The Right-Wing Critique of Europe. Nationalist, Sovereignist and Right-Wing Populist Attitudes to the EU

Abstract:

This publication analyses the opposition to the European Union from a variety of right-wing organisations in Western, Central and Eastern Europe.

In recent years, opposition to the processes of globalisation and the programme of closer European integration, understood as a threat to the sovereignty of individual member states, has led to an intensification of Eurosceptic sentiments on the Old Continent. The results of the European parliamentary elections in 2014 and 2019, the Brexit referendum and electoral results in different European countries are all testament to the considerable growth of radical populist-nationalist and conservative-sovereignist movements and parties. The common idea that binds these groups, both in Western Europe and in Central and Eastern Europe, is a hostile attitude towards the idea of (an ever-more integrated) united Europe.

These parties reject not only the project of building a European federation, but also the current model of the European Union and the values underlying its attitudes. They are united by their criticism of EU policies, in particular those concerning security, emigration, multiculturalism, gender equality and the rights of minorities, as well as economic liberalism and the common currency. However, this criticism manifests itself with varying degrees of intensity, and not all parties fit the classic definition of Euroscepticism but instead represent its mild form, Eurorealism. The authors bring together reflections on the organic and complex critique of the European Union, its policies and cultural and ideological character. The book provides a comparative analysis of this criticism at the transnational level.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction | Joanna Sondel-Cedarmas & Francesco Berti
• Part I - Current nationalisms and the European integration process
  • Against Europe or against Germany? European integration and Germanophobia in France, Great Britain and Italy | Daniele Pasquinucci
  • Right-wing populism, Euroscepticism, and neo-traditionalism in Central and Eastern Europe | Zdzisław Mach
• Part II - Nationalist, sovereignist and national-populist parties in Europe
  • The nationalism of the New Right in the Federal Republic of Germany | Marek Maciejewski
  • Pro-European, anti-EU? The National Rally and European integration | Marta Lorimer
  • Giorgia Meloni's new Europe. Europe of sovereign nations in the Brothers of Italy party manifestos | Joanna Sondel-Cedarmas
  • The League of Salvini. From a Europe of regions to a Europe of nations | Gianluca Passarelli & Dario Tuorto
  • English nationalism and its role in building support for Brexit. The case of UKIP and the Brexit Party | Marcin Galent
  • Ally, opponent or means to an end? The role of the European Union in the Catalan independence process | Agnieszka Grzechynka
  • ‘Poland in Europe, Europe for Poland’. National populist narratives on the example of Kukiz'15 | Małgorzata Maria Fijał
  • Considerations on the role of Hungary and the Hungarian nation in the European Union after 1989 | Tadeusz Kopyś
  • Between the past and the future. Eurosceptic political parties and the EU integration of Serbia | Natasza Styczyńska & Haris Dajč
  • Main varieties of Russian nationalism in the post-Soviet period and their relationship to European heritage and contemporariness | Joachim Diec
• Part III - Right-wing populist attitudes towards the EU
  • United in diversity? The preferences of populist parties in the European Parliament | Giorgia Nesti & Paolo Graziano
  • (Momentarily) drifting into ideocracy in Central Europe. The case of Law and Justice and Fidesz | Grzegorz Pożarlik
  • A European legal war? Nationalist populism, the rule of law and the language of constitutionalism | Przemysław Tacik
  • Between patriotism and nationalism. National identity in the education policy of Law and Justice. Comments on the 2017 education reform | Elżbieta M. Mach
• Part IV - By way of a conclusion
  • Pope Francis on Europe | Ewa Kozerska

Further information:

This is an open access publication.

• Primary Source