Home › Archive › Articles and Publications › Policy Paper | Is There a Way to Overcome the Values vs. Utilitarian Divide? Two EU Campaigns in HungaryPolicy Paper | Is There a Way to Overcome the Values vs. Utilitarian Divide? Two EU Campaigns in Hungary
Is it possible, in an environment of growing Euroscepticism and media polarisation, to connect the European Union’s value-based language with a utilitarian understanding of its role? Drawing on two EU communication campaigns in Hungary conducted in 2024–2025, the text examines this tension and shows that the clash between the EU’s normative framing and the Hungarian government’s transactional, sovereignty-centred narrative is not merely a matter of messaging, but a structural feature of the domestic political and media landscape. The analysis suggests that isolated campaigns have only limited capacity to shift public attitudes in such a hostile and saturated information environment.
10. December 2025
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