Mainstreaming the Radical Right at the Urban Scale: An Investigation of the Discourses and Policies in the European Capitals of Culture

The objective of the R²CULT project is to research the mainstreaming of the radical right (RR) in Europe in the field of

urban cultural policies. It is based on a comparative analysis of discourses and policies in cities implementing the European

Capital of Culture initiative (ECoC) which are characterized by the presence of strong support for a RR party among the

citizenry. The mainstreaming of RR discourse and agenda so far has been mainly associated with EU external policies:

immigration control, foreign aid, and the enlargement process. To date, there is only limited analysis of the mainstreaming

of the RR as a multi-faceted process organized around EU internal policies such as cultural and urban policies directed at

areas suffering from uneven development and often referred to as “left behind” where the RR grounds its electoral

legitimacy.

Hence, R²CULT takes its starting point at the intersection of research on the Radical Right and the mainstreaming of their

discourse and research on culture-led urban policies through the European Capital of Culture initiative contributing to

territorial cohesion.

The project is structured around four research questions: Q.1 How can the investigation of the “new normal” RR in the

European Capitals of Culture help to deepen the conceptualization of the mainstreaming of this political family in the public

sphere? Q.2 How does the politicization of the ECoC initiative by the RR reveal its mainstreaming strategy in the city? Q.3

How mainstreamed is the RR discourse and agenda in the definition of the ECoC initiative for the city? Q.4 How do the RR

discourse and agenda on the ECoC initiative for the city align with those of the civil society?

The R²CULT project combines urban and critical discourse studies. It is based on a multi-modal Discourse Historical

Approach (DHA) of critical discourse analysis. It uses a comparative approach focusing on six ECoC located in urban

areas suffering from uneven development and characterized by increasing support for the radical right: Esch 2022

(Luxembourg/France), Veszprém 2023 (Hungary), Bad Ischl 2024 (Austria), Nova Gorica/Gorizia 2025 (Slovenia/Italy),

Chemnitz 2025 (Germany), and Trenčín 2026 (Slovakia). For each of these, sets of data will be collected, codified, and

analyzed concerning the definition and implementation of this European initiative. The R²CULT project will help to deepen

the conceptualization of the RR mainstreaming by considering the city as a downscaled public sphere in which the RR can

increase its centrality through the definition of cultural policies. It is hypothesized that the mainstreaming of the radical right

discourse and agenda in cities implementing the ECoC program is expressed through 1) the willingness of the radical right

to soften and codify its communication, 2) the propensity of the governance network managing the ECoC to mobilize the

radical right claims, and 3) the partial identification between the radical right and civil society.