Opposition Discourse About National Recovery and Resilience Plans: Poland and Hungary Compared

Abstract

Although the governments of Poland and Hungary seem to similarly contest the conditionality mechanism that requires one to respect the rule of law when using EU funds, there are differences between these countries. They become visible in the framing of political communication as regards the opposition parties. This article seeks to identify the grounds of the competition from parliamentary opposition of the governments in relation to the EU Recovery and Resilience Fund. An analysis of 2021's parliamentary debates on national recovery and resilience plans revealed three communication frameworks: the financial frame (the policy dimension), the quality of governance frame (the politics dimension), and the European integration frame which shaped domestic political rivalry (the polity dimension). Differences within these framings between the narrative of the Polish and Hungarian opposition resulted from different institutional and structural contexts. The study confirms the importance of national opposition parties for the analysis of the process of European integration. The existence of a liberal opposition may promote the salience of the topic of European integration in domestic political debate.