‘We Will Protect Our Countryside without a Green Deal’ : The Populist Radical Right and the Environment in Czechia and Slovakia

Abstract

The electoral success of the populist radical right parties (PRRPs) is currently increasing across Europe. These parties are also increasingly commenting on environmental issues. On the one hand, the PRRPs highlight the beauty of nature and strive to preserve the landscape’s traditional rural character. On the other hand, PRRRs deny global climate changes and criticise solutions to reverse these, such as the Green Deal. The study aims to explain Czech and Slovak PRRPs attitude towards environmentalism using the concepts of nationalism, globalism, and populism. The empirical analysis is based on analysing official political texts and statements by selected PRRPs in both countries. The results show that Czech and Slovak PRRPs use nature’s aesthetic, symbolic and material aspects to create an image of a traditional, rural country that the nation can be proud of, and which is crucial to protect. In contrast, the PRRPs are ambivalent on global environmental change, the efforts to mitigate it and environmentalists. Finally, the PRRPs use the environmental issue for populist strategic considerations, demonstrating authenticity and creating part of a chain of equivalence.