An identity crisis in Eastern Europe

In the face of the violence that continues to run amok in the streets of Budapest, the European Union has so far proven prudent. Anne Rodier asked the French political scientist Jean-Yves Camus, a specialist in the study of the far-right, if the rise of populism in Hungary, Slovakia and Poland might be interpreted as a regional crisis among the new EU member states. "There have always been persistent ultranationalist currents running through these countries. But the classification of parties is immensely problematic. The lines are blurred in all of these States where movements which fought against the Soviets have the aura of liberators. Crisis lies where there is reaction to the European Union. Not only in terms of economy, in terms of identity too."

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