The eff ects of COVID on Right-Wing Populism and its development since the pandemic is still a mystery to scholars. Studies show varying results but one thing is for sure: right-wing populism is still growing. As one of the most trying challenges for modern democracies, the development of right-wing populism is of great interest to scholars.
This study aims to investigate the development of right-wing populism since COVID if there is a change in ideology or rhetoric. The study aims to analyse ideological tendencies in right-wing populist leaders’ speeches to measure frequency of rhetoric and ideological development through qualitative content and ideological analysis.
The right-wing populist leaders whose speeches Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, Jimmie Åkesson and Giorgia Meloni where one speech before and one after COVID will be analysed. The speeches will be important political speeches that ideally occur annually so we can measure the same type of speech.
The findings show varying development for each leader, where there was both increase and decrease in right-wing rhetoric depending on the leader. Giorgia Meloni had a severe decrease in rhetoric while Trump had a severe increase. Both Orbán and Åkesson shifted their ideological rhetoric towards more anti-elitist and respectively nativistic rhetoric. The study finds no common trend in a direction but does find significant change in rhetoric with all leaders.
2026-06-03