Authors
George Kordas1; 1 Panteion University of Social and Political Scienc, Greece Discussion
After the 2009 economic crisis, the EU experienced the migration and refugee crisis outbreak in 2014. Its geographical extent affected member-states differently, boosting the electoral power of far-right parties across Europe, according their distance from the EU borders. Such were the cases of Bulgaria and Romania, which enterd the EU in 2007. Even though the population flows highly influenced Bulgaria, its far-right parties failed to present issue ownership and were gradually marginalised. Simultaneously, in Romania, the significant far-right of the previous decade disappeared, ignoring the consequences of the refugee and migration crisis.
The 2020 pandemic crisis found the two countries under different circumstances. The Bulgarian political scene welcomed political newcomers to all its extent, while Romania had its first successful far-right political party in more than a decade, AUR. Notwithstanding the two countries differentiations in their political history, I acknowledge that the crises have significantly transformed the examined parties.
Therefore I question 'how have the crises transformed far-right parties' political agenda during the examined period.To answer my research question, I will examine the party manifestos since 2014, and their leaders' official discourses. My methodology will be the constructivist version of grounded theory, whilst I will collect, analyse, and code my data with the MAXQDA software.
