Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic by the Radical Right

Scapegoating, Conspiracy Theories and New Narratives

,

• Publisher: ibidem
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN:
  9783838274881
• Edition: 0

Numerous political commentators have noted the rise of the radical right worldwide. How has the radical right responded to the COVID-19 pandemic? Has the radical right been legitimized in a world of closed borders and greater securitization? Have radical right regimes in power cracked under the strains of the crisis and thus undermined their own political fortunes? Have radical right-wing responses to COVID-19 been uniform or diversified? These are some of the questions tackled in Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic by the Radical Right. This volume gathers a collection of short pieces, which highlight the multi-faceted ways in which right-wing and radical right-wing political forces have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. It presents research by scholars from all around the world concentrating on the evolution of radical right-wing movements since the COVID-19 crisis began and their influence on mainstream and alternative narratives. The edited volume includes case studies as well as far-reaching reports on the radical right's utilizing of the crisis to re-shape ideas about sovereignty, globalization, democracy, equality, diversity, and political legitimacy. Such studies comprise cases on gender and class, racism, religious hatred, scapegoating, anti-Semitism and Sinophobia, conspiracy theories, and online radicalization, focusing on locations as diverse as the US, Canada, Brazil, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, France, Spain, Ukraine, Latvia, Israel, and India. All such studies are compiled in a total of six chapters and an epilogue, organized thematically and by country.

Table of contents

• Contents
• About the Authors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: COVID-19 and the Radical Right
• How is the Far Right Capitalizing on COVID-19?
• How COVID-19 Will Impact the Fight Against the Radical Right
• For the Far Right, The COVID-19 Crisis is a PR Opportunity
• COVID-19’s Victims: Populism
• Chapter 2: Case Studies from Europe and North America
• Flanders First: How COVID-19 has Boosted the Flemish Radical Populist Right
• Germany: Is the COVID-19 Pandemic Weakening the Far Right?
• COVID-19 and the Pause of Far-Right Demonstrations in Germany
• Amid COVID-19, Trump Attempts to Rewrite History
• Will France’s Marine Le Pen be a Profiteer or Victim of the Pandemic?
• How the European Union Lost Italy to the Radical Right
• After COVID-19: Will Matteo Salvini Lead Europe’s Radical Right?
• COVID-19 & the (temporary) Fall of the Populist Radical Right in European Politics?
• The Spanish Right, COVID-19 and ‘Socio-Communism’
• Tilting at Windmills: The Spanish Radical Populist Right in Times of COVID-19
• Chapter 3: COVID-19 and Radical-Right Conspiracy Theories
• The Oldest Hatred, Conspiracy Theories and the COVID-19 Pandemic
• COVID-19 and the Radical Right: Conspiracy, Disinformation and Xenophobia
• The Dangers of Right-Wing COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories
• Apocalypse Now: The Conspiracy Theories of the Radical Right
• Chapter 4: COVID-19 and the Rise of Racism and Religious Hatred
• The ‘Other’ in a Time of Crisis: Europe’s Populist Radical Right Response to COVID-19
• Anti-Asian Racism Amid COVID-19 Echoes US History of Blaming Immigrants for Disease
• Canada and the ‘Yellow Peril’ Conspiracy Amidst COVID-19
• “#CORONAJIHAD”: How the Far Right in India is Responding to the Pandemic
• Chapter 5: COVID-19 and the Radical Right’s Transition Online
• Quarantined Radicals: Right-Wing Extremism in the Age of COVID-19
• Zoom-Bombing and the Far Right’s Latest Assault on College Communities
• The Risks of Online Radicalization in the COVID-19 Era
• The Influence of Memes on Far-Right Radicalization
• Chapter 6: COVID-19, Class and Gender
• Appropriating ‘Choice’: Uses of Gendered Discourse in ‘Re-Open’ Protests
• Gender and Mainstreaming in the Era of COVID-19: Swedish Exceptionalism & the Radical Right
• Contesting Class in the Lockdown Protests
• Epilogue
• Will the World Be More Tolerant After the COVID-19 Pandemic?