Promoting Secularity and Christian Values: A Contradiction in the Programmes of Right-Wing Populist Parties?

At first sight the call for a strict separation of state and church and a denomination to Christian values as the foundation of their populist heartland seem to be at odds with each other. Despite this perception populist parties as the FPÖ (Austrian Freedom Party) and the Rassemblement National (former Front National) combine both concepts in order to likewise build an institutional and a cultural barrier against the proclaimed fear of Islamisation. As Rainer Kampling points out, this leads to a rather paradox situation: societies that have seemingly become more secular are using religion as a common denominator in order to define and at the same time distinguish themselves. The support for a clear separation of church and state by FPÖ and RN is far from just being the result of a secular ideal and the goal to restrict the power of Christian churches but can be seen as an insurance against any institutionalised influence of the Islam that might come up in the future. This is reinforced by the explicit rejection of any foreign funding of Islamic institutions and buildings in Austria and France. Thus, on the one hand religion shall be kept away from public influence, but on the other hand it is used as a common ground for their heartland. In the paper I will argue that parties like the RN and the FPÖ are not only uncoupling Church and Christianity but even Christianity and religion, leaving it as an allegory for an alleged cultural entity. “Christliches Abendland” (Christian occident) is used as a wilfully nebulous concept of values attributed to “the people” without necessarily being attached to an actual Christian confession. Nevertheless, the reference to Christianity, and sometimes even to Judaism, as roots of an imaginary uniform European culture deliberately implies the exclusion of Islam. According to right-wing populist parties the vast majority of Muslims cannot be integrated into society due to their cultural-religious backgrounds. Thus, excluding parts of the population from the heartland irrespectively of them having the citizenship or not. Christian and Muslim culture are used as a code for an unchangeable and inherited set of attributes creating a natural hierarchy. The paper shall outline the use and instrumentalization of the rather vague and empty concept of Christian values and the “christliches Abendland” by right-wing populist parties and discuss to what extend their reference to Christianity is merely tactical and almost completely detached from actual religiosity. It will lead to the conclusion that their reference to Christian culture cannot be seen as a reversion of secularity but as a beneficial code for the exclusive heartland where citizenship doesn’t work as a distinction anymore.