Trade Union Strategies in the EU to address trade union members’ and workers’ growing propensity to vote for right wing populists and nationalists

Right wing populism and nationalism, while not a new phenomenon, has in the recent years taken hold in many countries, including several within the European Union; sometimes as opposition, sometimes as government. Often, the ideological mixture of welfare chauvinism and nationalism is intended to appeal to the working class, with different degrees of success.

Membership of a Trade Union does not always mean, like it used to, immunity to these ideas, as these parties have abandoned their explicit neoliberal policies (at least in public discourse) and have taken what traditionally were leftwing issues such as social justice or redistribution to appeal to what they perceive as the 'losers of globalisation'.

For this purpose, the study analyses several EU countries with different industrial relations (Spain, Denmark, Germany, and Hungary), welfare states and Trade Union history and density. It provides a clear definition of 'National Populist' or Populist Radical Right Parties, bringing conceptual clarity under the current academic concepts and theoretical framework used to study these issues. It displays the state of play in each country, identifying the key actors and parties, and what strategies are undertaken by Trade Unions to prevent their members from voting for these political options.

EU Publications. All in one place. Publications Office of the European Union

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Trade Union Strategies in the EU to address trade union members’ and workers’ growing propensity to vote for right wing populists and nationalists

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