Populist radical right parties and EU policies : how coherent are their claims?

Abstract:

In recent national elections and in those to the European Parliament, populist radical right parties (PRRP) have gained many more votes than in previous decades. What could that mean, at least in the longer run, for EU activities in such areas as e.g. the Internal Market, social or environmental regulation, migration management, and defence? Beyond these parties’ general attitude of Euro-scepticism, we know close to nothing about their views regarding specific EU policies. Therefore, we have recently assembled and analysed a novel dataset of programmatic statements. In this paper, we discuss how (in-)coherent the policy-specific demands of different PRRPs within the European Union actually are. How much do they agree or disagree when it comes to reforming EU policies?