15:30 - 17:45
Friday-Panel
Chair/s:
Robin E. Best
Discussant/s:
Werner Krause
Meeting Room C

James Downes, Matthew Loveless
Right Party Competition in Europe: The Electoral Strategies of the Far Right during Crises

Tom Arend, Fabio Ellger, António Valentim
The Electoral Consequences of New Political Actors: Progressive Party Success and Conservative Backlash

Robin E. Best, Didem Seyis
Are Distant Voters More Likely to Reject the Establishment? The Effects of Perceived Ideological Congruence on Support for Challenger Parties

Heike Klüver, Jae-Jae Spoon, António Valentim
Putting on the Brakes: Radical Right Parties and Government Formation
Right Party Competition in Europe: The Electoral Strategies of the Far Right during Crises
James Downes 1, Matthew Loveless 2
1 The Chinese University of Hong Kong
2 University of Bologna

Far-right parties appear to be updating their electoral strategies throughout the series of crises from the 2008-2013 economic crisis, the 2015-2018 refugee crisis, and on to the 2020-present COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst a focus on the key issue dimension of immigration as an electoral strategy continues to serve as the raison d’etre of far-right politics, newer strategies are being introduced to mobilise supporters, such as the post-materialist issue of environmentalism (i.e.: eco-nationalism/eco-fascism), with increasing success. We therefore ask: to what extent are far-right party strategies in Europe being updated across these crises and does this translate into electoral success for far-right parties? Using both qualitative case studies and quantitative analysis, we examine far-right parties’ electoral strategies in Western Europe (Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom) and Central-Eastern Europe (Hungary and Poland). Our preliminary evidence identifies both the evolving strategies of modern far-right parties in three different crisis situations and that these crises create distinct and unique political opportunities for the far-right party family to benefit from electorally.