Strategic Clustering Along Cleavage-Lines: Right-Wing-Populism and Climate Change

Since the migration movement reached its peak in 2015, Right-Wing-Populism became a counter-force to the progressive ideas in Europe. This constellation of liberal-progressive and right-wing-counterparts translates more and more into a full cleavage, where attitudes, structures, and institutions increasingly align (Deegan-Krause 2007): The advocates of a return to the nation-state model mobilize against European integration and open borders – Brexit might be the most prominent example. Alterations to the status quo appear unlikely and social movements associated with environmental protection largely convey pro-EU attitudes, creating a window of political opportunity where right-wing populist parties have adopted an anti-environmentalist stance. This suggests a strategic alignment given that calls for protecting the environment are far from right-wing-policies. For example, the German extreme-right NPD (National Democratic Party of Germany) has for quite some time – albeit ultimately unsuccessfully – attempted to equate environmental protection with protection of the ‘homeland’ (Heimatschutz = Umweltschutz). However, right-wing-parties increasingly tend to either deny climate change in its entirety or at least its ties to CO2 emissions. This might be a strategic move in order to resonate with the main clientele of these parties which, due to their economic circumstances, is especially affected by tax increases relating to climate protection. Still, exogenous factors, such as climate change, lead to anti-environmental clusters who progressively converge with right-wing populist-positions, thereby revealing an ever more growing division of Europe along new conflict lines (Mc Adam 1996; Hooghe & Marks 2018). Using a social movement perspective, we analyze the strategy of Right-Wing parties in terms of their changing attitude toward climate-protective policies to reveal these tendencies and show that this ever-tighter clustering is due to political opportunity. This includes a large sample of European Parties (n=24), analyzed with a qualitative content analysis of mission statements, party manifestos and statements by party leaders.