Far-right populist parties have continued to gain relevance in the most recent European Parliament elections. This chapter focuses on the underresearched nexus between these parties and young people in Europe. It zooms in on populist far-right parties’ patterns of digital campaigning and, in particular, studies how these parties employ short videos on TikTok to address, relate to, and mobilize young potential voters. Comparatively studying the French Rassemblement National (RN) and Hungary’s Fidesz thereby allows to identify (dis-)similarities across EU member states. The study shows how the traditional anti-elite, anti-EU, anti-migrant, and (ethno-)nationalist articulatory patterns are reproduced and, especially in the case of Fidesz, exaggerated into increasingly wild conspiracist allegations in the parties’ 2024 TikTok campaigns. In addition, the analysis revealed a rather unexpected and puzzling difference: While specifically using a platform that has a disproportionally young user base, only RN’s Jordan Bardella explicitly reflected and capitalized on TikTok’s potential for addressing and mobilizing young voters by tailoring messages to them and their concerns. Fidesz did not explicitly target the younger generation or adapt its campaign to the digital context.

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The Populist Far Right and Europe’s Young Voters: Comparing the TikTok Campaigns of Fidesz and the Rassemblement National in the 2024 European Parliamentary Elections

  • Robert Csehi,
  • Julia Simon

摘要

Far-right populist parties have continued to gain relevance in the most recent European Parliament elections. This chapter focuses on the underresearched nexus between these parties and young people in Europe. It zooms in on populist far-right parties’ patterns of digital campaigning and, in particular, studies how these parties employ short videos on TikTok to address, relate to, and mobilize young potential voters. Comparatively studying the French Rassemblement National (RN) and Hungary’s Fidesz thereby allows to identify (dis-)similarities across EU member states. The study shows how the traditional anti-elite, anti-EU, anti-migrant, and (ethno-)nationalist articulatory patterns are reproduced and, especially in the case of Fidesz, exaggerated into increasingly wild conspiracist allegations in the parties’ 2024 TikTok campaigns. In addition, the analysis revealed a rather unexpected and puzzling difference: While specifically using a platform that has a disproportionally young user base, only RN’s Jordan Bardella explicitly reflected and capitalized on TikTok’s potential for addressing and mobilizing young voters by tailoring messages to them and their concerns. Fidesz did not explicitly target the younger generation or adapt its campaign to the digital context.