You Are What You Eat: Edible Extremism and Cultural Polarisation in the Netherlands and Poland

It is common knowledge that the far right has moved from the margins of the political spectrum into the mainstream: nativism, authoritarianism and populism now routinely feature in the discourses of ‘centrist’ political parties. Mainstreaming (i.e. the process through which extreme ideas become salonfähig) is central to the growth of far right movements as it enables them to recruit and mobilise followers whilst minimising the risk of public scrutiny. But how does mainstreaming happen? What are the mechanisms underpinning this process? This paper seeks to answer this question by analysing the politicised uses of food as an identity marker. Food is a powerful vehicle to communicate messages about collective belonging, culture and tradition. As such, food routinely features in the rhetoric of far-right politicians. However, food is rarely taken into account in studies on the far right. This paper examines how far-right groups in Poland and the Netherlands use food and food-related rituals to promote their ideological agenda. Despite different histories and varying political contexts, far-right parties in Poland and the Netherlands draw on similar repertoires that celebrate nativist conceptualisations of “normal” and organic forms of consumption. The way in which these discourses are presented differs, however, since they are ultimately shaped by underlying cultural debates. The paper employs a qualitative, comparative case study research design. It draws on qualitative data collected from media outlets and online forums of far-right groups in both countries. The paper argues that food serves as a powerful vehicle to mobilise support and communicate (sometimes coded) ideological messages. On the one hand, food plays a central role in the far right’s attempts to foster a sense of community among their followers. On the other hand, food is used to separate the ingroup from the outgroup - oftentimes without making explicit reference to either. This strategy of ‘calculated ambivalence’ enables far-right politicians to appeal to a broader audience whilst granting them plausible deniability if accusations of racism are made. By decoding far-right messages, this paper contributes to our understanding of the appeal and mainstreaming of the far right. More generally, it highlights the importance of considering food in studies of the far right.