Can Leopards Change Their Spots? Between Xenophobia and Trans-ethnic Populism among West European Far Right Parties

Abstract

Racism and xenophobia have fueled radical right-wing party electoral success across Western Europe. This article investigates whether key changes have occurred in radical right-wing xenophobia in recent years, mainly a moderating trend and a shifting out-group focus. The analysis in this article suggests such a 21st-century transformation. Radical right-wing party programmatic orientations have moderated and their appeals have broadened. The out-groups and immigrant enemies of the postwar era have been superseded, especially as anti-Semitism has been traded for anti-Muslim Islamophobia. Populism is explored in its potential causal logic for observed changes.