“Sexual-Modern Nativist Voters” - Do They Exist and Do They Vote for the Radical Right?

With the European rise of the Populist Radical Right in the last decades, it has been common for the immigration and integration debate to be gendered. More recently, however, some of the PRR parties also sexualize this debate. Whereas the classic position of nationalist parties has been the defence of the traditional family as a place where national identity was reproduced, right-wing populist politicians use an imagine of tolerance towards LGBT people that is part of the Western modern ideology and this aspect of a so-called heartland should be protected against Islam and immigrants. At the same time, parties like Front National were at the front of protests against legalizing same-sex marriage and less strict adoption laws.

This apparent split in the PRR party family raises the question to what extent the electorate mirrors the position of parties and whether this plays a role in their decision to vote for PRR parties. One study suggests that the PRR parties might actually disproportionally attract “pro-gay, anti-immigrant” voters, but little to no systematic research exists on how strongly these groups are present among voters, and whether or not PRR parties disproportionally manage to attract (or repel) these voters. So far, most empirical studies show a very strong impact of anti-migration attitudes, but little attention has been paid to which element of anti-immigration is crucial and how these attitude interrelate with other ideological policy areas. Based on data over 30,000 respondents, we try to seek systematic answers to these questions.