Populist, Radical and Extremist Political Parties in Visegrad countries vis à vis the migration crisis. In the name of the people and the nation in Central Europe

• Published in: Open Political Science Vol. 1; no. 1; pp. 32 - 45
• Main Author: Stojarová, Věra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sciendo 01.07.2018
• Subjects: extremism; media; migration crisis; populism; radicalism; Visegrad countries
• ISSN: 2543-8042; 2543-8042
• DOI: 10.1515/openps-2018-0001

The paper looks at the political party scene in Visegrad countries before and after the influx of refugees and compares how much the negative reactions were instrumentalised not only by the extremist and radical right parties but by the newly emerged populist formations as well as the well-established mainstream parties across the whole political spectra. Until the “migration crisis”, the far right parties focused mainly on Roma issue, anti-Semitism, anti-communism, anti-establishment and used anti-NATO, anti-EU, anti-German, anti-Czech, anti-Slovak or anti-Hungarian card. Since 2015, the parties re-oriented against immigrants, more precisely against the Muslims presenting them as a threat and also increased their criticism on the EU. However, the mainstream parties also accepted far right topics and actively promoted them. The result is then mainstreaming of xenophobia, nationalism and marginalization of far right parties as their flexible voters move to the populist subjects.