‘Us v. Them’: the Strategic Use of Religion in Far-right Parties

The Defenders of Europe’s Christianity

Photo by Anna Hecker on Unsplash In Western Europe, increasingly fewer people are attending Church. Secularisation has been shaping Europe’s identity since the Enlightenment, creating a barrier between politics and religion. Nevertheless, this barrier has not always been crystal clear, not even nowadays, as religion is a rather popular topic in everyday political news. Radical right parties’ components have been invoking Christianity in their discourses, while hoping to attract voters. This use of religion in politics has been puzzling academic scholars. There is an ongoing academic debate concerning the appropriate terminology to refer to the far-right. While not all academics...