Perceptions of Hungarian Political Elites of the EU’s Foreign and Security Policy during the War in Ukraine

The outbreak of the Russia–Ukraine war as a geopolitical confrontation between the East and the West has necessitated a reconfiguration of the EU’s global role and actorness and its foreign and security policy priorities. Such a recalibration necessarily involves defining how the EU is perceived by national political elites. Therefore, this chapter examines how Hungarian political elites perceive the EU’s actorness and foreign and security policy priorities concerning the specific challenges of the Russia–Ukraine war. To this end, it conducts a critical discourse analysis of the minutes of parliamentary debates to consider statements uttered by elected members from both the opposition and the government within the Hungarian national parliament. The selected timeframe of the analysis covers the period from the outbreak of the crisis, 24 February 2022, to the Hungarian national consultation on EU sanctions against Russia, 15 January 2023.