Liberal Illiberalism? The Reshaping of the Contemporary Populist Radical Right in Northern Europe

Abstract

Populism, particularly in its radical right-wing variants, is often posited as antithetical to the principles of liberalism. Yet a number of contemporary cases of populist radical right parties from Northern Europe complicate this characterisation of populism: rather than being directly opposed to liberalism, these parties selectively reconfigure traditionally liberal defences of discriminated-against groups-such as homosexuals or women-in their own image, positing these groups as part of 'the people' who must be protected, and presenting themselves as defenders of liberty, free speech and 'Enlightenment values'. This article examines this situation, and argues that that while populist radical right parties in Northern Europe may only invoke such liberal values to opportunistically attack their enemies-in many of these cases, Muslims and 'the elite' who allegedly are abetting the 'Islamisation' of Europe'-this discursive shift represents a move towards a 'liberal illiberalism'. Drawing on party manifestoes and press materials, it outlines the ways in which these actors articulate liberal illiberalism, the reasons they do so, and the ramifications of this shift.

Weaponizing white thymos: flows of rage in the online audiences of the alt-right

“…Third, the sample is focused on an Anglophone context and these findings do not necessarily apply to other language communities. However given similar frames of nativism and anti-liberalism in global far right communication, white thymos can be expected to be observed in other contexts, though its relative salience and specific flows are likely to be different (see Caiani and Kröll 2015, Moffitt 2017, Froio 2018, Froio and Ganesh 2019, Klein and Muis 2019.…”

Radical right politics in East and West: Distinctive yet equivalent

“…What has been strategically adjusted is the “packaging” of discrimination against “Others.” Although the RR reframing of collective identity in WE has not been explored in an extensive comparative perspective, some studies demonstrate how RR parties in the West attempt to reinterpret multiple mainstream notions of collectiveness such as “Christian traditions,” social welfare, or even liberal societal principles such as freedom, tolerance, laïcité , and women rights through the exclusionary lens of nativism (cf. Brubaker, ; Castelli Gattinara ; Halikiopoulou, Mock, & Vasilopoulou, ; Moffitt, ; Mondon, ; Norocel, ).…”

The Third Wave: The International Financial Crisis and Refugees

“…In 2010 the party published a report titled 'Time to Speak Out About Rape'. The focus was not on the crime in general, but rather on Muslim immigrants raping native Swedish women, claiming that Sweden was experiencing a rape wave, which was directly caused by immigration (see in Moffitt 2017).…”