A key tenet from research on geographical concepts is that these are never neutral
but filled with different ideas and agendas. The ‘Carpathian Basin’ is one of the
most significant concepts in Hungarian geographical thought, but its recently reemerging
use in political discourse has not yet been studied through quantitative text analysis.
In this paper, we describe how a structural topic model was used to analyze the 1,525
speeches containing the term delivered in the Hungarian Parliament between 1998 and
2020.
Our results indicate a renaissance in the use of the term, both in terms of its more
frequent use and its discursive meaning as a sign of a turn in national policy. At
the same time, ‘Carpathian Basin’ discourse serves as a symbolic battleground for
different political ideologies to indicate both neutral geographical references and
nationalist sentiments. Left-liberals tend to use it politically neutrally, referring
to an ethno-culturally heterogeneous area, and using a less personal voice, referring
to institutions and interests. In contrast, right-wing narratives often demarcate
the Carpathian Basin as a single geographical entity. Some of these speeches exhibit
virtual nationalism, while others subtly question territorial legitimacy. The latter
MPs speak in terms of representing their own community, referring to values, emotions,
and culture, offering a collective identity to which people attach values and emotions.
