The Discursive Strategies of Far-Right Parties in Spain and Portugal

The final speaker in this last ECREA 2022 session is Tiago Lapa, whose focus is on the far right in Portugal and Spain. Until a few years ago, these countries had no major far-right parties, but the Catalan independence struggle led to the emergence of Vox as a successful far-right party in Spain in 2017, and Chega followed in Portugal a couple of years later.

Tiago examined the views of these parties as expressed on their Facebook pages from December 2021 (Vox) and September 2022 (Chega). Cheka’s main narratives have a strong anti-establishment tone, attacking the entire political system, conducting opposition attacks, and posting long articles by invited authors that deconstruct what they describe as ‘the ruling far-left ideology’. They also created an ‘academic’ article that demonstrated they were not in fact racist and populist, or – if they were – only as much as the rest of the population.

The party takes a strong stance against immigration, but is less explicit on its anti-LGBTIQ views or Euroscepticism. These posts took referential strategies that positioned anyone who disagrees with the party’s positions as its enemy.

The Vox discourses strongly opposed Catalan independence, and also extended this to other forms of Spanish sovereignty in opposition to the EU; much of the rhetoric sought to boost national achievements and pride, including also the reconquista of the Iberian peninsula and the bloody colonisation of the Americas.

It also posted various unconventional videos that were actively mocking other parties as well as mainstream media, and pointed to media reports that were used to bolster its arguments against migration, multiculturalism, feminism, and diversity; this also has strong elements of whataboutism.

These parties therefore have similar mechanisms at their core, but also a number of unique elements (such as the doctrinisation strategy employed by Chega with its long-form content); also, their more muted opposition against LGBTIQ communities is something of a breakaway from the rhetoric that is conventionally employed by European far-right parties.