The Strategic Deployment of Conspiratorial Immigration Discourses Across Western European Radical Right Parties

This paper provides a comparative analysis of how radical right parties in Austria, Switzerland, France, and Italy frame immigration through intertwined populist and conspiratorial discourses. Unlike broader approaches that address multiple issues, this paper concentrates solely on immigration, a classic topic for the radical right, but one that has increasingly been reinterpreted through conspiratorial narratives. The main question guiding this paper is whether immigration has shifted from being primarily a populist issue centered on “the people” versus “the elites” or “dangerous outsiders” to a conspiratorial narrative that blames migration flows on intentional, malevolent schemes (e.g., demographic replacement, elite collusion, EU betrayal). The paper begins by situating the six selected parties (the Austrian Freedom Party, the Swiss People’s Party, Rassemblement National, Reconquête!, Fratelli d’Italia, and the Lega) within their respective political systems and party competition contexts. This contextualization highlights differences in party positioning, institutional constraints, and national issue agendas, which influence discursive strategies. Using qualitative discourse analysis, the paper examines whether conspiratorial claims complement, amplify, or sometimes even overshadow populist frames. It also explores the degree of convergence among the six parties and ultimately assesses whether conspiratorial narratives are becoming a dominant lens for interpreting immigration in radical-right communication, with implications for understanding the ideological evolution of these parties across Western Europe.