Laboratories of counter-hegemony. Orbán, Trump and the transatlantic far-right ecosystem
This study maps the international infrastructure scaling Orbán’s counter-hegemonic project. The roots of this counterhegemonic project go back to the exhaustion of liberal globalism, which created fertile ground for far-right challengers. Instead of progressive correction, the far right seized the initiative, treating the crisis of globalization as an opening for a long-term counter-hegemonic project. Viktor Orbán’s Hungary emerged as a frontrunner of it. Orbánism is not routine governance or a mere electoral platform but an integrated strategy to reshape the state, civil society, and culture, building an alternative order that can endure and reproduce itself over time. A small country cannot sustain such disruptive politics in isolation; therefore, Orbán’s strategy extended beyond Hungary’s borders to embed his national transformation within a broader far-right bloc.
Within the European Union, Orbán wages counter-hegemony from inside the liberal order’s own institutional architecture, converting EU funds, veto rights, and single-market access into resources for building a pan-European far-right bloc. But Orbán’s priority has been the United States. The study traces transatlantic linkages from their origins in the 1990s to the consolidation of an organized influence ecosystem. At its core are foundations channeling substantial Hungarian public funds into scholarships, fellowships, and media platforms that embed Orbán’s politics within US conservative circles, complemented by lobbying contracts, orchestrated media collaborations, and institutional partnerships. This dual position simultaneously drains liberal institutions from within and links illiberal templates across the Atlantic, making Orbán’s counter-hegemonic project uniquely dangerous and instructive.
https://feps-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PS_Laboratories_of_counter_hegemony.pdf