Populist (dis)engagement with international parliamentary institutions : central Europeans in the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Holányi, Ákos (author), Lovec, Marko (author), Hettyey, András (author)

How do populist politicians behave in international parliamentary institutions (IPIs)? Although there is a rapidly growing literature on the foreign policy of populist executive actors, the manifestation of populism as a thin-centred ideology in an international parliamentary setting is not yet understood. This paper aims to alleviate this knowledge gap by analysing how Central European populist parties engaged with the European Parliament (EP) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) from 2019 to 2024, focusing on the highly politicised issues of the rule of law and democracy, immigration and the Russia-Ukraine War. Using a mixed-methods approach combining statistical analysis with qualitative case studies, we offer two main findings. First, the salience of IPI strongly indicates populists’ tendency to disengage from the institution. Second, compared to other ideological positions, being a member of a farright party has a significant positive effect on voting against resolutions and abstaining or not voting.

• Language: English
• Keywords: populism, engagement, Central Europe, European Parliament, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 19.12.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 67–91
• Numbering: Vol. 19, no. 4
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-177569
• UDC: 32:061.1EU
• ISSN on article: 1805-482X
• DOI: 10.51870/FVPK3384
• COBISS.SI-ID: 262883843
• Publication date in RUL: 24.12.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Central European journal of international and security studies
• Shortened title: Cent. Eur. J. Int. Secur. Stud.
• Publisher: Metropolitan Universitzy
• ISSN: 1805-482X
• COBISS.SI-ID: 1024172385

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Projects

• Funder: University Research Scholarship Program of the Hungarian Ministry for Culture and Innovation; National Research, Development and Innovation Fund
• Project number: EKÖP-2025-NKE-3-124