"Dracunculus against the dragon": Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's public vaccination as simultaneous enactment of public health and foreign policy

This article examines performativity in Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's February 2021 public vaccination against COVID-19 with the Sinopharm BBIBP-CorV vaccine. Following a discussion of the concept of performativity as it pertains to the subject of our study, we contextualize the proce...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of contemporary Central and Eastern Europe 2023-05, Vol.31 (2), p.409-428
Main Authors: Marton, Péter, Matura, Tamás, Somogyvári, Csendike
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
China
COVID-19
Diplomacy
Discourse analysis
Enactment
Foreign policy
Government
Heads of state
Hungary
Immunization
Performativity
Prime ministers
Public health
Sinopharm BBIBP-CorV
vaccination
Vaccines
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Summary:This article examines performativity in Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's February 2021 public vaccination against COVID-19 with the Sinopharm BBIBP-CorV vaccine. Following a discussion of the concept of performativity as it pertains to the subject of our study, we contextualize the process of the procurement of the Sinopharm BBIBP-CorV vaccine by Hungary to situate the significance of this transaction, along with that of the performance under review, in the post-2010 evolution of broader Sino-Hungarian government ties. We then submit footage of PM Orbán's vaccination to multimodal critical discourse analysis, identifying several noteworthy features of this performance. We also examine similar performances by other heads of state and government, offering evidence that - having gone beyond the purposes of public health messaging to constitute a simultaneous enactment of foreign policy (and more) - PM Orbán deviated considerably from the consensus norms of public vaccination that have emerged in the reference group. This further indicates that his public vaccination with BBIBP-CorV was both a peculiar instance of vaccine diplomacy and a "demand-driven" manifestation of Chinese influence in Hungary.
ISSN:2573-9638
2573-9646
DOI:10.1080/25739638.2023.2221923