Islamophobia and New Populism in Contemporary Western Europe: France and the Netherlands Bc. Martina Kočařová The Master thesis Islamophobia and New Populism in Contemporary Western Europe: France and the Netherlands explores current transformations of populism in contemporary Western Europe. The main objectives of the thesis are following: First, to verify a hypothesis implying that islamophobia has become a new feature of the contemporary populism, which has been consequently changing in terms of its content. Thus, it can hardly be classified as another form of the 'far right' politics. In this context, one may observe its shift towards the centre of the political party system. Second, based on the above outlined assumption, we aim to study whether the populist parties can be considered 'populist' in spite of the new features they have recently adopted. The theoretical framework of our research refers to Paul Taggart's conceptualisation of populism applying it on the cases of the French National Front under the lead of Marine Le Pen and the Dutch Party for Freedom and his leader Geert Wilders.

Ahead of the 2023 Greek legislative election and given the emerging political landscape, this paper focuses on how the immigration policy shift of the center-right government emerged from 2019 elections has affected the state of liberal democracy in the country. For that purpose, a case study was employed, based on data extracted from immigration policy reports and governing party’s manifestos. This thesis is relying on theories on the relationship between populism, immigration, and liberal democracies. Applying a theory-confirming case study through a qualitative content analysis facilitates researcher to explore how the immigration policy shift and anti-immigrant populism in Greece challenge the political system’s commitment to liberal democracy since 2019. Examining the case of how populist tendencies crept into immigration politics in Greece, the study tries to contribute to the discussion on how populism influences liberal democracies. The normative assessment of this case in a deductive way contributes to the investigation in a given theoretical framework. The thematic analysis suggests that certain aspects of liberal democracy can be challenged by the populist immigration policy shift in Greece.

[pt] Esta dissertação traz como tema a crise da democracia brasileira atual e como objetivo compreender a sua natureza. Através de uma abordagem interdisciplinar que une a Teoria Política e a Ciência Política ao Direito Constitucional, concedendo uma relevância central aos estudos teóricos da politóloga italiana Nadia Urbinati sobre modos de governabilidade desfiguradores da democracia representativa, quais sejam, a antipolítica, o populismo e o plebiscitarismo, a pesquisa bibliográfica busca, através de uma metodologia hipotético-dedutiva, interpretar e compreender a fase atual da terceira república brasileira, sob a ordem da Constituição de 1988, iniciada após as eleições gerais disruptivas de 2018. Neste sentido, sugiro, com base em estudos recentes, que após um breve período iniciado em 2019 com a marca de um governo-movimento caracterizado não apenas pelas três desfigurações democráticas concebidas por Urbinati, mas também por ensaios de ruptura institucional, o Governo eleito em 2018 termina por se render aos mecanismos próprios de um governo de coalizão. Ao fim, concluímos que as desfigurações democráticas (a antipolítica, o populismo e o plebiscitarismo), ou as ameaças de ruptura institucional autoritária, têm sido contidas pelas pressões do Congresso Nacional, com todos os seus custos lícitos e potencialmente ilícitos, pelo exercício da liberdade de imprensa, por pressões da opinião pública, bem como pelo contrapeso exercido pelo Poder Judiciário, dentro do seu papel no jogo de separação dos poderes, mas não impediram a criação de um ambiente de degradação constitucional (constitutional rot), conforme conceituação de Jack Balkin exposta na dissertação. / [en] This dissertation has as its theme the crisis of current Braziliam democracy and aims to understand its nature. Through an interdisciplinary approach that unites Political Theory and Political Science to Constitutional Law, giving a central relevance to the theoretical studies of the Italian political scientist Nadia Urbinati on modes of governability that disfigure representative democracy, namely, anti-politics, populism and plebiscitary. , the bibliographic research seeks, through a hypothetical-deductive methodology, to interpret and understand the current phase of the third Brazilian republic, under the order of the 1988 Constitution, which began after the disruptive general elections of 2018. In this sense, I suggest, based on recent studies, that after a brief period that started in 2019 with the mark of a government movement characterized not only by the three democratic disfigurements conceived by Urbinati but also by tests of institutional rupture, the elected government in 2018 ends up surrendering to the mechanisms of a coalition government. In the end, we conclude that democratic disfigurements (anti-political, populist, and plebiscitary), or threats of authoritarian institutional rupture, have been contained by the pressures of the National Congress, with all its licit and potentially illicit costs, for the exercise of freedom press, by pressure from public opinion, as well as by the balance exercised by the Judiciary, in its role in the game of separation of powers, but they did not prevent the creation of an environment of constitutional degradation (constitutional rot), according to Jack Balkin s conceptualization exposed in the dissertation.

Over the last few years, there has been a rise in alternative media in Sweden as well as in otherEuropean countries. Although alternative media has proven to have more impact on attitudesthan traditional media, the field has been given limited attention. Left-wing media, in particular,has been given little thought by scholars and comparative discourse studies of alternative mediaacross the left-right spectrum has up till now not been achieved. . In this study, alternative mediais explored with a migration approach to understand how Muslims are discursively depicted inalternative right-wing and left-wing media. Through a media-political populism approach, thisstudy indicates that right-wing alternative media depict Muslims as ‘the elite’, whereasalternative left-wing media depict Muslims as ‘the people. Furthermore, the analysis finds thatalternative media make use of populist strategies to further their political stance. Finally, findingssuggests that further research expand on the definition of alterative media

Depuis l’essor d’Internet, et particulièrement des réseaux sociaux, les espaces en ligne sont devenus des canaux de communication privilégiés pour diffuser un discours s’opposant au « genre », à la « propagande LGBT », et plus récemment au « wokisme ». Dans ce mémoire, je m’inspire des pistes méthodologiques ouvertes par la littérature francophone sur les campagnes anti-genre numériques, pour proposer une actualisation des connaissances sur ces discours, à partir d’un corpus de tweets original collecté entre novembre 2022 et février 2023. En suivant une méthodologie mixte, combinant analyse quantitative et qualitative, je décris un corpus de 345 413 tweets à l’aide d’outils issus de la lexicométrie, pour mener une analyse critique de 70 micro-discours sélectionnés dans ce corpus. En croisant l’approche historique du discours (DHA) aux études critiques des discours issus des réseaux sociaux (SM-CDS), j’expose les vecteurs de diffusion des discours anti-genre, anti-lgbt et anti-wokisme, les thèmes qui les composent et les stratégies discursives qui les construisent, ainsi que les stratégies collectives à l’œuvre derrière la diffusion de ces types de discours. En me concentrant sur la « protection des enfants » comme thématique centrale, je montre un déplacement des discours anti-genre et anti-lgbt vers un rejet affirmé de la transidentité, et l’intégration de ces discours dans un discours contre le « wokisme » - soulignant, ce faisant, l’intérêt de privilégier une approche émique pour étudier ces campagnes. Je montre ensuite que le discours anti-wokisme passe par l’articulation d’un discours populiste – nationaliste, qui permet de formuler un appel à la protection de l’identité française contre les menaces supposées de l’Islam et du « wokisme ». Finalement, j’expose la circulation internationale des discours analysés, suggérant l’intégration de ce phénomène dans l’« ordre de désinformation », et dans une montée globale des discours populistes de droite radicale. / Since the rise of the Internet, and particularly social medias, online spaces have become privileged communication channels to express a discourse opposing "gender", "LGBT propaganda", and more recently "wokism". In this thesis, I draw on methodological approaches opened up by the francophone literature on digital anti-gender campaigns, to propose an update of knowledge on these discourses, based on an original corpus of tweets collected between november 2022 and february 2023. Following a mixed methodology, combining quantitative and qualitative analysis, I describe a corpus of 345 413 tweets using tools derived from lexicometrics, to conduct a critical analysis of 70 micro-discourses selected from this corpus. Crossing the discourse historical approach (DHA) with social media critical discourse studies (SM-CDS), I expose the vectors of diffusion of anti-gender, anti-lgbt and anti-wokism discourses, the themes that compose them and the discursive strategies that construct them, as well as the collective strategies at work behind the diffusion of these types of discourses. Focusing on "child protection" as a central theme, I show a shift in anti-gender and anti-lgbt discourses towards an assertive rejection of trans-identity, and the integration of these discourses into a discourse against "wokism" – underlining the value of privileging an emic approach in the study of "unpleasant movements". I then show that the anti-wokism discourse enables the articulation of a populist-nationalist discourse, which allows to formulate a call to protect the French identity against the supposed threats of Islam and "wokism". Finally, I outline the international circulation of the analyzed discourses, suggesting the integration of this phenomenon into the "disinformation order", and into a global rise of radical right-wing populist discourses.

The purpose of this thesis aimed at trying to find out why the Sweden Democrats have increased their support, to become the second largest party in the Swedish parliament, while, the Danish People’s Party, has lost the majority of their support after being the second largest party in the Danish parliament to almost falling out a few years later. Is it possible for the Sweden Democrats to share the same fate? To find this out, we’ve decided to conduct this study using a qualitative comparative method, with a Most Similar System Design. The analysis mainly consists of two concepts to explain this phenomenon which are “Cordon Sanitaire” and “Normalization”.  The results of the analysis show that in Denmark, the Danish People’s Party’s views and policies on migration, have gotten normalized across the political spectrum. As such, they can no longer argue that they are anti-establishment, but instead, they have become a part of the establishment themselves. In Sweden, the Sweden Democrats have been kept out of power, with a “cordon sanitaire”, and thus their view and policies have not gotten normalized and adopted by other parties, and therefore they have continued to grow. An interesting aspect of this is that recently, the Sweden Democrats have gotten normalized and they are now a support party for a right-wing government, which we argue might lead to a similar situation as in Denmark, meaning that the Sweden Democrats might lose support in the future.

Le 14 février 2022, le gouvernement fédéral du Canada déclenchait l’état d’urgence pour mettre fin aux manifestations du Convoi de la liberté qui se déroulaient principalement à Ottawa. Venus protester initialement contre les mesures sanitaires instaurées pour endiguer la pandémie de COVID-19, les manifestants ont occupé la ville avec leurs camions et autres véhicules pendant plus de deux semaines. Les revendications se sont rapidement étendues à des griefs plus larges contre le gouvernement, et le mouvement a été marqué dans l’opinion publique par des débordements physiques, matériels, mais aussi idéologiques. Après deux ans de restrictions imposées par l’urgence sanitaire, le Convoi de la liberté a constitué le point culminant de la mouvance d’opposition aux mesures sanitaires, et a connu un succès relativement inattendu alors que la majorité des Canadiens suivaient les règles de santé publique. Il est dès lors pertinent de comprendre comment ce mouvement est parvenu à prendre une telle ampleur, et de mettre en évidence les phénomènes sous-jacents à la colère des manifestants. Afin d’obtenir des éléments de réponse, les témoignages et autres documentations fournis par la Commission sur l’état d’urgence ont été analysés dans le cadre de cette étude exploratoire. Trois facteurs se sont montrés déterminants lors de cette analyse pour expliquer l’ampleur prise par le Convoi de la liberté, chacun exerçant une certaine influence sur les autres dans une dynamique de co-construction : l’efficacité de la mobilisation par la colère en temps de crise sanitaire, les défaillances de la réponse policière, et le rôle des médias sociaux qui ont transformé à la fois les codes des mouvements sociaux et l’environnement informationnel. L’étude de ces trois axes permet de révéler les problématiques plus profondes au Canada et dans la société occidentale de façon générale, témoignant d’une réelle crise de la démocratie et d’une polarisation sociale et politique croissante. / On February 14, 2022, Canada's federal government declared a state of emergency to put an end to the Freedom Convoy demonstrations, which took place mainly in Ottawa. Initially protesting the health measures introduced to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the demonstrators occupied the city with their trucks and other vehicles for over two weeks. Demands soon extended to broader grievances against the government, and the movement was marked in public opinion by physical, material, and ideological outbursts. After two years of restrictions imposed by the health emergency, the Freedom Convoy was the culmination of the opposition to health measures, and a relatively unexpected success at a time when most Canadians were following public health rules. It is therefore pertinent to understand how this movement managed to gain such momentum, and to highlight the phenomena underlying the protesters' anger. To obtain some answers, the testimonies and other documentation provided by the Public order emergency commission were analyzed as part of this exploratory study. Three factors proved decisive in this analysis to explain the scale taken by the Freedom Convoy, each exerting a certain influence on the others in a dynamic of co-construction: the effectiveness of mobilization through anger in times of health crisis, the failings of the police response, and the role of social media in transforming both the codes of social movements and the informational environment. The study of these three axes reveals deeper issues in Canada and Western society in general, reflecting a real crisis of democracy and growing social and political polarization.

No description available.

The European refugee crisis sparked many debates within the European Union member states, as European countries had different ideas about handling the situation. As a result to the long negotiations without decisions, the crisis escalated, resulting in anti-immigrant, populist parties to emerge with big support among European citizens.The Hungarian government was among the first countries in the European Union to capitalise upon the refugee crisis by politicising the question of immigration, therefore, several anti-immigration campaigns were initiated in Hungary during 2015 and 2016.By analysing and comparing two campaign materials (one from 2015 and one from 2016) via the three-dimensional critical discourse analysis model of Fairclough, the thesis sought to identify the milestones and the rhetoric shifts of the communication of the Hungarian government that changed the public discourse in Hungary, as well as to point out similarities with populist practices in the anti-immigrant campaigns. The empirical analysis was carried out in the theoretical framework of discourse and power, populism, post-factuality, and agenda setting and framing.The text argued for a rhetorical shift between 2015 and 2016, in which the target of the governmental communication changed from refugees towards the European Union and its immigration policy. The thesis found evidence for the usage of populist practices that vastly affected the way Hungarians approach the question of immigration.It is hoped that this thesis could highlight the imbalance in the power relations of the public discourse in Hungary, and the findings could contribute to further analyses of populist campaigns in the period of the European refugee crisis.

This essay intends to discover how a qualitative discourse of right-wing populismcan be seen within the Swedish parliament, by exploring how politicians in theparliament are using the "us against them" and if a scapegoat is created by doing so.The essay's key questions are going to examine the differences and similaritiesbetween the Social democratic government from 2020-2022 and the current centerright government compared to the opposition parties, between social democrats andcenter-right government on right-wing populist discourse, and what the media isnotifying about the political debate within the government. By doing so, we can find out important explanatory factors on why the shift inpolitics in Sweden has gone to more right-wing populist rhetoric, to understand whythis has been occurring in the Swedish government. By looking at the factors of whya rise of right-wing populism has occurred within different types of governmentparties and the type of similarities and differences they have on different parties’discourse about the framing of anti-immigration rhetoric.