13 - The Security Imperative and Right Nationalist Politics in Contemporary Europe

Summary

In 2000, when the Austrian right-wing politician Jorg Haider became part of a national governing coalition, there was trans-European outrange. In 2022 when Giorgia Meloni became prime minister of Italy her neofascist roots were barely mentioned. This contribution asks: What happened in Europe between 2000 and 2022 that led to the “normalization” of right nationalist politics in country after country? This chapter analyzes the trajectory of right politics in Europe as it seeks to identify continuities, commonalities, and contingent events that pushed the right forward. Temporality is the chapter’s organizing principle. The attenuation of thick security is the red thread that runs through it. Explaining the ascendance of the populist nationalist right in terms of a security crisis is a more robust way of thinking of current events than explanations that focus on conceptions of cultural identity or purely economistic explanations . The chapter proceeds in four stages: the longue durée of the European nationalist right; the stabilization period that succeeded the crises of 2015; the effect of the Covid surprise and, lastly, the need for a reinvention of security. Secondary sources, election data, and political speech provide the evidence for the argument advanced.