Chega voters have more negative emotions towards democracy than the rest of the electorate and relate more positively to the possibility of authoritarian government, concluded a study that links emotions to radical right-wing populism.
The study, with a survey carried out in March among around 1,000 Portuguese voters, was carried out within the framework of the UNPOP research project — Dismantling Populism, carried out at the University of Coimbra, which brings together the Center for Studies Social Sciences and the Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention.
Although almost half (41%) of Chega voters associate positive emotions with representative democracy, the majority (51%) associate negative emotions, namely shame (26%) and sadness (19%), much more than the rest of the electorate (33% of voters). negative emotions in relation to representative democracy), concludes the scientific article recently published by the project researchers.
Around 28% of the voters of that radical right party are present Positive emotions at the possibility of Portugal being governed by an authoritarian leader. (compared to 7% of the rest of the electorate).
Although the remaining electorate also presents mainly negative emotions (63%) about the possibility that more immigrants are needed to improve the economy, their weight is greater in Chega (74%).
Regarding the possibility that Portugal is led by a radical party, 41% of voters in the party led by André Ventura associate positive emotions (especially admiration).
The rest of the electorate presents negative emotions, such as fear and anger (only 8% associate positive emotions).
The survey, which is also applied to Italian voters (focusing on voters from Irmãos de Itália, Giorgia Meloni’s party), introduces 12 questions on issues related to Portuguese and Italian reality, and another 12 relating to hypothetical scenarios.
Instead of asking respondents what they think about each topic, people are encouraged to express “what they feel,” said Cristiano Gianolla, one of the project coordinators and a CES researcher.
The data collected “shows that all voters and not just Chega or Fratelli d’Italia voters [Irmãos de Itália] respond with emotions”, what varies is the emotion they express in relation to a certain object – some may even have the capacity to inhibit action (such as fear or shame) and others a greater mobilizing potential, as is the case of anger—he clarified.
The project coordinator believes that radical right parties like Chega have managed to create simple political narratives, where there is always someone to blame, even generating concerns that did not exist in the past. At the same time, the party develops positive emotions towards itself and its leader, he said.
According to the researcher, it is also important to analyze the role of the media, which ends up “spreading these types of ideas,” and giving visibility to political narratives that would otherwise remain on the margins of public discourse.
“These parties capitalize and extreme the type of discourse to a level that goes beyond what would be theoretically acceptable or admissible,” he concluded. Giving the example of immigration, the researcher said that this issue could be talked about without associating it with insecurity.
“The greatest victory is this, when the agenda is defined by them, what is said and how it is said,” he noted. Furthermore, the emotional narratives of these parties “are stronger the more polarized,” presenting a “greater capacity to create sympathy and antipathy” than those of other parties, he found.
“Being stronger, these narratives of emotions are simpler and focus on friend-enemy bipolarism, identifying enemies with extreme simplicity to unite friends (“the people”),” he highlighted.
Source: Observadora
