The main goal of this paper is to examine the construction and linguistic portrayal of the climate change phenomenon in the right-wing populist parties' discourse. The literature has so far mainly assumed automatic relationship between right- wing ideology and climate-refusal and did not go beyond analysis of specific climate-skeptical parties. We aim to fill this gap in the literature by analyzing both climate-supportive and disengaged RWP parties, as well their communication strategies on the matter. In order to disentangle inconsistencies, paradoxes and contradictions in text and discourse-internal structures, as well as to demystify the possible persuasive or manipulative tendencies of RWP parties, this paper employs a Discourse- Historical Approach in order to examine how these actors transform, translate and modify the meaning and role of a climate change in their texts. Moreover, the focus of our paper is on the three strategies within DHA - nomination, predication and argumentation. The analysis included three RWP parties - Alternative for Germany; Hungarian Fidesz and French National Rally, We found that the three examined parties with different climate policy preferences tend to deploy markedly different manipulative or persuasive strategies, and utilize different rhetorical and...

In recent years a wave of right-wing populist parties has sweep in Europe. Two of these are Sweden’s Swedish Democrats and Norway’s Progress Party. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to research on how political parties are portrayed in mainstream media and how that may influence political party success in the elections. Content of two daily newspapers over two months before the last parliamentary elections in Sweden and Norway is examined within the study. The method used is a quantitative content analysis. The result was added to the agenda setting theory. From the result, an analysis was conducted to reveal how publication in newspapers can be expected to affect or not affect the selected parties’ successes in the elections. The result shows that the Progress Party receives more space in the daily press than the Swedish Democrats. Both parties are often mentioned in relation to other parties. In several articles, other parties want to show that there is a difference between their basic values, as opposed to the right-wing populist parties. Negative value words appear in the articles, especially in the case of the Swedish Democrats. There are both negative and neutral values in the case of the Progress Party. However, the articles often appear in a neutral way. The conclusion is that the daily press does not seem to have influence over the political parties’ successes in the elections in this case.

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Syftet med den här kvalitativa innehållsanalysen har varit att undersöka hur ett högerpopulistiskt nyhetsmedie kontra ett traditionellt nyhetsmedie gestaltar knivdådet på Ikea i Västerås samt skolattacken i Trollhättan som skedde med kort mellanrum hösten 2015. De båda dåden fick stor uppmärksamhet och den redan intensiva debatten om invandring blossade upp ytterligare. Detta på grund av att dådet i Västerås begicks av en asylsökande, och det i Trollhättan av en ung svensk man med högerextrema åsikter som valde sina offer utifrån deras etniska ursprung.Det teoretiska ramverket innehåller tidigare forskning om alternativmedier, populism och journalistik. Vi har valt att använda oss utav två betydande teorier inom medieforskningen. Först gestaltningsteorin, främst med Scheufele och Entmans forskning som utgångspunkter. Sedan diskurs, med forskning av Foucalt och Fairclough. Valet av metod till vår studie är kritisk diskursanalys. Detta för att metoden lämpar sig väl för att undersöka politiska budskap i texter och tyda gestaltningar och diskurser. Det studerade materialet består utav fyra stycken nyhetsartiklar, två för respektive nyhetshändelse. Två stycken artiklar från den högerpopulistiska nättidningen Fria Tider samt två stycken från den mer etablerade morgontidningen Dagens Nyheter. Dessa jämförde vi sedan med varandra i en komparativ studie. Diskurser i dessa nyhetsartiklar har brutits ut med hjälp av ett analysschema för att operationalisera vårfrågeställning. Resultaten visar på två helt skilda nyhetsdiskurser och olika sätt att gestalta händelserna. Fria Tider gestaltar händelser till förmån för sin invandringskritiska agenda medans Dagens Nyheter agerar som en slags motpol med en betydligt mer objektiv gestaltning av händelserna. Den här studien vill bidra till förståelsen för vårt polariserade medieklimat, samt den oberoende journalistikens viktiga roll i samhället i en tid av nedskärningar och mediekonvergens. Det behövs en öppnare samhällsdebatt om frågor gällande invandring och kriminalitet för att inte ytterligare öka polariseringen av medielandskapet. / The purpose with this essay is to study how a right-wing populist alternative news medium, versus a more mainstream news medium, reports on two different news events. First off is the stabbings at the furniture store Ikea in Västerås, second is the attack on students at a middle school in Trollhättan by a masked adolescent armed with a sword. Both of which took place in the fall of 2015 in Sweden. Both events gained much attention from the news media, and sparked the already intense political debate on immigration issues. This due to the facts that the perpetrator at Ikea in Västerås was a refugee seeking asylum in Sweden, and the masked assailent in Trollhättan showed interest in right-wing extremist content on the internet as well as targeting students and faculty of immigration background.The theoretical framework consists of earlier research on populism, alternative media as well ason traditional journalism. We chose to work mainly with two distinguished theories within media and communication studies. The first theory is framing, based mainly on research done by Scheufele and Entman. The second theory is discourse, as defined by Foucalt and Fairclough. The method used for the study is a critical discourse analysis. This method together with the twotheories have been proven useful when studying political discourses and framing in political news articles similar to the ones we picked for our essay. The material used for this study consists off our news articles of which two are linked to each news event or “case”. Two of the articles are published by Fria Tider, a right-wing populist alternative news medium, while the other two by Dagens Nyheter, a well established and more mainstream oriented morning news paper. Different frames and discourses have been revealed in the material after our analysis, based on our schematics in an attempt to operationalise.The results points towards two widely different news discourses and ways of framing the news content. Fria Tider portrait the events in favour of their agenda of critical views on immigration and immigrants, whereas Dagens Nyheter acts as a counterpart with far more objective framing of the events. This study seeks to build a better understanding of today’s polarised media landscape, as well as the importance of independent journalism and news media in a society where the mass media experience cutbacks and convergence. A more explicit and honest public debate regarding immigrational issues is needed, to avoid further polarisation of the media landscape.

This thesis analyzes the correlation between right-wing populist narratives on migration and voting patterns within the European Union. It is argued that recurrent thematic and rhetorical strategies embedded with right-wing populist features are prominent throughout politicians’ discourses. To allow a complex discussion, this thesis utilizes three poststructuralist concepts, including Michel Foucault’s discourse, power/knowledge approaches, and Jacques Derrida’s conception of deconstruction. To provide a comprehensive yet narrow insight into the topic, the theoretical framework is combined with the qualitative content analysis methodology, allowing a systemic analysis of Italy, Sweden, Hungary, and France between 2017-2024. Moreover, the data selection includes politicians’ narratives and secondary data from the latest national elections within the four member states. This provides a complex overview of how rhetorics frame migration as a national ‘threat’, include anti-elitist statements, and legitimize the willingness to reduce it. Therefore, the findings underline that narratives on migration are embedded with the power/knowledge nexus and the dichotomy of ‘us’ versus the ‘others’, producing a sentiment of fear that can be correlated to voting patterns. The recurrent use of discursive strategies and similar voting behavior demonstrates that the right-wing populist narrative phenomenon is a transnational practice.

In this study, I address the relationship between religion and politics in the Nordic countries, 1988–2012, against a background of increasing religious diversity alongside more or less continuous relationships between church and state. My aim is to analyse possible changes in the way religion is referred to by Nordic parliamentary parties, and in the way these parties use religion as a means to societal cohesion. I use theories on religious change and on the motives for using religion in politics to discuss a possible re-emergence of religion in politics, with the help of concepts such as functional differentiation, glocalisation and politicisation. I apply different forms of content analysis in a mixed-methods approach, using both substantial and functional definitions of religion. The thesis is based on four articles published or accepted for publication in peer-reviewed international journals: First, a study on religion in Nordic party platforms from around 1988, 1998 and 2008. Second, a study on religion in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish parliamentary debates, 1988/89, 1998/99 and 2008/09. Third, a study on the role of the majority churches in the final Nordic parliamentary debates on same-sex unions 1989–2012. Fourth, a study on Danish and Norwegian parliamentary debates on the wearing of veils among judges and policewomen in 2009. The major findings are that the references to religious diversity in party platforms and parliamentary debates have increased, which leads to a more complex understanding of the religious cleavage in politics, and that right-wing populist parties in particular politicise religion to achieve political influence. Furthermore, human rights have been increasingly used to address religious diversity as a political issue. I interpret these findings as continuous use of religion for societal cohesion in Nordic politics, through a model of different forms of politicisation using the concepts civil religion, human rights and nationalism. The thesis contributes to a better understanding of the religious cleavage, politicisation of religion, the impact of globalisation on the political debate about religion and changes as well as continuity regarding the use of religion in Nordic politics. / <p>Cover photography: Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt (chairman of The Moderate Party) debates with Member of Parliament Jimmie Åkesson (chairman of The Sweden Democrats) in the Swedish parliament Riksdagen on 19 January 2011. Photographer: Melker Dahlstrand/Riksdagsförvaltningen.</p> / NOREL / Impact of Religion

The master thesis "True Finns. Establishment of right-wing populism in Finland?" deals with political party True Finns (The Finns, PS), its historical development and current position in Finnish party system. The master thesis is devided into three chapters. The first chapter deals with populist radical right political parties (PRR), which have established themselves in a lot of Western Europe party systém (inluding Scandinavia). Finland represented a state which had been immune of PRR. The aim of the first chapter is to answer an question, which are the main reasons of PRR emergence, respectively which were the reasons which delayed the Finnish PRR. The second chapter is concerned with political party True Finns (The Finns, PS), its historical development and ideological profile. The chapter reffers to ideological and personal roots in Finnish Rural Party. A part of the chapter is ideological core used by Cas Mudde (nativism, authoritarianism, populism) which is supplemented by an economical programme. The final part deals with the parliamentary election 2012. The final chapter concerns with current PS position in Finnish party systém and with impact on finnish politics. The chapter is closed with positive and negative factors for the future development.

The term 'populist radical right parties' often occurs in media, among experts or as a frequently discussed topic. The topic related to a rise of such of political parties in Europe is parallelly linked to the context of growing number of immigrants. The aim of this work is to clarify reasons of the origin and long-term success of two populist radical right parties. The work analyzes and consequently compares the existence of the Swedish Democrats and the Norwegian Progress Party. Even though Sweden and Norway share several historical and cultural features, situation around selected political parties is apparently different. Norway's Progress Party succeeded in an election of 1973 already. Nowadays it can be listed among Norwegian strongest political parties. On the other hand, the populist radical right party, Swedish Democrats, entered the political scene in 2002 only. The starting point of the time research frame for this thesis is defined as the breakthrough of the Progress Party in 1973 with Anders Lange in lead. The core of the thesis is based on the concept of supply and demand according to which independent variables are categorized. The main purpose of the work is to determine the key factor, which leads to the success of selected political parties and analyze their development.