Populism, nationalism, and kin-state activism: Measuring the perception of the ethnic Széklers from Romania

This article outlines the perceptions of Hungarians from Romania, Eastern Europe's largest ethnic minority, when pressured by two cross-directional stimuli: Hungarian kin-state politics and Romania's populism and nationalism. Building on the Triadic Nexus theory and the literature of minority enclaves, this study employs a telephone survey (N=617) in the Széklerland enclave to answer the many facets generated by the two stimuli in 2015-2020. First, it examines how the populist swing of Romanian politics caused by the fight against the judiciary affected the identity politics of the Széklers. Second, this study examined how Hungary's nationalist kin-state enterprises to support the Hungarian cultural heritage in Széklerland influenced the discourse of Széklers and instilled FIDESZ's political viewpoints on illiberalism. This study has three main findings. First, the Szeklers manifested a growing disinterest in the general state of things in Romania, a behaviour that affected the Szeklers political observation. Nonetheless, the Szeklers perceived ‘pure’ populist rhetoric during elections and media. Second, the results show that transnational populist rhetoric is employed by political agents in their respective countries and perceived by national minorities as a form of ‘pure populism’. Third, the findings reveal that the success of the kin-state's economic and cultural projects facilitated the national minority adhere to an illiberal model.