This paper draws lessons from security and populism studies to theorize how radical
right-wing populism (RRWP)utilizes borders as a symbolic resource in crisis narratives
to clearly frame an “Us” and a threatening “Them”. By analyzing theHungarian Orbán
regime’s evolving rhetoric on borders, the paper illustrates how populists employ
crisis narratives not tomitigate, but exacerbate ontological insecurities, and thereby
facilitate de-democratization by (re)shaping voter attitudes (cf. Homolar & Scholz
2019 ; Steele & Homolar2019 ). The paper suggests that populists-in-power rely on
crisis and bordering narratives beyond voter mobilization:such narratives are in fact
designed to legitimize and affirm illiberal practices that undermine liberal democracy
itself, andcontribute to regime building. Border crises, and crisis politics, hence
become a template for the manipulation of individuals’security-of-being, and thereby
a tool in the politics of reassurance and control at the broader, societal level.
