Unveiling the Transnationalization of Far Right Practices Through an Event Chronology Based Approach

The transnationalization of the far right has emerged in recent years as a significant and evolving phenomenon, characterized by intricate networks of actors and forms that traverse diverse pathways and mechanisms. Anti-immigrant and anti-gender actors, as well as actors mobilizing in relation to various crises, in particular the Covid-19 pandemic, now convene at events internationally, which supports the diffusion of frames and strategies and contributes to international learning among these actors. While the literature on the various types of illiberal actors and their transnationalization has been growing, research so far tended to specialize in specific sub-sectors of the illiberal right engaging, for example, only with anti-immigrant or anti-gender actors, and focused on either political parties or social movements. Our research, which is conducted in the framework of the AUTHLIB (Neo-authoritarianisms in Europe and the Liberal Democratic Response) project, seeks to connect these various threads of analysis to understand the differences and similarities characterizing their transnational diffusion in terms of framing strategy, organizational contacts and networks, and mobilization events. To this end, we focus on the time period around the 2024 European Parliament elections, which represent a critical moment of high politics to investigate the impact of transnational interactions and cooperations among many actors. We utilize a triangulated methodological approach based on the analysis of the event chronologies from January 2024 to September 2024, content analysis and over thirty in-depth interviews with the figures from different types of far right actors including political parties, social movements and civil society organizations in seven countries including the UK, Italy, France, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Austria and Poland. While event chronologies and content analysis focus on the “events” consisting of a broad category of cultural, discursive and organizational practices and interactions among the illiberal actors, in-depth interviews reveal the motivations and perceptions facilitating the transnationalization processes. Thanks to our theoretical understanding that bridges the cultural approaches with the political opportunity structure based models, our research aims at providing a comprehensive analytical framework to explore not only the forms of motivations, actions and interactions but also conditions and mechanisms of transnationalization of far right actors.