European Conservatives Research Articles

Populist alone, but harmless together? Analysing inter- and transnational populism of EP parties ID and ECR on Facebook

Right-wing populist parties are highly successful in online communication and have made electoral gains in a wide range of European countries. In the European Parliament, until the recent European elections in 2024, the majority of them were distributed between the two party alliances and parliamentary groups Identity and Democracy (ID) and European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). To analyse their communicative strategies, we collected all Facebook posts of the party and parliamentary group accounts of ID and ECR ( N = 616) within one year (08/21–08/22). Subsequently, structural topic modelling (STM), sentiment analysis and manual content analysis were applied to determine their communication strategies. Overall, the results indicate that ECR and ID are communicating rather moderately online. However, while ECR differs significantly from its national member parties, ID seems to reproduce right-wing populist narratives. Overall, this paper argues for a stronger focus on European party alliances, not only national parties, when researching right-wing populist communication in the EU.

The European Conservatives and Reformists Group: Cooperation or Opposition in Europe’s Parliament?

ABSTRACT The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group has emerged as an important player in European Parliament (EP) decision-making. Drawing on about 1,300 EP plenary votes from July 2019 to June 2022, we demonstrate that the ECR group has played an active and often cooperative role in the politics of the EP, albeit not in the policy areas where its national conservative and soft Eurosceptic ideology comes to prominence, such as women’s rights or institutional affairs. We complement the quantitative analysis with an in-depth investigation of the group’s position on the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. Our investigation shows that the ECR group’s unified stance against migration has often failed to translate into cohesive legislative actions by its national party delegations, aligning instead with national interests as defined by these parties.

Fratelli d’Italia in the European Parliament: between radicalism and conservatism

ABSTRACT This article studies the behaviour of Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) in the European Parliament (EP). Analysing a large sample of roll-call votes in the ninth EP (2019–2022), together with a selected sample of highly significant votes on COVID-19 and post-pandemic recovery, it shows that FdI has the strongest voting agreement with its allies in the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group and votes more often with the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) than with the more extreme Identity and Democracy (ID) group. FdI is often part of the winning coalition, shaping legislation or seeking to influence the policy agenda of the EU. On COVID-19 and post-pandemic votes, FdI often took a moderate approach on key issues, and did so even when it was the only party in opposition to the Draghi executive in Rome. At the same time, FdI has not renounced its ideological battles on specific policies, such as those having to do with socio-cultural issues and, to some extent, EU institutional issues. Yet, notwithstanding the evidence of more moderate and cooperative behaviour at the EU level, FdI may find it challenging to fully recast itself as a conservative, rather than a radical-right party, at the national level.

Commissioned Book Review: Martin Steven, The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR): Politics, Parties and Policies

Commissioned Book Review: Martin Steven, <i>The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR): Politics, Parties and Policies</i>

Missionary Cosmopolitanism in Nineteenth-Century British Literature

Missionary Cosmopolitanism in Nineteenth-Century British Literature

Book Review: The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR): Politics, Parties and Policies

Book Review: The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR): Politics, Parties and Policies

What’s in a name? Gender equality and the European Conservatives and Reformists’ group in the European Parliament

Far-right and populist right-wing political parties have garnered significant scholarly attention in recent years. They have acquired importance also in European political institutions such as the European Parliament (EP). We explore this issue by focusing on the European Conservatives and Reformists’ (ECR) group in the EP. We analyse its current and former main national party delegations – the British Conservative Party, the Polish Law and Justice Party, and the Brothers of Italy – and unpack the ideological underpinnings of ‘conservative’ positions of the ECR group. How is ‘conservatism’ constructed in the EP? What role does gender play in these constructions? Significantly, we locate gender equality as a key area, crucial to the identity of what it means to be a conservative party in Europe today. We combine the analysis of ECR political programs with interview and ethnographic data. The article contributes to both the study of European Union (EU) politics and to research on national conservative parties.

ON THE INNTERACTION OF EURO PARTIES WITH PARTIES FROM THE EASTERN PARTNERSHIP COUNTRIES. PART 4

The article analyzes the cooperation of one of the leading pan–European political organizations – the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR) – with its partners in the countries participating in the Eastern Partnership program (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova). Since 2014, European conservatives and reformists have sought to establish partnerships with the conservative parties of these countries and even accepted them into their ranks as full members. The profiles of these organizations and their leaders, the results of participation in national parliamentary, presidential and local elections, interaction with other political forces of their countries on the formation of electoral and ruling coalitions were studied. The main provisions of their program documents, which reflect the pro-European choice, as well as press releases and statements by the leaders of the AECR concerning the situation in the countries participating in the Eastern Partnership, are given. It is shown that the AECR actively supported this program and its partners, regardless of their electoral results. It was noted that in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Moldova, local AECR member parties initially achieved good results in elections, including in national parliaments, but in recent years some of them have found themselves on the political periphery. The reasons for this phenomenon vary from country to country. Nevertheless, European conservatives and reformists are confident that as the situation stabilizes, the issues of strengthening sovereignty and preserving traditional values will return to the political agenda and become in demand again.

Conservatism and ‘Eurorealism’ in the European Parliament: the European Conservatives and Reformists under the leadership of Poland’s Law and Justice

ABSTRACT After the 2019 European Parliament (EP) election, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) party grouping experienced a major change in its representation and leadership, with the wholescale departure of its core British Conservative MEPs. Yet the ECR remained an important and coherent transnational party federation in Strasbourg, acting as a strong voice for conservatism in Europe as distinct from Christian Democracy and the radical right. With large numbers of MEPs from Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party within the grouping, there was also much continuity with policies that were opposed to ‘ever closer union’, in favour of business and the single market and also of the wider role of the USA and NATO in international relations. Often written off as merely a ‘Eurosceptic’ faction, the start of the 2019–2024 EP session saw the grouping consolidate its influence and profile in EU affairs as a distinctive right-of-centre party in the Hemicycle.

Androcentrismo y conservadurismo en el obstruccionismo climático. El caso del think tank CLINTEL en los Países Bajos

Within the climate countermovement, neoliberal think tanks have played a predominant role in both the United States and Europe. There are links between climate obstructionism and ideologies such as conservatism and the extreme right; androcentrism, patriarchal worldviews and industrial masculinities, and whiteness and xenosceptic ideologies. This research takes as a case study the Dutch think tank CLINTEL, which, despite having been founded in 2019, has managed to get a declaration against the climate emergency to members of the European Parliament, which has been signed by climate action contrarians from all over the world. This paper analyses the contrarian framings present in this declaration based on the typology established by Almiron et al. (2020). In addition, this research makes a gendered discursive analysis of the discussion about this statement in a forum of the European Parliament, where CLINTEL met with members of the far-right Dutch party Forum van Democratie (FvD), part of the European Conservatives and Reformists group. The study on CLINTEL's statement shows that the think tank uses similar frames as other European denialist think tanks. Its climate declaration has a significant gender bias, with an overwhelming over-representation of men among the signatories. This, together with the discursive analysis of its discussion with members of the European Parliament, is a contribution to the emerging line of research on industrial masculinities and climate change obstructionism. This paper provides information on the think tank CLINTEL, helping to fill a knowledge gap on the climate change countermovement in the Netherlands.

European political parties’ complicity in democratic backsliding

AbstractThis article discusses the contribution of European political parties to democratic backsliding. It focuses on the European People’s Party’s efforts to protect the Hungarian government, and the European Conservatives and Reformists party’s permissive acceptance of the Polish government’s attacks on democracy and the rule of law, analysing these patterns of behaviour as a form of complicity in democratic backsliding. In a second step, the article examines the existing possibilities and normative justification for sanctioning European political parties that make a complicit contribution to democratic backsliding.

THE RESULTS OF EUROPEAN ELECTIONS 2019: NEW ALIGNMENT OF FORCES IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND EUROPEAN COMMISSION, INCLUDING GENDER ASPECT

The article presents an analysis of the results of the 2019 elections of members of the European Parliament and the formation of a new composition of the European Commission. The question of how the balance of power has changed in the new Parliament between the traditionally leading parties of the European conservatives (European people's party) and socialists (Party of European socialists), on the one hand, and the other parties (Liberals, Greens, Communists, etc.), which traditionally play a secondary role, on the other. The results of the so-called eurosceptic parties, which in recent years have significantly increased their influence both at the European and national levels, are analyzed. It shows how the election results affected the distribution of leadership positions in the European Parliament itself, as well as their impact on the formation of the new composition of the European Commission. The article examines how the mechanism of interaction between the European Parliament and the European Council has changed during the formation of the European Commission and what impact these changes have on the prospects for future interaction between these institutions. In conclusion, the prospects for further development of the European Union are outlined, including the need to reform its political and socio-economic systems.

The Party of European Conservatives and Reformists Continues to Fight with the European People's Party for Conservatives Voters in Europe

The Party of European Conservatives and Reformists Continues to Fight with the European People's Party for Conservatives Voters in Europe

Mainstream Fringes or Fringe Mainstream? An Assessment of Radical Right (Re)Alignments in the European Parliament after the 2014 and 2019 Elections

The 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections witnessed an unprecedented wave of radical right parties (RRPs) not only enter the EP, but even outperform the centre-right and centre-left parties in several Member States (MSs). With few exceptions, the 2019 EP elections reconfirmed this state of affairs, although this time around Liberal and Green parties also made inroads into the EP. Despite these results, the performance of the RRPs tends to be taken with a grain of salt since EP elections are generally considered Second Order Elections (SOEs). Yet the electoral consolidation witnessed by these parties in various Member States indicates that their performance is more than a fluke and that therefore it should not be treated as an outlier that is going to be course-corrected by the next election cycle. The 2019 EP election showed that this was not the case. In this regard, this paper examines the notion of radical right mainstreaming by tracking how, at the EU level, RRPs vacillate between pursuing forms of respectable cohabitation in EP groups such as the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) or, as was the case in 2019, they are embracing policy congruent schemes (see the Identity and Democracy Group).

Współpraca eurodeputowanych w ramach grupy politycznej Europejskich Konserwatystów i Reformatorów

The aim of the article is to investigate a cooperation between the Members of the European Parliament in the European Conservatives and Reformist Group. ECR Group was formed in the European Parliament in 2009 and the biggest parties in ECR are the British Conservative Party and Polish Law and Justice. United Kingdom will leave the European Union and the question is whether the ECR group is enough institutionalised to survive after Brexit? The Author of the article uses the analysis of the scholar literature, reports and ECR’s political programs, and tries to find answers to the following research questions: how did the conservative parties cooperate within the ECR? What is the internal structure of the ECR group? What positions were held by ECR in the European Parliament?

Politicization of the refugee crisis?: a content analysis of parliamentary debates in Italy, the UK, and the EU

This paper draws on the literature on party competition and issue ownership to assess whether political membership on the right-left dimension explains party stances on migration. While some scholars argue that on this issue a clear distinction between left and right exists, some more recent quantitative and fine-grained analyses show a more nuanced picture. According to them, a clear difference in narratives exists only when the salience of the issue is high, under pressure of the electoral success of a far-right party or about specific policy issues. This paper further investigates this aspect in the context of the 2015 refugee crisis. It looks at the positions held by the main centre-left, centre-right, Radical Right, and Populist Parties in the Italian, British, and European Parliaments. The content analysis shows that centre-left parties frame the refugee crisis mainly as a humanitarian emergency and held pro-European Union (EU) positions, while centre-right parties differ substantially between Italy and the United Kingdom. Both radical right and Populist Parties exploit the political-opportunity offered by the refugee crisis to foster their anti-establishment claims. Moreover, Radical Right Populist Parties stress the need to secure external borders and restore national sovereignty, against further integration. At the EU level, left- and right-wing groups (Socialist and Democrats Party, European Conservatives and Reformists Party, and European People’s Party) are cohesive, while the populist group (European Freedom and Direct Democracy Party) is not. This paper adds on the academic debate on the refugee crisis, showing how the immigration issue can impact on domestic and European party politics, challenging party identities and alliances.

Respectable radicals: why some radical right parties in the European Parliament forsake policy congruence

ABSTRACT Policy congruence has been identified as the main driver of European Parliament (EP) alliances. Yet, radical right parties are divided between three EP groups: European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR); Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD); Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF). This article investigates why four radical right parties in the ECR and EFDD – the Danish People’s Party, the Finns Party, the Sweden Democrats and UKIP – neither joined the apparently more ideologically homogenous ENF nor allied all with one another in 2014. Using Chapel Hill data, we find no policy logic explaining their alliance behaviour. Rather, our interviews with those in the parties indicate that they privileged national ‘respectability’ calculations when deciding alliance strategies. We therefore propose an alternative theory of EP group formation that sees some radical parties play a two-level game in which the perceived domestic ‘office’ and ‘votes’ benefits of European alliances outweigh those of ‘policy’.

Safeguarding a «Civilization in Crisis»: La Revue Universelle's Conceptualization of Western Civilization and its Renewal,1920–1935

Safeguarding a &lt;Civilization in Crisis&gt;: La Revue Universelle's Conceptualization of Western Civilization and its Renewal, 1920-1935 This article contributes to a comparative study of the «Conservative Revolution» in Europe by exploring the French journal Revue Universelle in the 1920s and the early 1930s. Led by Henri Massis, Jacques Bainville and Jacques Maritain, the intellectuals contributing to the journal developed a unique cultural politics that evoked the decadence and decline of Western civilization under the forces of modernity, and called for the defence and renewal of this civilization through revitalised conservative values of Catholicism, authoritative leadership, elitism, and a return to the spiritual sources of Western culture. However, while the Revue Universelle team intentionally cultivated a pan-European scope for their journal and promoted its cultural politics as a common language for all European conservatives, their aim was compromised by their francocentric and germanophobic conceptualisation of the West and civilization.

‘Euro-Realism’ in the 2014 European Parliament Elections: The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the Democratic Deficit

The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) emerged as the third largest ‘Euro-party’ after the 2014 European elections, and are now well-positioned to perform a central role alongside the European People’s Party and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the eighth session of the European Parliament (EP). Despite this, relatively little is known about the views that ECR politicians represent, especially their core party ideology of ‘Euro-realism’. In this article, it is argued that the development of ECR since 2009 is ultimately rooted in a central desire by its member party politicians to reform the European Union by addressing its ‘democratic deficit’ without destroying the wider integration project altogether. More widely, ECR is the most visible vehicle for ‘soft’ Euro-scepticism in the EP, promoting ‘governance before policy’.

A Critical Assessment of a Eurosceptic Party Group on European Integration: A Case Study of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group

Abstract The article explores Euroscepticism and the way it is utilized within the politics of Europe, analyzed upon evidence from a Eurosceptic Euro-party located in the European Parliament, namely the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR). The aim of this article is to clarify that the selected party&amp;gt; disproves the argument of EU- criticism being an unfavourable condition, and, more importantly, its contribution to the political contestation in the EU. For such an assessment, a survey of the party&amp;gt; manifesto, party working documents, as well as the discourses of the Member of the European Parliament (MEPs) will be analyzed, and the concept of Euroscepticism will be once again in the centre of this analysis. This argument is evaluated based on the transnational-level analysis of the aforementioned party, focusing primarily on three specific issues-the democratic deficit, the issue of sovereignty! and anti-immigration rhetoric.