Working in the Gaps Left Behind: Radical Right Movement Parties in a Consolidating Party System

The – still ongoing – consolidation of the Polish party system has created both constraints and opportunities for radical right movement parties. The philosophy of the right-wing Law and Justice party has been to “leave nothing between us and the wall”, attempting to cater for radical right concerns and adopting elements of the movement repertoire of action, even during its period in power. However, the need for Law and Justice to attend to centrist voters in the search for support has created openings for movement parties to exploit individual issues such as immigration while engaging in populist attacks on the political class as a whole. The success of the Kukiz’15 movement and the National Movement in the 2015 parliamentary elections testifies both to the potential inherent in this party-systemic opportunity structure, and also to the ability of oppositionist radical-right movement parties to influence the legislative agenda of right-wing parties in power.