Media and the far right in western Europe : playing the nationalist card

1. Introduction; 2. Explaining far right trajectories; 3. Party and media politics in Austria: the rise of the FPO; 4. Competing over German identity: conservatives and the non-visible far right; 5. Greek nationalists: from mainstream to the margins?; 6. The growth, persistence and fall of the French National Front; 7. Conclusion.

This book examines the fascinating interplay of party and media behavior to explain one of the most important phenomena in Western Europe: the rise of far-right parties. To account for the divergent electoral fortunes of these parties, the book examines how political parties and the mass media have dealt with growing public concerns over national identity. Mainstream politicians chose to 'play the nationalist card', creating opportunities for the entry of far-right parties into the political system. In some cases, the media gave outsized exposure to such parties, allowing them to capitalize on these opportunities; in other cases, they ignored them, blocking their entry into the political system. Using elite interviews, content analysis, and primary documents to trace identity politics since the 1980s, this book presents an original interpretation of identity politics and media behavior in Austria, Germany, Greece, and France since the 1980s.

• Incorporates systematic comparative analysis of how the media deal with the far right across Western Europe, along with a consideration of motivations for their behavior • Provides a thorough qualitative analysis of identity politics in major West European countries • Proposes a novel theory about the factors affecting the evolution of new parties