Some remarks on the EU’s action on the erosion of the rule of law in Poland and Hungary

Abstract

ABSTRACT The political situation in Poland and Hungary has contributed to a growing sense that the common values of the European polity are being radically challenged and, in some contexts, utterly dismantled. The European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe have reacted to the crisis e.g. through the recommendations of the Venice Commission and the Rule of Law Framework, while scholarship has conducted an intense debate on the conduct of Fidesz and PiS and the potential means to strengthen liberal democracy vis-à-vis these parties. This article shares the concerns of the institutional and scholarly critique of Fidesz and PiS since the EU cannot relinquish the ideal of liberal democracy and the question of the member states’ institutional commonality. Still, the article draws attention to a matter that has thus far been neglected in the mainstream debate on Hungary and Poland, that is the question of the ambivalence of the rule of law and democracy narrative as deployed by European institutions. To some extent, it is precisely the failure to recognize its own ambiguities, both theoretical and practical, that makes liberal democratic discourse a homogeneous and easy target vulnerable to rhetorical attacks by radical nationalist parties.