Populist Right Wing Discursive Tactics in European Regional Decarbonization

What rhetorical strategies are right wing populists using to delay regional decarbonization? This paper focuses on three populist right wing parties—the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia (EKRE), Alternative for Germany (AfD), and Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS)—and the discursive tactics each used from 2014 to 2021 to delay decarbonization of their carbon-intensive regions. We identify three discursive-institutional tactics used by populist right wing actors to delay decarbonization: (1) politicizing decarbonization, (2) reframing cultural values to form alliances with anti-decarbonization movements, and (3) dismantling key decarbonization institutions. We show that the populist right wing discursive tactics in European regional decarbonization are prevalent and vary widely. Anti-democratic rhetoric, including conservative public policy, xenophobia, and Eurosceptic and national sovereignty discourses are commonly used by these three populist right parties to politicize decarbonization. The EKRE and PiS typically portray themselves as the protectors of social insurance and safety for vulnerable groups affected by regional decarbonization. The PiS and AfD harness regional identity to mobilize civic engagement against decarbonization. All three parties work to empty and dismantle key decarbonization institutions. Overall, our findings suggest that carbon-intensive regions are particularly susceptible to the discursive tactics and institutional work of populist right wing parties, and may therefore provide opportunities for these parties to constrain decarbonization more broadly.