Pillarization and Persistence: Institutional Explanations of Far-Right Resistance in Wallonia

This paper examines why working-class voters in the Belgian region of Wallonia have resisted far-right realignment despite experiencing economic decline, deindustrialization, and rising immigration. Drawing from a chapter of my dissertation, Realignment and Dealignment of the Working-Class Electorate: A Deviant Case of Lack of Far-Right Populism in the Belgian Region of Wallonia, the study addresses a gap in the literature by focusing on a case where far-right mobilization has remained limited under conditions typically associated with far-right support. Contrary to broader Western European trends, patterns of support among the Walloon working class remain oriented toward the center-left Parti Socialiste (PS). The paper argues that the persistence of pillarized institutional embeddedness helps structure how working-class political grievances are interpreted, thereby constraining far-right support. Dense networks linking political parties, labor unions, and civic education organizations reproduce norms of class solidarity while rendering nationalist and exclusionary rhetoric less compatible within the institutional framework. The analysis draws on elite interviews of party members, labor unions, and civic education centers. The interviews will be complemented by archival material from the PS, union publications, and educational materials. The findings show that far-right resistance can be understood as emerging through a sequence of mechanisms: the reproduction of socialist historical narratives, the transmission of class-based norms through civic pedagogy, and the enforcement of ideological boundaries against far-right actors. Together, these processes shape how economic grievances are interpreted and make far-right appeals less compatible, helping to sustain center-left alignment despite structural conditions commonly associated with far-right realignment. The study highlights how institutional embeddedness can structure political interpretation and contribute to the persistence of partisan alignments even under conditions typically favorable to populist mobilization.