The radical-right Progress Party (FRP) withdrew from Norway’s coalition government on January 20. This is a big defeat for FRP leader Siv Jensen, whose big ambition was to prove his party was koalitionsfähig, or “coalition capable.” After six years in government, the conflict between the populist radicals and the more moderate wing of the party… Continue reading “With the Collapse of a Right-Wing Coalition, Has Norway Turned Its Populist Tide?”
The far-right party’s behaviour has been very controversial, to say the least, in many aspects concerning women’s issues. On the 3rd of September, 2019 a political delegation from Iran visited the Spanish congress. The Iranian protocol dictated that men could not shake hands with women. Because of these requirements, the far-right party VOX announced that they… Continue reading “VOX and the rhetoric of gender violence”
It is more than 8 years since the massacre at Utøya and this year many local authorities ‘forgot’ to mark the 8th anniversary of the Utøya and Olso terror attacks, maybe because they were busy with the local elections. In the meantime, survivors continued to receive death threats and the political assault has still not… Continue reading “Frp in Norway – the end of the party?”
Radical right parties seldom break into a national party system all of a sudden. Rather, they usually set foot in subnational parliaments first, but the enhancing effect of subnational representation for their electoral performance in national elections is less well-studied. In fact, subnational parliamentary representation can help leverage radical right parties to the national level,… Continue reading “The Effect of Subnational Representation on Radical Right Parties”
Though estimating the vote share of radical right parties in advance of an election is politically important, it is always a challenge. This can be due to sampling bias in the polling, in which the sample may not represent the population of radical right party supporters, or critical events, such as scandals about radical right… Continue reading “Estimating vote share of radical right parties with “Wisdom of Crowds””
“The vote starkly demonstrates… the splintering and polarization of the electoral base across Europe. However, it also indicates a new, if disruptive, re-engagement by citizens in politics.” With the highest turnout in 20 years, European voters had a chance to express their support for a broad range of parties in the recently completed European Parliament… Continue reading “Euro-election results 2019: a wake-up call to traditional parties”
The vision of a fascist Europe proved to be a chimera. Today’s watchers of the radical right must hope that things will be no different when the heirs of ‘classic fascism’ meet in Milan next week. It was reported on 5 April that Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy’s League Party (formerly the Northern League) and the country’s… Continue reading “A pan-European radical right – contradiction in terms?”
Only time will tell if Vox’s rise is borne of disappointment with the country’s political process, or whether there is a real solidarity with the movement’s ideological principles. In recent years, Spain’s political system has gone through a number of convulsions. The traditional alternation in government between the conservative People’s Party (PP) and the Spanish… Continue reading “Is a New Style of Politics Coming to Spain?”
On November 27, 2018, I was invited to a panel discussion at Amherst College entitled “The Global Rise of Nativism and Illiberalism: A Conversation on the Contemporary Political Pathology”. Based on my talk and remarks at that panel, I will write three blog entries. The first below discusses my thoughts on the media’s treatment of… Continue reading ““The Global Rise of Nativism and Illiberalism: A Conversation on the Contemporary Political Pathology”. Part One – The Radical Right in the Headlines.”
In a recently published article in European Political Science, my colleague Sarah Valdez and I show that nationalism not only increasingly characterizes contemporary radical right parties but also increasingly distinguishes them from other major party families in Western Europe. To demonstrate this, we relied on data from the Manifesto Project, a cross-national, longitudinal database of… Continue reading “From radical right to neo-nationalist: A research note on the Danish case”