Applying Negative Soft Power? Examining Hungary’s Digital Criticism of the European Union

Abstract

This study examines how Hungary’s criticism of the European Union (EU) is reflected in its digital diplomacy efforts. It proposes that systematic criticism of the bloc can be seen as a deliberate use of negative soft power, a tactic that involves portraying others in an unfavourable context. To address the research objective, the study examines the Twitter (now known as X) diplomacy of 40 Hungarian government officials in 2021–2022 and identifies EU-related content and criticism through a semi-automatic content analysis. The results show that while a few central government users systematically and explicitly criticise the EU, other actors balance condemnation with neutral and positive posts. The findings, therefore, indicate that Hungary’s systemic weakness limits the pure export of national discourses and forces soft power strategies to mix critical commentary with neutral and positive representation.