Religion, Secularism, and Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe

The political landscape of Western Europe has dramatically altered since 2001. A number of right-wing, anti-Muslim populist parties have achieved electoral success and significant influence in a large number of Western European countries, and within EU parliament, chiefly by claiming that Muslim immigrants to Europe are threatening European ‘Judeo-Christian’ values and heritage. Indeed, almost all the electorally successful populist right-wing parties of Western Europe have made the alleged imminent Islamisation of Europe the central issue around which they mobilize support. At the same time, given that the politics of Western Europe is regarded as secular, the Christian aspects of the rise in support for right-wing populist parties have often been overlooked. This paper will address the sometimes ignored, but vitally important, role religion and religious identity plays in the growth of right-wing populist parties Western Europe, with a special focus on France and the Netherlands. The purpose of this paper is to show, first, how Christian identity is an important element in right-wing populist ideology in Western Europe; second, how right-wing populist parties have exploited Christian identity to influence the foreign relations of individual European nations as well as the European Union. In order to do this the paper questions how the French Front National (FN) and Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) have responded to the increasing presence of Muslim immigrants in France and the Netherlands respectively, and what their policies and rhetoric tell us about the importance of Christian identity in Western Europe’s right-wing populist movement. In order to answer these questions, the paper engages with the growing body of scholarship associated with the 'religious turn' in International Relations, as well as with the literature in sociology on the emergence of the ‘post-secular’ society in Western Europe and its political and social consequences.