The Radical Right in Eastern Europe

Abstract

The radical right in Eastern Europe is similar to its Western European cousins in its emphasis on mobilization against minorities. Until recently, that mobilization was exclusively against minorities with electoral rights who have been settled in for centuries. The million plus influx of refugees in Europe from Syria expanded the portfolio of minorities to rally against and, paradoxically, westernized the Eastern European radical right in its opposition to Islam and migrants with non-European backgrounds. However, I argue that the radical right in Eastern Europe has three unique characteristics that distinguish it from its older Western European cousins: (1) left leaning positions on the economy, (2) linkages between identity and political opening, which leads to the association of minority policies with democratization and (3) the coexistence of radical right parties with radicalized mainstream parties.