Not Only Mainstreaming, but Also Sidestreaming. How the Populist Radical Right Discursively Mobilises Female Voters When Using the "Divide and Conquer" Strategy.

It is often assumed that populist radical right parties (PRRP) become more mainstream over time: they moderate their ideological positions and target median voters, while mainstream parties also adopt some of their messages and thus "normalise" far-right discourse (Mudde, 2019). However, there is little evidence that the mainstream parties and PRRPs have converged: the latter have become even more radical in their ideological messages in recent decades (Akkerman et al., 2016). The current paper argues that, although there is some evidence of mainstreaming, radical right parties employ an alternative strategy: sidestreaming. Jakobson (2026) recently proposed a novel sidestreaming hypothesis, defined as a strategy in which PRRPs do not moderate their views or target the median voter, but instead expand their electoral appeal to social groups that have previously remained marginal in their mobilising efforts. More precisely, the PRRPs target the minority groups they have formerly even loathed: women, immigrants, LGBT, etc. The current paper goes beyond the sidestreaming hypothesis. It does not focus on whether sidestreaming exists (Jakobson has already provided ample empirical evidence from various PRRPs across Europe in her work), but we will explore the principal mechanism by which sidestreaming operates at the discursive level. We argue that the PRPPs use a classical "divide and conquer" strategy against minority groups. Because of the former history, the PRRPs cannot fully embrace the minorities as a whole. Still, they use a selective inclusion strategy, targeting the more radicalised sections of those groups, and thus discursively divide the minority into two: "good" vs "bad". The "good" are conservative women/immigrants/gays who are regarded as more "genuine", "normal", etc, while the progressive/liberal camp is shown in a negative light. While doing so, the PRRPs reverse the customary hierarchies and purposively promote the collective self-esteem of the conservative segment of the group. Our conceptualisation heavily relies on social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986), in which identity is understood not only as a self-definition but also as a constant comparison between the relevant out- and ingroup, and as an attempt to promote a group's self-image. In the proposed paper, we will empirically test the sidestreaming and identity management strategies described above. We will explore how the Estonian populist radical right party EKRE (The Conservative People's Party of Estonia), which has persistently sought a more substantial electoral foothold among female voters, uses the "divide and reverse hierarchies" strategy on its partisan online platform, The New News. The paper will examine, through discourse analysis, how EKRE constructs the "conservative women" identity on The New News online platform by creating dichotomies and hierarchies between the "good conservative" and the "bad left-liberal women," further forging the positive identity for the former. Overall, the paper will demonstrate how the sidestreaming strategy may offer an opportunity for the PRRPs to further normalise and legitimise their toxic rhetoric regarding the minority groups, rather than reversing it.