Brexit and its effect on nationalistic political parties in the member states of France and Hungary

Details

Supervisors

Delreux, Tom

Faculty

Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales, politiques et de communication

Degree label

Master [120] en études européennes, à finalité spécialisée: gouvernance et sociétés européennes

Abstract

In recent decades, the right-wing ideology has been gaining traction all around the globe. This is an event which has been and continues to be widely discussed by academics and scholars of this literature. In this sense, this thesis aimed to analyze how the post-Brexit scenario of 2016 has affected the emergence (termed “Rise”) and the communicative strategies (termed “Discourse”) of far-right political parties in Europe, specifically examining the countries of France, and Hungary. When analyzing these case studies, I have selected Marine Le Pen’s extreme right political party “Rassemblement National” and Viktor Orbán’s party Fidesz. This research study employed both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the two dependent variables which are Rise and Discourse. To do so, when studying the operationalisation of Rise was examined through studying the evolution of national elections, public opinion polls and number of affiliates of both political parties. On the contrary, when analyzing the Discourse, political speeches of both far-right leaders over time, together with their position on issues such as immigration, religion, or European integration were examined. The research method used to conduct the analyses was the Process Tracing Method. The findings from this thesis suggest that while a post-Brexit environment interacts with a complex interplay of causal factors, no direct causal relationship can be definitively established between the impact of a post-Brexit scenario and shifts observed in the Rise and Discourse of the chosen case studies, “Rassemblement National” and Fidesz.