Authoritarian Nostalgia and the Mainstreaming of the Radical-Right

The increasing prominence of populist radical-right (PRR) parties across Europe has reignited critical debates about how societies confront and reinterpret their authoritarian pasts, particularly fascist legacies. By framing these periods as golden ages of stability, order, or cultural pride, PRR parties strategically invoke historical memory to normalize their ideologies and expand their electoral appeal. This study examines how PRR parties construct and leverage authoritarian nostalgia, with a specific focus on the ways in which distinct national relationships to fascist histories—collaboration, resistance, or victimhood—shape the deployment of these narratives. Through a computational analysis of parliamentary debates and PRR party rhetoric, this research investigates how authoritarian nostalgia is constructed in different contexts. Large- scale text analysis tools and machine learning methods are employed to uncover patterns in how PRR parties reference and reframe fascist (or antifascist) pasts. This computational approach enables the identification of both cross-national trends and country-specific strategies, offering novel insights into the language and framing of nostalgia in PRR discourse. The study addresses three central questions: (1) How do PRR parties evoke the authoritarian past in their rhetoric? (2) To what extent do territorial and historical contexts influence these references, particularly in relation to each country’s fascist history? (3) How do PRR parties use institutional platforms, such as parliaments, to legitimize and mainstream revisionist narratives about the fascist past? These questions guide an exploration of how authoritarian nostalgia functions as a political resource, facilitating the normalization of radical-right ideologies within democratic institutions. By focusing on fascist histories, this research shifts away from conventional East-West divisions to consider the role of specific national relationships to authoritarian legacies. PRR parties strategically reframe these histories to downplay complicity in fascist atrocities while amplifying narratives of national pride and cultural resilience. This process varies across different historical contexts: for example, former collaborator states often emphasize cultural continuity, while victim states may foreground narratives of resistance or martyrdom. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how PRR parties exploit historical memory to reshape societal norms and expand their influence. The computational analysis highlights subtle yet systematic rhetorical shifts that reinforce authoritarian nostalgia while avoiding overt associations with fascist ideologies. By tracing these strategies across multiple countries, the study provides critical insights into how PRR parties navigate the constraints of democratic systems to mainstream revisionist narratives. This research underscores the importance of addressing the politicization of historical memory in combating the normalization of radical-right ideologies. By combining computational methods with a comparative focus on national relationships to fascist histories, it offers a robust framework for analyzing the interplay between political discourse and historical revisionism in the context of PRR ascendance.