Culture Called the Far Right’s Secret Weapon. Is It So?

Across Europe, the most promising students who speak three or four languages and graduate from globally ranked institutions are increasingly gravitating towards nationalist narratives and taking up the far right’s banners. This is usually blamed on a good-looking image that allures young voters. But is it really the case? Perhaps it’s not about a nice picture but about the right’s ability to speak to young people and get them interested.

Deniz Torcu, Adjunct Professor of Globalization, Business and Media at IE University, has inquired into the nature of this process.

The 2024 European Parliament elections produced the highest-ever vote share for far-right parties, with 27 percent of seats – 191 out of 720 – now held by MEPs aligned with far-right groupings.

This was not merely a protest vote. Analysis done in 27 European countries at once shows that far-right support among young men has exceeded 21 percent, a figure that has grown consistently since 1989 (!).

The author of the study believes nationalist movements to be winning on identity rather than policy platforms. They offer a story – one that is emotionally legible, culturally rooted, and often exclusionary – about who counts as a real European. Against this, the EU offers a passport, a market, a currency, and a set of rights. These are all valuable, but they are not a story, let alone a compelling one.

Over recent decades, the EU has assumed that cultural belonging would emerge as a natural byproduct of political and economic integration. It did not, and a narrative vacuum opened that the far right has gradually expanded to fill.

What is striking is that Europe has, at earlier stages, understood the cultural stakes and acted on them more decisively than now.

Just nine years after the end of World War II, in 1954, the Council of Europe signed the European Cultural Convention. It created an architecture for collective cultural diplomacy among European States. The motivation was explicit: economic reconstruction alone would not be enough. Europe needed a shared cultural project.

Three decades later, in 1985, Greek Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri and her French counterpart Jack Lang persuaded their EU counterparts to establish what would become the European Capital of Culture program. Since it was launched, over 70 cities, from Florence to Istanbul, Glasgow, Krakow, Valletta and Timișoara, have held the title. Independent evaluations consistently confirm the program's success in fostering intercultural exchange and civic engagement.

Yet it should be remembered that initiatives like the European Capital of Culture were conceived for a different world, one where culture moved through cities and institutions – but now it moves through feeds.

A 2024 study found that far-right parties have consistently outperformed mainstream parties on engagement metrics across Facebook and Instagram in Germany, Sweden, Hungary, and Poland. This was partly because their negative, provocative content is structurally rewarded by current platform algorithms.

The far right has been quick to realize that the question of identity cannot be answered with prosperity or rights frameworks. Institutions which ignore the cultural dimension of politics will always be outflanked by the movements that embrace it.

There is yet another circumstance to be borne in mind. The point is perhaps not only and not just in the far right’s cultural narratives but in a growing societal demand for their philosophy and values. ‘Young’ is not a synonym of ‘credulous’. The young audience’s tilt to the right is not attributable to propaganda alone. If it happens, then the right wing has really got something to offer its audience.

But this is by no means to say that, amid today’s realities, cultural diplomacy can be ignored as a means to further political goals. Its use is a must. It is unclear how long Europe is going to ignore this universal truth.

Original publication: https://theconversation.com/culture-is-the-far-rights-secret-weapon-and-its-winning-over-some-of-europes-most-educated-youth-283429