Polarising the 'Christian West': 'Us' and 'Them' in the Rhetoric of PRRPs

• In Event: Poster Session: Change and Continuity in Religion and Politics & Public Administration
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Change and Continuity in Religion and Politics

Abstract

Affective polarisation is on the rise in many democracies. At the same time, populist radical right parties (PRRPs) are often seen as a driver of affective polarisation. Yet, we know little about how these parties link Christian narratives to ingroup-outgroup dynamics. This is remarkable as PRRPs frame their political discourse in religious terms by referring to countries’ Christian-shaped heritage despite having, at least in the European context, a predominantly non-religious electorate. This study addresses these strategic references by examining the Christianity-related rhetoric in the political communication of PRRPs in comparison to the way Christian Democratic parties refer to Christianity. I argue that PRRPs emphasise intergroup dynamics by using religious references in an exclusionary way. To do so, I consider potential differences in the context in which these connotations are used by PRRPs vis-à-vis Christian Democratic parties.
Using data from ParlSpeech V2, I focus on parliamentary speeches given by politicians from PRRPs and Christian Democratic parties in seven European countries. Methodologically, I conduct automated text analysis relying on a transformer-based approach. I apply a pre-trained and then fine-tuned model to identify religious connotations and their co-occurrence with types of inclusive-exclusive rhetoric. Insights from my analysis contribute to a cross-national and between-party understanding of the rhetoric around Christianity, shedding light on PRRPs’ linkage of religious references to group dynamics

Author

• Lucienne Engelhardt