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Consequences: Interaction and Impact

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The Radical Right in Eastern Europe

Part of the book series: Europe in Crisis ((EIC))

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Abstract

In the final chapter the author addresses the effects of the radical right and makes the point that the East European radical right has lasting effects not only on its nearby competitors but also on the larger political system. The analysis of government participation and policy making in coalition government (as in Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and more recently Latvia and Bulgaria) is complemented by a study of interaction patterns between the radical right and mainstream actors, including the state. The most important effect is not the implementation of a distinct set of radical right policies but rather the radicalization of (parts of) the mainstream (instead of mainstreaming the radical right). This poses severe challenges to the democratic quality of the political systems in question.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This echoes Bavarian leader Franz Josef Strauß’s famous dictum in the 1980s that there must not be a democratically legitimized party to the right of the CSU (the Bavarian sister party of the Christian Democratic Union) (see Minkenberg 1998, 243–245, 2002b, 259–261; also Stöss 1989, 181–183).

  2. 2.

    The speech was held on July 26, 2014 (see Ágh 2016, 282; Rupnik 2016, 79; also Keno Verseck, “Orbáns Verbündete blasen zum Kampf gegen liberales Europa.” Der Spiegel 7, January 2016 http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/viktor-orban-und-der-aufstand-gegen-das-system-eu-a-1070728.html; accessed November 21, 2016).

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  1. Frankfurt/Oder, Brandenburg, Germany

    Michael Minkenberg

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Minkenberg, M. (2017). Consequences: Interaction and Impact. In: The Radical Right in Eastern Europe. Europe in Crisis. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56332-3_6

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