An Online Cordon Sanitaire? Parties’ Interactions with the Far-Right During the 2024 EP Electoral Campaign

The success of far-right parties across Europe confronts mainstream parties with a well-known yet difficult choice: do they ignore them? Challenge or confront them? Or embrace them? Over the last decade, mainstream parties, especially on the right, have reacted differently to the challenge posed by the far right: some cooperate with them, some oppose such cooperation on principle, and some are still on the fence (Heinze 2018; Minkenberg 2013). However, parties often have to play two-level games and may cooperate with the far right at the national level while ostracizing these actors at the EP level or vice versa (Kelemen et al. 2023). In the EP, there is a cordon sanitaire against some far-right groups but not others. Furthermore, the issue of the cordon has become increasingly contentious with the success of the far right in 2019 and then in 2024 (Mudde 2024). Furthermore, research has documented the mainstreaming of the far-right, especially with the hybridization of the media system (Neuber 2023). However, how parties behave online during the campaign remains unclear. Do they ignore the far right or treat it like any other political actor? Based on Meguid's typology (2005), this paper explores to what extent mainstream parties use a dismissive, accommodative, and adversarial strategy during their online campaign regarding the far right. To do so, we rely on the online communication of parties during the 2024 EP elections as it provides a unique setting to study parties’ behavior comparatively and simultaneously. We will focus on the interactions (quotes and reposts) between mainstream parties and the far right on X during their campaign in 12 member states. We expect left-wing parties to choose an adversarial strategy online through negative quotes and retweets while the mainstream right will ignore the far-right or choose an accommodative strategy. The latter will be more frequent in countries where the far-right is part of the government and/or supporting the government.