Round Up of 2021
With restrictions and disruption due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic still very much a fixture of everyday life 2021 has proven to be another difficult year. Despite the ongoing severity of the public health crisis, it has also been another successful year for the Populism in Action Project.
Late November saw the publication of “Right-Wing Populist Party Organisation Across Europe: The Survival of the Mass-Party?”, a comparative Special Issue of the (Open Access) journal Politics and Governance, co-edited by Prof. Daniele Albertazzi and Dr. Stijn van Kessel. The release of this volume which presents case studies of populist radical right party organisation drawn from countries across Europe, marks the first major publication from the Populism in Action Project.
Earlier in the year Prof. Albertazzi published two books, one co-edited, the other co-authored, with Dr. Davide Vampa: Populism and New Patterns of Political Competition in Western Europe (Routledge) and Populism in Europe: Lessons from Umberto Bossi’s Northern League (Manchester University Press).
All of the Project’s Research Fellows – who have been working on Populism in Action conducting primary research since 2019 – successfully secured new jobs. While the Project as a whole, continued to inform popular and specialist understanding of the populist radical right through dozens of media appearances, in outlets based in Europe and beyond, made by team members throughout the year.
Additionally the Project continued to publish incisive, shortform analysis of populist radical right politics across Europe via its own channels, drawing on the expertise of members of the Project team and guest contributors. We have selected a dozen of these contributions as reflections on what we have achieved in a difficult year. Please find them below:
Populism in Action 2021
Dr. Leonie de Jonge – “The Dutch Far Right in 2021: A View from the Ground”
Dr. Mariana S. Mendes – “The Portuguese Radical Right: A One-Man Show”
Dr. Marta Lorimer – “10 Years of Marine Le Pen – When gaining a lot may not be enough”
Dr. Judith Sijstermans – “Beyond Underrepresentation: Women’s Roles and Gender Politics in Flanders’ Populist Radical Right”
Dr. Adrian Favero – “How COVID Caused the Swiss Radical Right to Tie Itself in Knots”
Dr. Niko Hatakka – “The Finns Party: Free Rein or Reining In?”
Dr. Arthur Borriello – “Spanish Left populism is dead, long live Spanish left populism?”
Dr. Mattia Zulianello – “Italy’s League: A Modern Mass Party”
Donatella Bonansinga – “How do populists respond to growing insecurities?”
Dr. Niko Hatakka – “The Finns Party is yet to close the door on contention over Covid-19”
Dr. Anna-Sophie Heinze – “Here to stay? The Alternative for Germany partway between establishment and normalisation”
Dr. Bartek Pytlas – “Between electoral rhetoric and absolutist practice: the organisation of Poland’s Law and Justice party”