Trojan horse discourse

The EU faces escalating challenges in upholding liberal democratic values amid political and social conflicts. This chapter introduces the concept of Trojan horse discourse to analyze the exploitation of democratic discourse by populists, illiberals, and semi-authoritarians within legal forums. Despite its limitations—including ongoing discussions surrounding populism, illiberalism, and semi-authoritarianism—this concept enables scholars in conflict studies to grasp how actors manipulate democratic discourse within and beyond the EU. Illustrated through the Hungary-EU conflict over asylum, our analysis shows how emerging forms of populism and illiberalism link to metapolitical antagonism, resulting in a conceptual transformation fostering the normalization of exclusionary practices and semi-autocratic legalism within the EU.