far-right observer | The Rise of the Far Right

About Us

Hello there, Welcome to the far-right observer! We are glad that this blog caught your attention. This blog is managed by Boris, Emma, Isabel, Leire, and Luisa. We are second year students studying at Maastricht University. Coming from different national backgrounds, we aim at highlighting the rise of the far-right from different angles. The focus of our blog is to explain and understand the factors that have pushed EU citizens to support far-right parties. There is no general definition for the term “right-wing party”. When looking at Europe, we can see that in different countries, right-wing parties have different positions on topics...

far-right observer

Team Reflection

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash Approaching the end of this challenge, it is time for us to reflect on the past few weeks. We thoroughly enjoyed working together as our skill sets overlapped in a valuable way. We did encounter a few obstacles along the way which provided us with opportunities to grow and to be confronted with our shortcomings. Starting off, our first obstacle was trying to find a common ground for our blog posts. Rather than choosing the umbrella approach, we decided to use a chain reaction system, where the conclusion of one post would naturally lead...

far-right observer

Social media versus reality: How representative is this tool in assessing far-right opinions?

Photo by Nick Markus on Unsplash.com An exciting new medium? Social media has been an exciting development for politics. Facebook and Twitter in particular have let academics gather large samples of data to shed light on discussions between far-right supporters. But how representative is this data? These sites are mostly used as a platform by devoted and extreme far-right followers. This means that we do not get a complete picture of the rest of the more moderate supporters. To add to this problem, it seems that up to a third of far-right social media followers end up not following suit...

far-right observer

The populist personality: What character traits describe the far-right voter?

Photo by Nicholas Halland on unsplah.com In the last decade, there has been a vast increase of far-right parties across Europe. These parties were previously considered to be harmless and more of a background character. Whereas these parties nowadays have infiltrated coalition governments in many European countries. The driving force behind these parties is their voters, who helped to break through the glass ceiling. But what drives them? What drives these far-right voters to find solace in these far-right visions? The Big Five Personality Traits Explanations for party choice have typically centered on the voter's socio-demographic status, personal background, or...

far-right observer

Why Do European Women Vote For Far-right Parties?

Far-right protesters demanding to stop migration in order to keep women safe and keep their rights in Dresden, Germany. Photo from commons.wikimedia.org In the past decade in elections all over Europe, the proportion of far-right parties has increased enormously. Parties like the Alternative für Deutschland in Germany or the Rassemblement National in France whose values are strongly racist, xenophobic, and anti-feminist experienced unprecedented popularity. Some of these parties were founded only in the past decade and some others like the Front National have a long history in European politics. Something that has changed strikingly is that not only men are...

far-right observer

Favorable times for Rassemblement National

Photo by Delpixart on unsplash.com In a recent conversation with a French childhood friend, she confessed me that in the next 2022 election she was going to vote for the leader of Rassemblement National (RN), Marine Le Pen. I was shocked. It was one of the first times that somebody so close to me decided to vote for a far-right political party. Moreover, I could not understand how a woman could vote for such traditionalistic policies. When I got home, I could not stop thinking about what she told me, and I asked myself the reasons that led her to...

far-right observer

Estonia: Immune to far-right Parties?

Right-wing parties are on the rise in Europe. After assessing the situation in France, a Western European country, it is time to move to Eastern Europe. After the decline of the Soviet Union, right-wing parties were very successful in these newly independent countries. Located in the northeast of Europe, Estonia is a former Soviet republic. Surprisingly, right-wing parties were not very successful there until recently. In this blog post, I will explain when a success for right-wing parties is expected and apply it to the situation of Estonia. I will analyse the reasons for missing support of right-wing parties in...