Abstract
Abstract How is it that the European Parliament (EP), the only directly elected institution of the European Union (EU), has both empowered right-wing populist politicians in the UK and France, and helped challenge the right-wing populist governments of Hungary and Poland? Part of the response lies in institutional rules shaping the EP’s elections and its authority, which this article discusses critically. The paradoxical impact of the EP on European right-wing populism leads to another question: Should the EP privilege the rights of right-wing populist and anti-system actors; or, to the contrary, should it “protect democracy against democracy”? This article draws from political theorist Chantal Mouffe’s agonistic politics to assess comparatively the measures the EP majority has taken to limit the influence of right-wing populists within the chamber and beyond in EU member states. It critiques the exclusionary cordon sanitaire within, and conditionality and the “judicialization of conflicts” without, which the EP discusses passionately also.
Highlights
Right-wing populist parties have grown in strength in Europe in the last decade and govern in several European Union (EU) member states, including Poland, via free access GuisanHungary, and Slovenia
The paradoxical impact of the European Parliament (EP) on European right-wing populism leads to another question: Should the EP privilege the rights of right-wing populist and anti-system actors; or, to the contrary, should it “protect democracy against democracy”? This article draws from political theorist Chantal Mouffe’s agonistic politics to assess comparatively the measures the EP majority has taken to limit the influence of right-wing populists within the chamber and beyond in EU member states
The paradoxical impact of the EP on European right-wing populism leads to another question which cannot be answered by factual evidence alone and which calls for ethical and theoretical reasoning: Should a political institution such as the EP privilege democratic representation and protect the rights of radical right and anti-system parties; or, to the contrary, should it “protect democracy against democracy”?2 To address these questions, this article turns to academic studies of populism and the EP and to political theorist Chantal Mouffe’s agonistic politics.[3]
Summary
Right-wing populist parties have grown in strength in Europe in the last decade and govern in several European Union (EU) member states, including Poland,.
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