This paper challenges the conventional definition of the populist radical right (PRR) as anti-elitist by showing that key parties in Italy, France, and Germany—Fratelli d'Italia (FdI), Lega, Rassemblement National (RN), and Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)—are, in fact, elitist. Focusing on the 2021-2022 general elections, the study analyses their discourse on social media (X, Facebook and TikTok) and in the electoral manifestos, to reveal how they use gender, sexuality, immigration and religion to construct elitism.
By originally combining elite theory with intersectional feminist theory to the scholarship of the PRR, the study argues that this party family instrumentalises questions of gender, sexuality, immigration and religion to construct an elitist ‘people’, selectively defended, and exclude ‘the Other’. Furthermore, through discourse analysis, the paper explores how these parties create narratives that hinder women’s rights (i.e., reproductive rights), immigrants, Muslims and the LGBTQ+ community, by portraying them as threats to the national identity and ‘the people’. This comparative and interdisciplinary work contributes to the ongoing debate on the PRR by offering new insights into how their ideology blends populism with elitism through exclusionary identity politics.
