Date: 2021
Type: Article
Window dressing? : the mainstreaming strategy of the rassemblement national in power in French local government
Government and opposition, 2021, Vol. 56, No. 3, pp. 545-562
PAXTON, Fred, PEACE, Timothy, Window dressing? : the mainstreaming strategy of the rassemblement national in power in French local government, Government and opposition, 2021, Vol. 56, No. 3, pp. 545-562
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/68962
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
Populist radical right (PRR) parties have increasingly occupied positions of power in recent years, inspiring much scholarly interest in the mainstreaming consequences of government responsibility. This article analyses the extent and manner of mainstreaming of the Rassemblement National (RN) while in power at the local level of government in France. A municipal-level focus enables the novel inclusion of the party into the debate about the consequences of government participation for the PRR. We conduct a paired case study analysis of RN-led Hénin-Beaumont, the political base of Marine Le Pen and her ‘de-demonization’ strategy, alongside nearby Lens, which is led by a mainstream party. We analyse the policy and discourse of the administration through a qualitative content analysis of mayoral statements and data from semi-structured interviews with local politicians. The results show a partial mainstreaming due to the strategic exercise of local government power to present a more moderate and capable image, as well as the use of populist discourse to frame mainstream opposition forces and the local press as working against the interests of ‘the people’.
Additional information:
Published online 13 July 2020
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/68962
Full-text via DOI: 10.1017/gov.2020.11
ISSN: 0017-257X; 1477-7053
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Sponsorship and Funder information:
This article was published Open Access with the support from the EUI Library through the CRUI - CUP Transformative Agreement (2020-2022)
Succeeding version: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/72519
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