Aggressive neighborhood watch or unconventional threat? the Hungarian extreme right-wing self-defense movements

Abstract

In the past decade there has been a growing political and popular right-wing extremist movement in Hungary. According to the Athena Institute, an independent human-rights group based in Budapest, at least 20 extreme right-wing organizations are active at present. Additionally, based on their rhetoric, some of these groups openly seek the overthrow of the existing social order of Hungary and perform activities that have paramilitary features. The role of these right-wing groups has been noted in the crisis on the Crimean Peninsula. This project explores a specific phenomenon among the extremist right-wing movements, the self-defense groups, and the threats they pose to Hungarian national security. Combining online data from communication platforms (blogs) and open-source data, the goal is to visualize this right-wing Hungarian social network and identify alternative strategies to deal with it.