April 2024
Article
Journal of Democracy

East-Central Europe: The Young and the Far-Right

Format:Print
| Pages:15

Abstract

East-Central Europe’s young adults are at an ideological crossroads. They are significantly more progressive on issues of gender equality and gay rights than prior generations. However, their social progressivism is not wholesale. 18–30 year olds in the European Union’s Eastern member states are increasingly anti-immigration, skeptical of EU integration, and devalue minority rights. Some are also open to ‘strong leader’ alternatives to their ailing democracies. Far right parties recognize this twin turn—away from Western multiculturalism and from democracies that fail to represent them—as a political opportunity, making explicit appeals to East-Central Europe’s youngest voters. Despite Western stereotypes about youth progressivism, there is potential for East-Central Europe’s young adults to strengthen anti-democratic movements on the right.