Ideology vs. interests: are the radical right-wing populists the voice of the people? Case of Austria and Hungary

Abstract

The main objective of this thesis is to find out whether selected populist radical right-wing parties (PRRPs) truly represent the electorate, their demands and voices, or is it their merely political-strategic rhetoric that encourages positions in which politics is driven by fear. And which accounts for the political processes of framing domains of anti-immigration. The research is seeking to examine, whether the populist radical right-wing parties in Austria (FPÖ) and Hungary (Fidesz) are in practice representing the people, or is it just an illusion created by them, that they address all real-life matters, salient for the society while endeavouring to gain political success. This research will examine politics of fear as the strategic rhetoric tool for selected PRRPs and it will detect what are the issues PRRPs address in their pre-electoral speeches and how the rhetoric has changed through the recent years. On the other hand, the research will measure the social grievances by observing the electorates’ opinions and issues they have been concerned about. The latter and its transformation will be compared to the speeches of PRR politicians and the main topics they are focusing on. This will help to demonstrate the match/mismatch, between the selected PRRPs’ rhetoric, showing what they consider to be most important for the society, and the real-life grievances society actually has.