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Varieties of Populism in Hungary 153
Dr. Andras Veres”, bishop of the Gyér diocese, had a strong humanitarian standpoint
during both periods. In 2015 he stated that “there was no disagreement within
the Church about supporting refugees so far.”*? However, the statements of Laszlé
Kiss-Rig6, the bishop of Szeged-Csanad; Béla Balas, the bishop of Kaposvar*‘ and
Gyula Marfi, cardinal of Veszprém and metropolitan bishop, shows otherwise. In
their viewpoints the securitisation narrative was dominant. The refugee and migrant
crisis were seen as an invasion mainly, and — except for Balas — they argued that
the Pope could not see the situation (especially in Hungary) appropriately. The
statements about the Pope were later corrected. For example, Kiss-Rig6 during the
second period used a humanitarian narrative and talked about the help provided by
the Szeged-Csandd diocese. However, the ‘classic’ populist critique of the EU was
also present, which could be motivated by the fact that Csongréd-Csandd county
is a border county. He added: “Solidarity is practiced on the basis of the gospel’s
command, not by following the dictates of the bureaucrats in Brussels, but rather
based on Pope Francis’s encouragement.” He stated that this should be practiced
independently of religion, origin or skin color.”
This strongly divided viewpoint was not the main characteristic of the other,
smaller Christian churches. The humanitarian narrative was clearly dominant in
the Greek Catholic Church and in the Hungarian Baptist Church. Regarding the
Calvinist Reformed Church, István Bogárdi Szabó, the bishop of the Hungarian
Reformed Churchs synod, also used the humanitarian narrative. Further, the
reflections on public discussions were significant here during both periods. However,
the Reformed Church of Csongrád diocese provided their statements on four points
in 28 September 2015, in which they used a strong securitisation narrative; it saw
migration as a threat, and emphasized that this issue is a warning, since European
countries — including Hungary — had strayed from the basics of the Christian
faith over the past centuries.
Regarding the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the second period was more
important. During the first period, bishop Péter Gáncs emphasized that "there are
no alternatives to giving solidarity assistance to the victims" after he visited the
3 Following Péter Erdé, he has been the chairman of the MKPK since September 2015.
"Veres András püspök: Segíteni kell az úton lévőket". Mandiner, 2015. http://kereszteny.
mandiner.hu/cikk/20150911 veres andras puspok segiteni kell az uton levoket (Accessed
6 March 2010).
| He held this position until 2017.
Tóth Marcell: "Kiss-Rigó László: A bürokraták embercsempészete helyett valódi segítséget
kell adni a menekülteknek". Szeged Ma, 2016. https://szegedma.hu/2016/09/kiss-rigo-lasz¬
lo-a-burokratak-embercsempeszete-helyett-valodi-segitseget-kelladni-a-menekulteknek-fotok
(Accessed 3 November 2017).
“A Csongrádi Református Egyházmegye közleménye". Reformatws.bu, 2015. http://regi.refor¬
matus.hu/mutat/a-csongradi-reformatus-egyhazmegye-kozlemenye/ (Accessed 4 March 2021).