Socially Distanced Solidarity: Far Right Recruitment and Enrolment During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Project Information

SODIS

Grant agreement ID: 101029801

DOI

10.3030/101029801

Project closed

EC signature date 19 April 2021

Start date 6 September 2021

End date 5 September 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 214 158,72

EU contribution

€ 214 158,72

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SODIS (Socially Distanced Solidarity: Far Right Recruitment and Enrolment During the COVID-19 Pandemic)

Reporting period: 2021-09-06 to 2023-09-05

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

There is a general assumption in the public debate, and among many scholars, that crises fuel political extremism. However, previous research suggests that the relationship between crisis and political extremism to large extent depends upon how elites respond to crisis. SODIS sought to examine how, and the extent to which, far-right extremist actors exploit a crisis when they can no longer use traditional recruitment strategies (such as being out in the streets or in local communities) and when their agenda in the public debate is largely monopolised by the government. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a natural experiment for examining how recruitment strategies and individual motives to far-right extremism shift in time of global crisis.

The objectives of the SODIS project were to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected recruitment strategies and pathways to support for the far-right in various national contexts with differing pandemic responses. Specifically, SODIS sought to explore how far-right organisations have had to adapt recruitment strategies due to national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and how individual-level motivations for joining far-right organisations have shifted during this time of crisis. To examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on far-right mobilisation, SODIS compared European countries that had various responses to the pandemic: Hungary, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. Upon conducting surveys and qualitative interviews with members of far-right movement parties in three of these countries (Hungary, Italy, Sweden), the SODIS project team quickly realised the importance of coonspiracy theories in understanding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on far-right organisations and their members. Therefore, the SODIS project shifted to studying these conspiratorial views, offering a better understanding of how crisis can revitalise and repackage conspiracy theories, particularly of an antisemitic nature.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

This project had three main scientific achievements. First, SODIS completed interviews with members of extreme-right movement parties in three countries: Hungary, Italy, and Sweden. Second, SODIS did manage to gather insight into the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on far-right organisations, only not to a degree that would be publishable. Finally, SODIS gathered first-hand information and quotations on far-right conspiracy theories, especially those surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

The SODIS project involved collecting survey responses from members of far-right organisations in four countries: Italy, Hungary, Sweden, and Spain. Survey was completed and translated into Spanish, Hungarian, Italian, and Swedish with the help of research assistants. Throughout the translation process the survey was constantly updated to ensure consistency was maintained given the variations in language. Surveys were then uploaded to Nettskjema, a survey tool run by the University of Oslo providing a high degree of security and privacy. Organisations and individuals were contacted through email and social media – in the end we only obtained 12 survey responses from Italy and three from Sweden. Because of this, a report of survey results was not completed. The survey did inform the qualitative interviews as some participants were recruited through the surveys – in these cases, participants were asked to elaborate on some survey responses.

The next step of the SODIS project was completing semi-structured qualitative interviews. Interview participants were found in Italy, Hungary, and Sweden, but unfortunately not in Spain. The interview schedule was written in English and translated into Italian, Hungarian, Swedish, and Spanish with the help of research assistants. Four interviews were completed with Italian participants, one in Hungary, and one Sweden. Italian and Swedish interviews were completed by research assistants, while I was present, via telephone. All interviews were transcribed into English and coded using NVivo.

As we were conducting interviews, we realised that the questions of recruitment and enrolment were not as fruitful as originally thought, as the sample number was quite low and not enough detail was provided by participants. What we did realise, however, was that the data gave us quite a lot of qualitative evidence of belief in COVID-19 (and other) conspiracy theories by far-right extremists. Therefore, most of the dissemination of the project results focused rather on this question. Results of SODIS were disseminated at various conferences (ECPR, CPSA, ASEN, EuroCrim) and an invited lecture for the Populism and the Far Right webinar series. The project contributed to a book chapter entitled 'Building a New World Order: COVID-19, the far right, and the pervasiveness of antisemitic conspiracy theories' and to a journal article (in submission), as well as an edited volume completed during the the fellowship period (The Routledge Handbook of Far-Right Extremism in Europe).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

While not enough data was gathered to directly address the two research questions, unique insight was gained on far-right conspiracism surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. This interview data appears in a book chapter written about the far right and COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Furthermore, this inspired further research into far-right conspiracism in Hungary, which resulted in a second paper currently in submission to Patterns of Prejudice. This paper expounds the results of a narrative analysis of YouTube videos created by the leader of the extreme-right Our Homeland Movement (Mi Hazánk Mozgalom); the paper concludes that the same antisemitic conspiracy theories are used by the far right today as a century ago, only updated to be relevant for a contemporary audience. Therefore, SODIS contributes to the literature on conspiracy theories and the far right, particularly relating to antisemitism, transhumanism, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Wider societal impacts of the project are a better understanding of how extremist conspiracy beliefs can be normalised during times of crisis.

Title slide of EuroCrim 2022 presentation

Presenting project findings