From 7 October to the Manchester Synagogue Attack: Far-Right Populist Anti-Antisemitism and Securitisation Framing on X

This paper examines how far-right populist (FRP) actors in Western Europe have reframed their discourse since the terror attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, alongside a rise in visibility and frequency of antisemitism at home and responses to Israeli aggression against Palestine. While existing scholarship has shown how FRP parties strategically include Jewish communities along cultural and civilisational lines to distance themselves from biological racism, this paper argues that this inclusion has become increasingly securitised. In the post-7 October context, FRP figures have not only reiterated their supposed commitment to defending Jews but have also used this stance to legitimise state violence, suppress mobilisation in solidarity with Palestine, and discredit liberal institutions. Through a comparative critical discourse analysis of X (formerly Twitter) posts by high-profile politicians from four parties—Alternative for Germany (AfD), the National Rally (France), Reform UK, and the Dutch Party for Freedom—this paper examines how anti-antisemitism is deployed as a discursive weapon. Drawing on poststructuralist approaches and securitisation theory (Wojczewski, 2020), it demonstrates how these parties frame Palestine solidarity marches and Muslim communities as existential threats to national and civilisational security. To greater and lesser extents, the protection of Jews is rhetorically mobilised to position the FRP parties as their “true” defenders, while political elites are portrayed as complicit in enabling antisemitism and insecurity. The analysis further reveals both convergence and divergence across national contexts: while all four parties converge in linking Jewish protection with anti-Muslim securitisation, they diverge in how they localise these narratives within domestic political struggles. This study contributes to debates on FRP discourse by showing how anti-antisemitism is no longer merely a reputational and ideological strategy but a securitising move that justifies and normalises authoritarian responses to dissent and reconfigures the boundaries of political belonging.