Retrogradism in context. Varieties of right-wing populist climate politics

European Union (EU) climate politics have polarised over the past decade. Poland especially stands out as the EU member state that has most vehemently opposed numerous decisions to increase the EU’s level of ambition, stirring some turbulence in EU climate politics. Yet, with the publication of the European Green Deal (EGD) in 2019, the European Commission has likewise created turbulence in the Polish parliament’s climate debate. This article analyses those debates and identifies three distinct policy narratives: Poland is in a unique situation, Poland pursues an alternative pathway, and climate policy endangers competitiveness. The alternative pathway narrative, which advocates for the continued use of coal while capturing emissions, faded at roughly the same time when the EGD was proposed at the EU level. Simultaneously, the unique situation narrative, which calls for recognition of Poland’s uniqueness in combination with increased (financial) support, became stronger. The analysis confirms the dominance of the governing party’s narratives, but contrary to previous studies, detects nascent polarisation on climate policy between the right-wing political parties, on the one hand, and the centre-right and centre-left parties, on the other.

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The Neo-Malthusian Reflex in Climate Politics: Technocratic, Right Wing and Feminist References

Australian Feminist Studies ◽

10.1080/08164649.2021.1995847 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-18

Author(s):

Susanne Schultz

Keyword(s):

Right Wing ◽

Climate Politics

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Polarization of Climate Politics Results from Partisan Sorting: Evidence from Finnish Twittersphere

10.31235/osf.io/49qgu ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ted Hsuan Yun Chen ◽

Ali Salloum ◽

Antti Gronow ◽

Tuomas Ylä-Anttila ◽

Mikko Kivelä

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Temporal Trends ◽

Political Polarization ◽

European Politics ◽

Right Wing ◽

Social Media Data ◽

Climate Politics ◽

Right Wing Populism ◽

Immigration Issue ◽

Media Data

Prior research shows that public opinion on climate politics sorts along partisan lines. However, they leave open the question of whether climate politics and other politically salient issues exhibit tendencies for issue alignment, which the political polarization literature identifies as among the most deleterious aspects of polarization. Using a network approach and social media data from the Twitter platform, we study polarization of public opinion toward climate politics and ten other politically salient topics during the 2019 Finnish elections as the emergence of opposing groups in a public forum. We find that while climate politics is not particularly polarized compared to the other topics, it is subject to partisan sorting and issue alignment within the universalist-communitarian dimension of European politics that arose following the growth of right-wing populism. Notably, climate politics is consistently aligned with the immigration issue, and temporal trends indicate that this phenomenon will likely persist.

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Stepping in the Shoes of Leaders of Populist Right-Wing Parties

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000289 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 48 (1) ◽

pp. 40-46 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Jolanda Jetten ◽

Rachel Ryan ◽

Frank Mols

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Growth Condition ◽

Baseline Condition ◽

Right Wing ◽

Economic Context

Abstract. What narrative is deemed most compelling to justify anti-immigrant sentiments when a country’s economy is not a cause for concern? We predicted that flourishing economies constrain the viability of realistic threat arguments. We found support for this prediction in an experiment in which participants were asked to take on the role of speechwriter for a leader with an anti-immigrant message (N = 75). As predicted, a greater percentage of realistic threat arguments and fewer symbolic threat arguments were generated in a condition in which the economy was expected to decline than when it was expected to grow or a baseline condition. Perhaps more interesting, in the economic growth condition, the percentage realistic entitlements and symbolic threat arguments generated were higher than when the economy was declining. We conclude that threat narratives to provide a legitimizing discourse for anti-immigrant sentiments are tailored to the economic context.

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