ABSTRACT
The Hungarian party system experienced a big turning in 2010 with the shift from the first party system to the second party system, which took place parallel with the transition from soft populism to hard populism in the Hungarian political system. Despite the obvious idiosyncrasies of the individual countries, the Hungarian party system has showed a striking similarity with the other East-Central European (ECE) party systems. The other contextual framework is the EU membership, but it has not influenced the Hungarian party system as much as it could have been expected. The European framework has just scratched the surface of the Hungarian party structures; therefore, the general divergence between Hungary and the EU mainstream developments can be easily followed from the Hungarian party developments.
