either results in electoral losses, or in adaptation and mainstreaming processes weakening the populist rhetoric. Even if this ‘externalization strategy’ might not be exclusively used by populist parties, it can be identified as a viable strategy for populists in government to overcome the incumbency challenge.
