Populism, party-cohesion, and the de-Europeanisation of national foreign policy institutions in Hungary and Poland

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This article studies the impact of populist radical right (PRR) governments on national foreign policy institutions (NFPI) in Hungary and Poland between 2014 and 2023. Whilst both governments were in a powerful position to transform Europeanised NFPIs following an alternative ideational agenda, they differed in terms of their inter- and intra-party cohesion. Offering a novel analytical framework, the article understands party cohesion to refer to ideology and organisational structure within a (coalition) government. It argues that the ability of a PRR government to reorientate Europeanised NFPIs in line with populist ideas depends upon its inter- and intra-party cohesion. Providing original empirical evidence through a comparative study of Hungary and Poland, it demonstrates diverging degrees of intra- and inter-party cohesion with important consequences for the de-Europeanisation of NFPIs in the two EU member states. This finding contrasts with current approaches treating PRR parties and governments as “unitary actors” with a single set of foreign policy preferences, thus furthering our understanding of the relationship between populism and foreign policy (de-)Europeanisation.