Facing a ‘civilisational choice’: Images of Europe by the populist radical right in the 2019 European elections

Authors

  • Boris Popivanov Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Bulgaria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30722/anzjes.vol12.iss3.15359

Keywords:

alternative narratives, civilisationism, Europe, image theory, populist radical right

Abstract

This paper deals with the perceptions of Europe as developed by the European populist radical right over the campaign for the 2019 European Parliament elections. The study is based on the public communications of three leading political parties in this spectrum: France’s Rassemblement national, Italy’s Lega and Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland. By applying image theory in international relations, the paper comes to the conclusion that the radical right managed to construct a relatively coherent image of the EU as a distant undemocratic actor in sharp contrast to the alternative narrative of one ‘Europe of fatherlands’ described in mostly civilisational terms.

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Published

2021-05-07

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 3 (2020): Special Issue: Changing realities, changing narratives? A narrative reading of EU perceptions in a changing Europe

Section

Articles

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