The youth wings of populist radical right parties are at the root of Europe's populist surge, according to new research, with leaders like Italy's Giorgia Meloni and France's Jordan Bardella having cut their political teeth in these organisations.
Italy's Matteo Salvini, Sweden's Jimmie Åkesson and Belgium's Tom Van Grieken all led the youth wings of the parties they now run, and these movements shaped their political careers and are now shaping Europe's political future.
Formative Training Ground
Meloni, another former radical right youth-wing leader, said: "Even more than my growth as a politician, I owe my growth as a person and as an Italian to my youth-wing activism. There is no more formative training ground than this."
In their new book, Youth Wings of the Populist Radical Right, researchers Cas Mudde and Duncan McDonnell examined 10 such organisations across Europe, from Austria's Freedom party youth wing to France's National Rally. They found these groups help recruit, train and promote grassroots members, representatives and future leaders.
The youth wings also encourage young people to vote, provide labour during election campaigns, run party branches and influence policy.
Three Key Goals
The researchers found youth-wing leaders and members are helping achieve three goals for the radical right as their parties expand in the 2020s: internationalisation, professionalisation and normalisation.
First, these youth wings build new transnational alliances, with a proliferation of international far-right workshops and conferences, such as the Transatlantic Patriot Summit held annually in Budapest since 2022. These events bring together youth leaders from Europe, India, Israel, Latin America and the US, with many speaking openly about how these ties will benefit them "when we are the ones in government".
Second, they are heavily involved in political training at international, national and local levels. The populist radical right now invests considerably in professionalisation, teaching young members not only policies and history but also rhetoric and media communications.
Third, recruiting university-educated young people feeds into the normalisation of the populist radical right, producing more articulate, professional and presentable leaders who can be seen as legitimate political actors.
Challenge to Liberal Democracy
This smartening up of the radical right's public image does not reflect a softening of the message. The young leaders will not lead their parties down a path to moderation, and the ideology remains exclusionary and nationalist, making the radical right an even more significant challenge to liberal democracy.
Mainstream parties could respond by looking at themselves and their own youth wings. Research has found centre-left and centre-right youth groups are dominated by men, people from political families and careerists.
Governing parties could also address problems facing young people, such as insecure employment and the housing crisis, which have broken the implicit promise of better life prospects. Young populist radical-right activists said their parties spoke to them in clear terms about issues that concerned them and offered solutions, something mainstream parties should do as well.
