3 Position shifts

Abstract

Under the assumption that when having coalition and/or blackmail potential radical right parties can influence not only the strategic response, but also the positions of their mainstream competitors, the chapter examines the development of party positions in the seven countries between 2000 and 2016. Building on the Chapel House Expert Survey and the authors’ own survey, the development of parties’ positions is studied first along the GAL-TAN scale to reflect on any potential shifts toward the “Traditional-Authoritarian-Nationalist” end of the spectrum. Subsequently, shifts in party positions regarding ethnic and national minorities are also studied. Finally, the chapter discusses party positions on the radical right’s new scapegoats, refugees, and asylum-seekers, which has been uniquely collected by the authors’ survey for the first time and which overall shows that in the aftermath of the 2015 peak of the refugee and migration crisis, radical right parties and most of their mainstream competitors adopted just as and at times even more restrictive positions regarding these groups as they previously did regarding ethnic and national minorities. Based on the empirical observations, the chapter argues that where mainstream parties’ positions either along the GAL-TAN scale or on policy issues shifted in a restrictive direction in response to the radical right’s blackmail potential or following mainstream parties’ positive engagement with the radical right, the shifts tend to last – even if the radical right eventually falls out of parliament.