Far right mainstreaming and mainstream radicalization in Europe

Abstract

Far right parties have become a regular fixture of European and world politics. Virtually irrelevant until the early 1990s, these parties have since entered parliaments, joined in government coalitions, and attracted a growing number of voters. The far right’s success has started two processes of adjustment: a process of ‘mainstreaming’ in which far right parties have become more mainstream; and a process of radicalization whereby previously mainstream parties have become more radical. Radicalisation has touched mainstream right parties, and, increasingly, social democratic parties. Through these processes, far right parties and ideas have become normalised, either because the far right has become more successful at promoting them, or because mainstream actors have begun to adopt the ideas of the far right. The aim of this panel is to bring new empirical evidence and theoretical perspectives to the study of the twin processes of far right mainstreaming and radicalisation of the mainstream, and consider the challenges these processes pose to liberalism and democracy. Lorimer, Cavallaro, de Jonge and Stanley analyse the process of far right mainstreaming. Lorimer and Cavallaro’s paper traces the processes of mainstreaming and radicalization undergone by the Italian far right by studying ideological and organizational continuity between the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, the ‘post-fascist’ National Alliance and the radical right Brothers of Italy. De Jonge and Stanley study how far right parties use food to pursue mainstreaming strategies. Comparing how far right groups in Poland and the Netherlands use food and food-related rituals to promote their ideological agenda, they show how food plays a role in the mainstreaming of the far right’s message. Shuttleworth, Saoulidou, Völker and Saldivia Gonzatti study the process of radicalization of the mainstream. Völker and Saldivia Gonzatti’s paper studies how far-right ideas normalise and influence mainstream communication by analysing the relations between actors and issues in mass media debates in Germany. Shuttleworth’s paper examines the circumstances under which mainstream parties accommodate anti-migration discourses in parliamentary debates in Germany, as well as the discursive strategies which mainstream parties use when shifting towards the right on migration. Saoulidou’s paper studies how mainstream parties of the left and of the right responded to the growing momentum of far right parties in Greece.

Title	Details
Post-post-fascists? Symbolic, ideological and organizational continuity between the Italian Social Movement, National Alliance and Brothers of Italy	View Paper Details
You Are What You Eat: Edible Extremism and Cultural Polarisation in the Netherlands and Poland	View Paper Details
Discourse Alliances: How the Far Right influences the Political Mainstream	View Paper Details
Gatekeeping or vote-seeking? The dilemma mainstream parties’ face when strategically shifting right on migration	View Paper Details
Race to the bottom? Accommodation strategies and political competition in the shadow of far-right normalization in Greece	View Paper Details