Europe versus Islam?: Right-Wing Populist Discourse and the Construction of a Civilizational Identity

Abstract:

This article reveals the ways in which five populist parties in Europe (AfD in Germany, FN in France, PVV in the Netherlands, M5S in Italy, and Golden Dawn in Greece) employ the fear of Islam as a political instrument to mobilize their supporters and to mainstream themselves. The study is conducted through a discourse analysis of the speeches and manifestos of the aforementioned parties. Following the depiction of each political party, the article displays some of quotations from the fieldwork conducted in the Spring of 2017 to be able to explicate their common tropes about their Islamophobic, migrant-phobic, and diversity-phobic discourses of the supporters of populist parties. The main premise of the work is to claim that these parties have recently generated a civilizational discourse in order to expand their electorate.

Keywords:

• Islam
• Populism
• Civilizational Identity
• Europe

Notes

1 In doing so, we have faced several difficulties embedded in the centrality of language to populist movements. To clarify, preservation of native language is vital to the populist agenda. This also “prevents” the “others” who are traditionally ethnically or religiously different immigrants from accessing information in a way that further isolates them and perpetuates the idea of the “other” being on the “outside”. As such, both in theory and in practice, language is a key concept that we encountered in our research. It was difficult, and in some cases impossible to access the manifestos in English for which we consulted native speakers. This difficulty with primary sources was also present when accessing the statements of the populist leaders. Often there were highly circulated statements, which were confirmed through a review of several online news sites. However, there were also cases, particularly in the case studies on France, Italy, and Greece where confirming the credibility of the online sources was challenging.

2 This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 693289. Information on the CoHERE project is available at: https://research.ncl.ac.uk/cohere/.

3 See http://www.dw.com/en/germanys-populist-afd-party-seeks-to-reboot-migrant-fears/a-40176414 accessed on 1 July 2018.

4 Full text of the AfD manifesto is available in German at: https://www.afd.de/wp-content/uploads/sites/111/2017/09/AfD_kurzprogramm_a5-hoch_210717.pdf accessed on 15 June 2018. Also see http://m.dw.com/en/german-populists-afd-adopt-anti-islam-manifesto/a-19228284 accessed on 15 June 2018.

5 http://m.dw.com/en/germanys-populist-afd-party-debates-islam-as-congress-continues/a-19227807 accessed on 15 June 2018.

6 http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2017/09/25/what-do-germanys-afd-want-heres-summary-from-their-manifesto/ accessed on 17 June 2018.

7 http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2017/09/25/what-do-germanys-afd-want-heres-summary-from-their-manifesto/ accessed on 17 June 2018.

8 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37274201 accessed on 19 June 2018.

9 http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2017/09/25/what-do-germanys-afd-want-heres-summary-from-their-manifesto/ accessed on 17 June 2018.

10 https://www.google.com.tr/amp/amp.dw.com/en/afd-what-you-need-to-know-about-germanys-far-right-party/a-37208199 accessed on 17 June 2018.

11 https://www.google.com.tr/amp/amp.dw.com/en/afd-what-you-need-to-know-about-germanys-far-right-party/a-37208199 accessed on 17 June 2018.

12 http://www.dw.com/en/afds-alexander-gauland-slammed-over-racist-remark-aimed-at-minister/a-40277497 accessed on 18 June 2018.

13 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41384550 accessed on 18 June 2018.

14 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/german-election-results-afd-far-right-merkel-alexander-gauland-2017-coalition-invasion-of-foreigners-a7965886.html accessed on 18 June 2018.

15 https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8392/islam-belongs-to-germany accessed on 18 June 2018.

16 http://m.dw.com/en/a-comparison-of-germanys-afd-and-frances-national-front/a-19249980 accessed on 21 June 2018.

17 http://www.frontnational.com accessed on 21 June 2018.

18 http://www.frontnational.com/terme/culture/ and http://www.frontnational.com/terme/patrimoine/ accessed on 21 June 2018.

19 https://www.apollo-magazine.com/french-culture-a-presidential-battleground/ accessed on 23 June 2018.

20 http://www.frontnational.com/videos/grand-meeting-de-marine-le-pen-a-bordeaux-le-22-janvier/ accessed on 28 June 2018.

21 Ibid.

22 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/world/europe/marine-le-pens-anti-islam-message-gains-influence-in-france.html accessed on 30 June 2018.

23 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/marine-le-pen-front-national-speech-campaign-launch-islamic-fundamentalism-french-elections-a7564051.html accessed on 30 June 2018.

24 http://uk.businessinsider.com/geert-wilders-pvv-manifesto-2017-2 accessed on 27 June 2018.

25 https://www.google.com.tr/amp/s/www.rt.com/document/57c08bfec361882e298b456f/amp/357340-geert-wilders-manifesto-islam accessed on 28 June 2018.

26 https://www.google.com.tr/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2008/feb/17/netherlands.islam accessed on 28 June 2018.

27 Ibid.

28 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-11469579 accessed on 2 June 2018.

29 https://www.geertwilders.nl/77-in-the-press/in-the-press/1214-mr-wilderss-contribution-to-the-parliamentary-debate-on-islamic-activism accessed on 2 June 2018.

30 M5S’s manifesto is available in Italian only. See http://www.beppegrillo.it/iniziative/movimentocinquestelle/Programma-Movimento-5-Stelle.pdf.

31 http://uk.businessinsider.com/what-is-italy-five-star-movement-beppe-grillo-trump-farage-2016-12 accessed on 3 June 2018.

32 https://www.google.com.tr/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2017/09/24/italys-five-star-movement-welcomes-support-from-rivals-but-says-it-wont-give-up-cabinet-seats-in-any-coalition-deal.html accessed on 4 February 2018.

33 http://www.beppegrillo.it/en/2015/09/the_dublin_regulation_has_to_b.html accessed on 4 February 2018.

34 https://www.google.com.tr/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/15/beppe-grillo-sparks-explosion-of-outrage-with-sadiq-khan-joke accessed on 5 June 2018.

35 http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-33167343 accessed on 5 June 2018.

36 https://www.ft.com/content/0da3830c-50fe-11e7-bfb8-997009366969 accessed on 5 June 2018.

37 https://www.dailysabah.com/europe/2015/01/22/greek-far-right-party-golden-dawn-rally-targets-islam accessed on 7 July 2018.

38 https://xaameriki.wordpress.com/2016/11/03/nikolaos-michaloliakos-speech-at-votanikos-against-the-mosque/ accessed on 7 July 2018.

39 http://www.xryshaygh.com/en/view/the-desecration-of-the-monument-of-alexandros-ypsilantis-and-the-attack-on accessed on 8 July 2018.

40 https://xaameriki.wordpress.com/the-manifesto-of-golden-dawn/ accessed on 8 July 2018.

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ayhan Kaya

Ayhan Kaya is Professor of Politics and Jean Monnet Chair of European Politics of Interculturalism at the Department of International Relations, Istanbul Bilgi University. He received his PhD and MA degrees at the University of Warwick, UK. Some of his latest books are Turkish Origin Migrants and their Descendants: Hyphenated Identities in Transnational Space (Palgrave, 2018), Islam, Migration and Integration: The Age of Securitization (Palgrave, 2012), and Europeanization and Tolerance in Turkey (Palgrave, 2013).

Ayşe Tecmen

Ayşe Tecmen is a researcher at the European Institute, Istanbul Bilgi University. She has a PhD in Politics from the University of Bristol. She graduated from Emory University in the USA with a BA degree in Political Science and received her MA degree in European Studies with high honors from Istanbul Bilgi University. Her fields of interest include public diplomacy, nation branding, commercial nationalism, culture, tourism, and European identity.