Radicalisation of Mainstream Political Parties as a Response to the Migration Crisis: The Case of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia

Following the financial crisis in previous decade, European countries have faced the challenge of unprecedented migration which affected the levels of political trust, the relations between citizens and their political representatives and the content of public debates. One of the consequences of migration crisis was rise of radical and populist political parties as recent elections in various EU member states have shown. While this increase of radical parties is well covered, less attention has been given to mainstream parties. Based on existing literature, in reaction to increasing strength of radical parties, the mainstream parties may react through radicalization of their own positions. In our paper we analyse political parties from four Central European countries, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Using expert surveys covering time frame with beginning predating the eruption of migration crisis, we study the shifts of positions of mainstream parties. We focus on parties' positions towards the immigration and migration policy. The selection of countries is relevant for several reasons. First, compared to Western Europe, these countries are less studied in terms of radicalization of mainstream. Second, in these countries radical parties are present for most of the recent years. Finally, in all four selected countries a high resistance of societies against migrants has appeared despite their little previous experience with immigration. This provides relevant ground for research with broader implications to the field.