Eurosceptic Factors In The Rise Of Right-wing Populist Parties In Central And Eastern European Countries

Party elites and their supporters are closely aligned on Europe because,on the one hand,established rightwing populist parties actively appeal to Eurosceptic sentiment in the electorate,using Euroscepticism as an electoral tool to appeal to swing voters as well as more hardline Eurosceptics,New right-wing populist parties,on the other hand,have put Euroscepticism squarely at the top of their agendas.This study attempts to take the strength of Euroskepticism and rightwing populist parties as explanatory variables,so as to explain the question"whether the Eurosceptic sentiment of domestic people in CEE accession countries will be directly reflected in the vote percentage of rightwing populist parties".In this paper,Eurobarometer is used to measure the degree of Euroskepticism,and the strength of right-wing populist parties is measured by the vote percentage of rightwing populist parties in the lower house of parliament.Three cases are selected according to the vote percentage of right-wing populist parties,namely Hungary,Poland and Lithuania.The three case countries also demonstrated a level of Euroscepticism matched by the strength of domestic rightwing populist parties,with the level of Euroscepticism partly projected into the vote share of rightwing populist parties.In Hungary,the highly Eurosceptic background has helped the development of domestic right-wing populist parties,represented by Fidesz,to achieve long-term governance.In Poland,the moderate Eurosceptic background helped the development of right-wing populist parties,represented by the law and Justice right-wing populist parties achieved short-term government;In Lithuania,a low Eurosceptic background has hindered the rise and growth of right-wing populist parties.At the end of this study,a case summary is made,indicating that the differences among the three cases are mainly manifested in the degree of correlation and the path of boosting,and the shortcomings of this paper are pointed out and the prospect of the next step is made.