Young and Temporary: Youth Employment Insecurity and Support for Right-Wing Populism in Europe

The recent success of right-wing populist parties (RPPs) in Europe has given rise to different explanations. Economic factors have proven to be significant, at least at the aggregate level, on this phenomenon. As for the individual level, it has been argued that the so-called ‘losers’ of globalization –those profiles with higher job insecurity- are more prone to support RPPs. Nevertheless, RPPs perform strikingly well in countries less affected by the Great Recession, gathering high levels of support among profiles not considered the losers of globalization. Moreover, the effect of age on RPPs support is not clear, as, on the one hand, the young are better educated and skilled, but, on the other, they suffered more during the economic crisis. To address this puzzle, we focus on the effects of unemployment and employment insecurity among the youth on RPPs’ voting in 17 European countries. We find that youth support for RPPs can be explained by youth employment temporality rather than by youth unemployment.