Abstract
European radical right parties (RRPs) have recently experienced strong electoral success and have strengthened their positions within the European Parliament. While their Eurosceptic positions are well documented in the literature, the fact
that most RRPs refer not only to their nations but to Europe in general, as a collective, in order to ground their nationalist visions remains understudied. We investigate this issue by analyzing the discourses of MEPs from 24 radical right parties in the 8 th legislature of the European Parliament (2014–2019). Relying on a vast corpus (36,413 speeches) and using quantitative text analysis, this research sheds light on the various notions of Europe that are used by radical right MEPs. We find evidence of three visions of Europe: as a civilization; as an ethno-religious community; and as a liberal society. The use and preferences for each visions vary according to ideological positions, strategies and national contexts.
that most RRPs refer not only to their nations but to Europe in general, as a collective, in order to ground their nationalist visions remains understudied. We investigate this issue by analyzing the discourses of MEPs from 24 radical right parties in the 8 th legislature of the European Parliament (2014–2019). Relying on a vast corpus (36,413 speeches) and using quantitative text analysis, this research sheds light on the various notions of Europe that are used by radical right MEPs. We find evidence of three visions of Europe: as a civilization; as an ethno-religious community; and as a liberal society. The use and preferences for each visions vary according to ideological positions, strategies and national contexts.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 135406882311612 |
| Journal | Party Politics |
| Early online date | 15 Mar 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2023 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work benefited from the financial support of the Jean Monnet Chair Euroscope (Jean Monnet actions, Erasmus + program, grand number: 565331-EPP-1-2015-1-CA-EPPJMO-CHAIR); the Center for Study of Democratic Citizenship (Regroupement stratégique du FRQS, grant number: 203856), and the University of Monterrey (UDEM, departmental funding).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.