Contentious Tango: Explaining Mobilization Against Far-Right Protest

This paper explains mobilization against far‑right protest by introducing the “tango” dynamic, a pattern of interactive protest and counter‑protest in which anti‑far‑right actors organise in close temporal and spatial conjunction with far‑right events. Using a novel dataset of thousands of protest events in Europe, the authors show that this interactive pattern significantly depresses far‑right electoral support, especially when protests are synchronised with electoral cycles. The analysis highlights how the timing and coupling of contentious action and counter‑mobilisation shape the political effectiveness of grassroots opposition to the far right.