#POPULISM #COVID19
Populist radical right parties in the year of the pandemic

My piece in today’s @DomaniGiornale.
"The populist radical right has survived the pandemic"

Main takeways & THREAD in English below

1) The majority of populist radical right parties (PRR) declined in the polls (i.e. voting intentions) in the year of the Covid-19 (18 out of 26), as shown by the variation between January and December 2020.

2) During the first wave, PRR parties in govt. registered a considerable rise at the polls in the most acute phases of the crisis. However, during the second wave of Covid-19 PRR incumbents lost ground at the polls. This is shown in particular by Fidesz in and PiS in .

3) The 8 (out of 26) PRR parties that grew at the polls by the end 2020 are all opposition forces. Among them, the top-performers have been Brothers of Italy (+5.7%), the New Right in Denmark (+5.1%) and the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands (+3.5%).

4) Overall, the 2020 has NOT been an annus horribilis for the European PRR. Despite the broader negative trend in terms of voting intentions, the PRR parties in the still lead the polls in , ,; they are 2nd in & the , 3rd in & (as well as in )

5) The pandemic has NOT wiped out the populist radical right even in the countries where it has made its appearance in recent years, such as and .

6) Furthermore, in an increasing number of countries, the political market is characterised by the presence of multiple successful parties of the PRR, a phenomenon that generates complex interactions of cooperation and competition, as the case (Salvini vs Meloni) suggests.

7) The year of the pandemic hence suggests a substantial resilience of the populist radical right even in the context of an unprecedented global crisis.

8) PRR parties are here to stay. The pandemic has not inflected a fatal blow to these parties: on the contrary, it provides further evidence of the consolidation of the populist radical right in European political systems.

@_PiAP