The (Ab)use of Social Exclusion in Right-Wing Populist Discourses Lessons from Western Europe and Central America

As a corollary of the economic crises, the resurgence of social vulnerability has intensified throughout the world in recent decades. The moral and material fragility to which individuals are more and more exposed is accompanied by the (re-)appearance of populist leaders, who are using sovereignist discourses and translating generalized frustrations into social forces with the aim of gaining political power. This shows that social vulnerability is no longer just an issue that can be addressed to explore the lack of extension of individual rights or the improvement of democracy, but has become a fundamental element in thinking about political participation. The paper proposes to study empirically the way in which radical right populist parties in Central America and Western Europe employ social grievances, claims of exclusion, and neglect on the part of political elites in their respective discourses and mobilization strategies since the outbreak of the pandemic in February 2020. Comparing Central America and Western Europe is central to this work since we will use the differences between these two regions to establish similar parameters of two areas that are experiencing the resurgence of new populist tendencies since the health crisis. Drawing on a comparative approach and the constructivist turn in political representation, we examine the way in which populist parties use social vulnerability and exclusion in radical right populist discourses in both regions. We thus focus on the supply side and employ a framing analysis to examine the social (re)construction of reality. We would expect such discourses to differ since the narratives on social exclusion are very different in their forms of expression and their structures. Thanks to these variations and regional differences, our study seeks to shed new light on the (ab)use of social exclusion as a political tool of populism.