Lucienne Engelhardt

Results reveal group-specific framing, patterns of religious invocation distinct from those of other parties, and links to specific events. The study shows how Christian narratives serve as rhetorical resources for boundary construction, which can challenge cohesion even in secularised societies.

I combine automated text classification and qualitative analysis of parliamentary speech data to identify religious markers and how they co-occur with inclusionary and exclusionary group references across national contexts and over time.

The paper looks at how Christianity functions as a marker for drawing boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’ in largely secularised European contexts, where far-right parties themselves are typically not religious.

Polarising the Christian West: Us and them in far-right parties’ rhetoric - Lucienne Engelhardt, 2026 Far-right communication often portrays a division between ‘the people’ and perceived antagonists, potentially fuelling intergroup tensions. A pivotal element is...

Very happy to share my second dissertation paper, now out in Party Politics.
I study the role of Christianity in the rhetoric of European far-right parties doi.org/10.1177/1354...

Far‐Right Illiberalism in the European Parliament | Article | Politics and Governance Larissa Böckmann, Sarah L. de Lange, Nathalie Brack, Matthijs Rooduijn

Very excited to share this publication in Politics & Governance together with @sldelange.bsky.social @nathaliebrack.bsky.social @mrooduijn.bsky.social
We study the embrace of illiberalism in far-right discourse in the European Parliament between 1999 and 2019
www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandg...

Dankeschön, Jessica!!

Lieben Dank dir, Johanna!

Thank you so much, Marvin!

Thank you, Robert!

Findings suggest: Religiosity among Christians, especially beliefs, positively correlates with nativism. However, I find no evidence that PRR parties in power amplify this relationship.

It's open access, so you can give it a read here: doi.org/10.1017/S1755048325000045

Prior research finds mixed results on the link between individual religiosity and outgroup hostility. My study adds a contextual factor: the presence of PRR parties in government. Drawing on EVS/WVS data (2017-22), I test this interaction across 37 European and Latin American countries.

🚨 Excited to share that my first dissertation paper got published in Politics and Religion this week!

I examine: Is Christian religiosity linked to nativist attitudes?
And does this relationship strengthen when PRR parties are in power?

🚨 “We just need to recognize that we’re all citizens of this country.” –– Politicians + citizens often stress a shared national identity when trying to bridge racial, partisan, or other group divides.

@stysyropoulos.bsky.social & I show why such “shared” identities are doomed to fail.

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‘Vicious cycle’: how far-right parties across Europe are cannibalising the centre right Hardline agendas, especially on immigration, are copied by mainstream conservatives in vain effort to win back votes - but it’s not working

Great piece by @jonhenley.bsky.social. I get to outline the vicious cycle of far right support. As mainstream parties move right on immigration, voters adjust their positions to the right, far-right support increases, mainstream parties move more to the right...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

On this note, here is a thread with recent research on what normalization is and how it happens.

It includes links to references, from my work and that of others.

I tried to tag the authors whenever they are on here, in case you are interested in following their work.

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Hallo Bluesky!

Das Institut für Politikwissenschaft @uni-muenster.de wird ab heute (nur) über diesen Kanal aktuelle News zu Studium, Lehre und Forschung posten. Weitere und detaillierte Informationen über unser Institut finden sich auch immer hier: www.uni-muenster.de/IfPol/

7th Annual COMPTEXT Conference 2025 – The Comptext Project While these round tables will focus on specific themes, paper, panel, and data presentation submissions can, but are not required to, adhere to these topics.

⏳ Last day to submit your abstract for #COMPTEXT2025!
Deadline: January 15, 2025, 11:59:59pm CET 🚀
Details: shorturl.at/AmocX

Today, @luceng.bsky.social presented her work-in-progress on automated classification of in- and out-group appeals in the context of religion and identity in PRR party communication. Super interesting! #CSS