Rising from the Ashes of Electoral Defeat : Reversal of Vlaams Belang’s Electoral Fortune in the Light of Supply-Side Explanation
Rising from the Ashes of Electoral Defeat : Reversal of Vlaams Belang’s Electoral Fortune in the Light of Supply-Side Explanation

Summary/Abstract: Within the last few years, radical right-wing parties gained relevance in some European countries, shifting the position of marginal political rebel to being a serious competitor of the mainstream parties. To explain the emergence and volatile fortune of this party family, we resort to supply-side explanation, and we analyse the case of the Flemish Vlaams Belang (VB) which suffered severe electoral defeat in 2014, to be reborn five years later. The analysis is based on the existing data concerning party platform, shift in electoral support, campaign spending, and the findings from individual in-depth interviews conducted with people from party headquarter and party leadership. On this base we conclude that external-supply factors created an opportunity the VB could take advantage of, thanks to deliberate changes introduced in internal-supply variables after 2014 defeat.

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