The Radical Right in the European Parliament: Patterns of Opposition and Cooperation

The radical right-wing populist party family is diverse and ever growing. In recent elections many radical right-wing populist parties have entered the European Parliament (e.g. the PS, PVV, or SD) or have enlarged their seat share (e.g. the DF, FN, or UKIP). However, radical right-wing populist parties join different parliamentary groups, such as the ECR, EFD/EFDD, ENF, ID, or UEN, and frequently change alliances, calling into question the ideological coherence of this group of parties. This paper investigates the behavior of radical right-wing populist parties in the European Parliament. By means of an over time roll-call analysis we examine 1) whether radical right-wing populist parties form a coherent group when it comes to their voting behavior on various ideological dimensions (socio-economic, socio-cultural, and European integration dimensions), and 2) which factors explain the ideological coherence, or the absence thereof. Factors that are taken into consideration are, amongst others, European parliamentary group affiliation, geographical and ideological origins, and government versus opposition status.