Ideology deficit of the Alt-left

A left-wing analyst attributes the weakness of Alt-left movements in Hungary to their liberal ideology, which he believes alienates middle and lower class voters with more conservative world-views.

On Mérce, Balázs Böcskei seeks to explain why alt-left parties have not been successful in Hungary. The left-wing analyst recalls that in the past decade, quite a few intellectuals have called for a “post-Stalinist Worker’s Party to the left of the MSZP” to represent an anti-globalist egalitarian ideology. Böcskei thinks that the main reason for the absence of a strong Alt-left movement is that intellectuals advocating radical left-wing ideas embrace identity politics that alienate voters. As a result, alt-left movements become ‘hostage’ to liberal ideology, and therefore they cannot reach out to workers, or middle and lower class voters who endorse conservative social values, Böcskei argues. Böcskei admits that he has no recipe for the Alt-left, but he hints that without following an ‘inclusive populist’ rhetoric rather than identity politics, they have no chance of becoming major political actors.

Tags: alt-left, liberalism