Territorial Polarisation after Radical Parties’ Breakthrough in Spain

Abstract

Radical parties are on the rise in Europe. However, there is scant evidence on whether their breakthroughs affect voters’ political attitudes, particularly with regard to non-economic dimensions of electoral competition. We address these gaps using a combination of panel surveys developed during recent general election cycles (2011, 2015 and 2019) in Spain. We show that the breakthrough of Podemos and Vox in 2015 and 2019 respectively contributed to the ideological polarisation of voters’ positions on the highly salient territorial dimension in this country, a phenomenon that we do not observe in 2011. However, affective territorial polarisation was not achieved.